The humanitarian crisis in Gaza as air strikes continue is prompting grief, survivors’ guilt, and “bringing back a lot of baggage.” Seeing a need for support, a mosque and school in Garden Grove have incorporated mental health into their programming.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline:
Seeing the images coming out of Gaza is “retraumatizing” for Arab American and Muslim communities. Muslim schools and mosques are taking steps to help people cope.
Why it matters: Some who came as refugees carry trauma from wars and violence in their home countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For others, it’s experiencing anti-Muslim hate during 9/11 and other incidents that have added to the collective trauma of living as Muslims and Arab Americans in the U.S., said Marwa Azab, a psychology professor at California State University Long Beach, said
Why now: With the pictures and videos coming out of Gaza, and in some cases personal loss, unresolved trauma has left the community “bleeding” emotionally, Azab said, “and there's no healing that's going to start if the bleeding doesn’t stop.”
What's next: Azab has been giving talks at local mosques and around the community on what she calls “psychological resilience.” She tries to help people understand the trauma they are holding onto, and offers tips for coping with the distressing news. An important one is limiting one’s time checking the news or on social media.
Every Friday night, the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque in Garden Grove becomes a gathering place. Children in the Muslim Youth Group meet to learn about their Islamic faith, then play and socialize on the mosque grounds. The adults unwind and catch up after a long week, seated under fairy lights around long tables.
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3:55
News From Gaza Is Rekindling Trauma For Muslim Communities In Southern California
Until not long ago, the atmosphere here was typically lighthearted and relaxed. But the mood has changed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel that claimed 1,200 lives, and Israel’s subsequent air strikes on Gaza, where as many as 19,000 people have since died.
Now these gatherings serve a bigger purpose: a supportive space for families to grieve and share very difficult feelings, as they cope with the images of destruction and loss.
Children play during recess Orange Crescent School located on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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The Islamic Society of Orange County serves thousands of Muslims with prayer, educational, and counseling services, including a youth group.
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Families visit the mosque from as far away as Redondo Beach and Pasadena, seeking community and respite. Parents talked while the children made posters using black, white, red and green paint, the colors of the Palestinian flag.
In one room crowded with kids, Tala Haddad held up a megaphone, belting out instructions for how to make bracelets. Haddad, 19, is a youth group coordinator with the mosque; each Friday she leads a group of kids ages 4 to 12. These days, she said, the goal is to give them a safe space to process feelings that may arise from watching the news, or from absorbing parents’ emotions at home.
“A really important thing is having those conversations so that they're not just hearing things and having it stick with them,” Haddad said. “So … we have been allowing the kids to speak their mind within reason, and we're giving them an outlet to talk to their youth group mentors, to talk to their parents. The parents are able to talk to us as well to ask for advice.”
Two teens attend Friday midday prayer at the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque in Garden Grove.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Parents have been struggling, too. Among the dads volunteering that night was Ramsey Nashef, a Palestinian American born and raised in Orange County. He said as the father of two girls, 9 and 2, images he’s seen of dead and wounded children in Gaza have been haunting him.
“I have never been this vulnerable before, like, being emotional and crying, this is something that's not normal to me,” Nashef said. “I just see myself breaking down and I'm like, my mental health is just kind of messed up at the moment.”
Ramsey Nashef, a Palestinian American father and graphic artist from Orange County, pictured with one of his paintings of a Palestinian boy throwing a stone.
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Nashef said he’s felt a duty to check for news, as much as it hurts.
“For me, as a Palestinian, I felt the need and out of respect to have to watch it,” he said.
Every morning, he said, it has felt “almost like I was torturing myself” as he logs in to watch videos of the devastation on Instagram.
A unique trauma
Seeing the images coming out of Gaza is “retraumatizing” for Arab American and Muslim communities, said Marwa Azab, a psychology professor at California State University Long Beach.
“It’s kindling and bringing back a lot of baggage that (was) hidden for a long time, we thought we dealt with,” Azab said.
A little boy looks down at the men during Friday prayer at the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Friday prayer at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Some who came as refugees carry trauma from wars and violence in their home countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For others, Azab said it’s experiencing anti-Muslim hate during 9/11 and other incidents that have added to the collective trauma of living as Muslims and Arab Americans in the U.S.
Hundreds of people attend Friday midday prayer at the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Now, with the pictures and videos coming out of Gaza, and in some cases personal loss, unresolved trauma has left the community “bleeding” emotionally, Azab said, “and there's no healing that's going to start if the bleeding doesn’t stop.”
‘Psychological resilience’
Azab has been giving talks at local mosques and around the community on what she calls “psychological resilience.” She tries to help people understand the trauma they are holding onto, and offers tips for coping with the distressing news.
An important one is limiting one’s time checking the news or looking at social media.
“They have to have a budget in terms of looking at these videos, because they will very quickly run into compassion fatigue,” Azab said. “Where the people they love and they desperately need to connect with, they won't be able to.”
Marwa Azab, a psychology professor at California State University Long Beach.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Psychology and mental health books in Marwa Azab's home office.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Being able to remain emotionally present for one’s family is key, she said. Timing news consumption is important, too, she said, because disturbing news can keep one up at night.
For intrusive thoughts during the day that interfere with work or school, Azab recommends writing those on a sticky note — and coming back to them later.
Azab also says people right now feel like they can’t express their grief, for fear of being misjudged — so community is important.
A FEW COPING TIPS
Budget time for checking news and social media
Be mindful of when you check (Will this news keep me up at night?)
Write down intrusive thoughts on a sticky note, to return to later (i.e., ‘I'll attend to you after I'm done studying’)
Have a support system: have potlucks, see friends, meet at the mosque or community center
Stress on kids and parents
During recess one recent afternoon at the Orange Crescent School, on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque, the sounds of laughter and children playing tag filled the air. Some kids kicked around a soccer ball, others played basketball. The tall steel fence around the campus was covered with posters expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza.
Children play during recess at Orange Crescent School located on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque.
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School principal Maisa Youssef said that in the weeks following the Hamas attack, and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war, she began seeing a shift in the school community. The murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, left students and parents feeling “definitely scared,” she said, “wondering if they are able to go to the store.” All of this has put undue stress on the kids.
“We've actually seen a decline” in children’s behavior, Youssef said. “I think kids are just in another space realizing they're still processing.”
Maisa Youssef, principal of Orange Crescent School. It's located on the grounds of the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque in Garden Grove.
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A mural outside of a classroom at the Orange Crescent School located on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque.
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As for the parents, Youssef said, sometimes they “don't want to talk, separating themselves from kids, being extra snappy, just kind of wanting to be alone.”
The school has shifted gears to incorporate mental health programming alongside lessons. The school recently hosted Azab to speak with parents, and has brought in mental health experts to speak with children and teachers as well.
Giving children ways to cope
Tala Haddad, the youth group leader at the Garden Grove mosque, is Palestinian American. Her parents came to the U.S. as refugees and settled in Orange County, where she was born and raised.
Between coaching the kids at the recent Friday night gathering, Haddad talked about how she feels a sense of survivors’ guilt when she thinks about how people in Gaza are living now. The vast majority of the population has been displaced amid the continuing airstrikes, and there is a lack of access to clean water. Recent flooding has made things worse.
“Anytime I do anything I feel so immensely guilty whether it's little things like driving and knowing I'm gonna get to my destination safe,” she said. “Or putting my food in the microwave and knowing I'm having a warm meal.”
Children's backpacks hang outside of a classroom at the Orange Crescent School, located on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque.
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As a child, her family tuned in to in-language television news reports of violence in the Middle East. On TV Haddad would see “gruesome pictures of kids that were just like me” who had been killed. Then, on her drive to school, she said she would hear on the radio “these people deserve it, these people are terrorists, these people — they don't want peace, they want chaos.”
This trauma followed her through childhood, she said. All through school, she would tell classmates she was Jordanian “because I felt like if I opened the door to being Palestinian, it would open so much resentment for myself and my family.”
“It definitely felt like a really, really heavy burden to carry,” Haddad said. “And I think that I carried that with me my entire youth.”
Now, as a youth coordinator, she wants to help children have an outlet for their emotions and a safe space to ask their questions.
These children, she said, should not have to carry a burden, “it's not like they’re to blame for anything.”
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.
Published June 17, 2026 5:24 PM
President of the Los Angeles City Council, Marqueese Harris-Dawson, at a city council meeting in April, 2025.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Topline:
After months of debate and false starts, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday in favor of developing a potential November ballot measure that would ask voters to rein in the city’s controversial “mansion tax.”
The proposed exemption: During the meeting, Councilmembers Tim McOsker and Katy Yaroslavsky put forward a motion asking the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure that would ask voters to cancel the tax on sales of multifamily and residential mixed-use buildings within the first 10 years of their construction.
What city leaders are saying: Ahead of the 9-5 vote to proceed with proposed tax breaks for new apartment buildings, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said he has seen affordable housing construction decline in his district after the policy — called Measure ULA — took effect in 2023. “I can tell you with certainty ULA has not helped,” he said. “Housing starts are as low in my district as they’ve been the entire time I’ve been in office.”
What happens next? The council’s proposed measure is still far from officially qualifying for the November ballot. Sending final language to the ballot will require another council vote, and the council could potentially decide later this summer to pull the measure.
Read on… to learn how we got here, and why L.A. voters may end up seeing multiple “mansion tax” measures on their November ballot.
After months of debate and false starts, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday in favor of developing a potential November ballot measure that would ask voters to rein in the city’s controversial “mansion tax.”
Ahead of the 9-5 vote to proceed with proposed tax breaks for new apartment buildings, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said he has seen affordable housing construction decline in his district after the policy — called Measure ULA — took effect in 2023.
“I can tell you with certainty ULA has not helped,” Harris-Dawson said. “Housing starts are as low in my district as they’ve been the entire time I’ve been in office.”
Harris-Dawson said neighboring cities, such as Inglewood and Gardena, where new apartment buildings are not subject to L.A.’s tax, have not seen similar declines.
While a majority of the council voted to proceed with a possible ballot measure, Councilmembers Ysabel Jurado, Imelda Padilla, Monica Rodriguez, Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez voted against the proposal.
Reform advocates cheered the vote, but said more work is needed. Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation, has pushed for changes with the “Mend It, Don’t End It” coalition, a group of affordable housing developers, labor organizations and business leaders.
“Today the City Council took another important step towards reforming Measure ULA in a way that will allow us to start building housing again while saving a critical funding source that we desperately need," Santana said in a written statement.
‘Mansion tax’ nuts and bolts
Measure ULA taxes the sale of real estate worth $5.3 million or more. That includes large, luxury single-family homes, which is why the measure is often called the city’s “mansion tax.”
However, the tax also applies to apartment buildings and other commercial real estate. Economists have said that’s causing a slow-down in new multi-family construction at a time when L.A. needs more housing supply to keep up with demand and prevent rents from spiking.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Councilmembers Tim McOsker and Katy Yaroslavsky put forward a motion asking the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure that would ask voters to cancel the tax on sales of multifamily and residential mixed-use buildings within the first 10 years of their construction.
That reform proposal is somewhat similar to earlier failed attempts at changing the tax, including from Councilmember (and now mayoral candidate) Nithya Raman and a separate effort from state legislators.
What happens next?
The council’s proposed measure is still far from officially qualifying for the November ballot. Sending final language to the ballot will require another council vote, and the council could potentially decide later this summer to pull the measure.
If it does appear on the ballot, a majority of L.A. voters would need to approve the changes before new apartment buildings would be exempt. Close to 58% of the city’s voters supported Measure ULA when it first came up for a vote in November 2022.
In a separate vote Wednesday, the council moved forward with another potential ballot measure that would ask voters to exempt Pacific Palisades homeowners from the tax if they sell their properties after the January 2025 Palisades Fire.
To complicate matters further, voters are likely to encounter yet another measure on the November ballot related to the city’s “mansion tax.”
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has qualified a measure that would repeal L.A.’s tax, and similar taxes across the state, while simultaneously raising the voter-approval threshold for new taxes.
How we got here
Though reforms are tentative at this point, the council’s decision to pursue a ballot measure is an about-face from a committee’s earlier decision to keep changes off the November ballot.
Jurado, the chair of that committee, repeated her argument that it’s too soon to conclude the tax has caused apartment developers to retreat from L.A.
“When we focus just on housing production alone, we’re missing the mark about what this measure was actually intended to do, which is to keep Angelenos housed,” Jurado said during Wednesday’s meeting.
What has tax revenue funded so far?
Measure ULA has raised $1.2 billion over the last three years, far less than the $1.1 billion in annual funding supporters said the tax could raise. That funding has gone toward affordable housing construction and tenant aid programs, such as rent relief and eviction defense.
However, the city has encountered trouble spending the money on its intended purposes.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has refused to sign contracts approved by the city council and the mayor in April for $177 million in tenant aid. And the measure’s strict rules on how tax revenue can be spent to support affordable housing projects have required city leaders to pursue changes to funding restrictions.
Tax supporters expressed disappointment with the council vote. Joe Donlin, executive director of the United to House L.A. Coalition, said a local ballot measure aimed at carving out certain types of real estate could help fuel the argument for full repeal being made by tax opponents.
"Such a move plays into the hands of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association and its allies in the real estate lobby," Donlin said in an written statement.
He went on to say tax breaks would lead to less revenue meant to keep city residents housed.
"If this ballot measure were to pass, it could mean tens of millions of dollars per year cut from programs that build affordable housing and combat homelessness," Donlin said.
A fire at a Boyle Heights commercial building sent massive plumes of black smoke up Wednesday and prompted a shelter-in-place order.
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Alejandra Molina
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Boyle Heights Beat
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Fire broke out around 2:35 p.m. at 1400 S. Los Palos St., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department
What we know: A shelter in place order has been issued for the area south of Interstate 5, east of Soto Street, north of Washington Boulevard and west of Indiana Street. According to East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, the structure is an industrial freezer facility.
A fire at a Boyle Heights commercial building sent massive plumes of black smoke up Wednesday and prompted a shelter-in-place order.
The fire broke out around 2:35 p.m. at 1400 S. Los Palos St., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Aerial footage from KTLA showed the fire involving solar panels on the roof of the storage facility.
Heavy smoke was visible around Boyle Heights and into other parts of LA, and the LAFD said people near the fire should immediately shelter in place.
“Get inside IMMEDIATELY and close all windows and doors. Turn off air conditioning/heating. Bring all people and pets to an inside room until you receive more instructions,” an LAFD alert said.
The shelter-in-place order was in effect for the area south of Interstate 5, east of Soto Street, north of Washington Boulevard and west of Indiana Street.
According to East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, the structure is an industrial freezer facility. In a series of Instagram stories, the organization urged residents to close their windows and stay inside.
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Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published June 17, 2026 3:32 PM
A street sign in the City of Compton.
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Kevork Djansezian
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Air quality regulators say an oil recycling facility in Compton violated pollution rules and improperly maintained some of its equipment.
The details: The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued four notices of violation to World Oil Recycling in Compton, and one notice of violation to a contractor operating leaky equipment on its property.
Keep reading ... for more on the violations and what's next.
Air quality regulators say an oil recycling facility in Compton violated pollution rules and improperly maintained some of its equipment.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued four notices of violation to World Oil Recycling in Compton, and one notice of violation to a contractor operating leaky equipment on its property.
The Compton facility “receives used oils, glycol and wastewater and re-refines these materials into engine oil and glycol products for reuse,” according to the air district. The largest oil recycler in the state, it’s located in some of the most pollution-burdened and low-income neighborhoods in California, as well, where asthma rates are higher than 95% of census tracts, according to state data.
The violations came after the air district started receiving odor complaints from residents at the start of this year. The agency received more than 70 complaints of strong odors of gas, including from the nearby Jefferson Elementary School, the agency said in a news release.
Officials then carried out more than a dozen on-site inspections, including using an infrared camera to identify gas leaks. They found hydrocarbons leaking from a wastewater storage tank, as well as a centrifuge pump. A small fire at the facility in late May also led to nuisance notices from the agency.
The company told LAist it is working to remove the leaky storage tank that may have caused the odors.
“World Oil Recycling provides an essential environmental service by recycling used oil and other materials, helping to keep them out of landfills and waterways,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “We are committed to meeting or exceeding the highest standards at our facility in Compton, where we have operated safely for more than 40 years and serve as a major local employer.”
If World Oil Recycling doesn’t comply, it could face fines or litigation.
The company has faced such issues in the past. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency reached a settlement with World Oil’s Compton and Vernon facilities for violating hazardous waste regulations. The agreement required the companies to pay a $39,092 penalty and spend $167,967 on air filtration systems in nearby schools to reduce indoor air pollution.
The facility has received dozens of violation notices from the air district over the years, as well, mostly for minor maintenance issues.
In a statement to LAist, Compton Mayor Emma Sharif said the city “is working with the appropriate regulatory agencies as they continue their investigation.”
How to report smoke, dust, smells or other air pollution near you
The South Coast Air Quality Management District is tasked with regulating air pollution in the region. The public can report odors, dust, smoke or other air quality concerns by:
Is there a potentially hazardous facility near you? How to find out
At a local level, the South Coast Air Quality Management District regulates air pollution across the region, but it has just one inspector for every 200 industrial sites, according to the Voice of O.C. You can search for violations by facility through the agency’s public search tool here. You can report any concerns about strong odors, excessive dust, smoke or other air pollutants here. Find LAist’s in-depth guide on reporting air pollution concerns here.
You can search for violations by various types of regulated facilities across the state using this map from the California Environmental Protection Agency, or CalEPA. GKN Aerospace, for example, has dozens of violations logged there. You can also file a complaint with CalEPA here or to the federal EPA directly here.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control regulates hazardous waste sites. You can use their tool, EnviroStor, to search for public information about hazardous sites near you.
The California Geologic Energy Management Division oversees oil and gas facilities across the state. You can search for wells near you via their searchable map here. L.A. County also has its own searchable map for oil and gas wells here.
Kavish Harjai
writes about how people get around L.A.
Published June 17, 2026 2:44 PM
The intersection of San Pedro and Second streets is included in the scope of the Skid Row Connectivity and Safety Project, one of the projects L.A. city officials had won state grants for.
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Topline:
California will not consider the city of Los Angeles’ request for a time extension on three mobility projects in underinvested communities that are largely funded by more than $100 million from the state.
The city’s request: In April, the city formally requested a six-year time extension on state-mandated deadlines to complete pre-construction work on the projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row and Wilmington. The projects won grant funding in 2022 and 2023. Staffing constraints have prevented progress, city officials have said.
State’s response: The California Transportation Commission is the state body that administers the grant program. Justin Behrens, the spokesperson for the commission, said that while the state grant program offers time extensions in certain cases, “The requested time exceeded what is allowable under the guidelines” and the extensions were ultimately not recommended to be considered by the commission.
Read on … for reactions from local leaders.
California will not consider the city of Los Angeles’ request for a time extension on three mobility projects in underinvested communities that are largely funded by more than $100 million from the state.
The exclusion of the request from the California Transportation Commission's June agenda spells an uncertain fate for the projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row and Wilmington, which involve repairing sidewalks, adding bike lanes and installing traffic-calming measures to make streets friendlier to non-vehicular modes of transportation.
In April, the city formally requested a six-year extension on state-mandated deadlines to complete pre-construction work on the projects, saying recent staffing and funding constraints in the public works and transportation departments have hampered progress.
Justin Behrens, the spokesperson for the commission, said that while the state grant program offers time extensions in certain cases, “The requested time exceeded what is allowable under the guidelines,” and extensions were ultimately not recommended to be considered by the commission.
The state funds for pre-construction work, including environmental review and design, are set to lapse at the end of June.
L.A. officials said in a March report that without the time extension, “The city will be unable to meet these deadlines and lose the opportunity to provide these critical improvements for the city.”
The Bureau of Street Services, which is the lead agency on the three projects, did not respond to requests for comment.
'A deeply disappointing moment'
A statement from the office of L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said the situation is “disappointing” and that the councilmember is taking time to “fully understand” what the California Transportation Commission’s decision means for the projects in her district.
“What we can say clearly is this: We are not giving up,” the statement read. “Boyle Heights and Skid Row have waited far too long for safer, more accessible streets, and the residents who organized for these improvements deserve more than a setback and a closed door.”
Jurado advocated for additional staffing resources across the bureaus of Street Services, Street Lighting and Engineering, as well as the Department of Transportation, to deliver the projects.
For Jens Midthun, the president of the DTLA Neighborhood Council, any investment in improving the walkability of downtown L.A. is a worthy one.
“People in downtown L.A. are here because they want to be,” Midthun said about the neighborhood’s transition from a business hub to a residential destination. “People want to be part of a vibrant city center.”
L.A. City Councilmember Tim McOsker's office said in a statement that infrastructure improvements in Wilmington “remain a priority.”
“We will continue exploring funding opportunities and other available options to advance as much of the project as possible,” McOsker's office said.
The grant program
Since its launch in 2013, the state’s Active Transportation Program has funded capital projects that promote walking, cycling or other non-motorized ways to get around. Behrens said the program is competitive and over-subscribed, meaning the applications for funds “far exceeds the available resources.”
Over the course of the grant program, L.A. has secured $500 million to fund 46 transportation projects across the city, according to a June report from Laura Rubio-Cornejo, the general manager of the city’s Department of Transportation.
Twenty of those projects have been constructed and staff is actively working on designing, implementing or closing out another 22.
Jurisdictions that win the funds have to adhere to strict timelines to retain the money, which is allocated based on different phases of a capital project. Failing to meet the program’s deadlines can jeopardize a city or county’s likelihood of clinching future grants.
The program’s deadlines require the city to allocate funds for construction for the three projects in question by the end of June 2027. In its request for a time extension, the city said it would need an additional six years to get to that point.
Absent a time extension, it’s unclear what the path forward is for the three projects.
The city in June submitted its application for the next round of Active Transportation Program grants, though its ambitions were tempered by “staff resource limitations and the city’s existing grant commitments.”
The projects it submitted for consideration to the state include extending the LARiverWay bike path and enhancing mobility along Huntington Drive.
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