The Brief

Seven years ago, the first Trump administration triggered global condemnation when news broke that it was forcibly separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico Border. The outcry led the administration to shutter the program, but thousands of families remained shattered.

The American Academy of Pediatrics called the policy “government-sanctioned child abuse.” Physicians who examined statements from many separated parents and children noted that most met the diagnostic criteria for major mental health disorders as a result of their experience at the border.

A class-action lawsuit followed, and the Biden administration later settled the case. In the settlement agreement, the federal government promised to repair some of the damage by reuniting the families in the U.S. and providing them with a path to asylum.

Now the second Trump administration is quietly abandoning that promise, putting thousands of once-separated families at risk of being split up a second time. At least four families have been deported already.

That’s according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the original lawsuit, known as Ms. L. v. ICE, on behalf of separated families. The ACLU filed a motion in federal court on Tuesday asking for the recently deported families to be returned to the U.S., alleging that at least one of the deportations violated an explicit court order.

It’s only one skirmish in a pitched battle that the ACLU and advocates across the country have been fighting since Trump was reelected. The organization said the settlement agreement is now in danger of unraveling.

Protesters stand outside the James A. Musick Facility, a detention center that houses unauthorized immigrants, to protest President Trump’s immigration policies and demand that children be reunited with their families in Irvine on June 30, 2018.

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Since April, the administration has chipped away at Ms. L. in a series of technical maneuvers that have profoundly impacted families covered by the settlement, according to ACLU filings. Most notably, the government pulled funding for services laid out in the agreement — like help navigating the complex immigration process, assistance with housing and medical costs, and mental health treatment. Defending its actions in court, government lawyers cited the president’s agenda to cut costs and purge contractors with diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

While the services were eventually restored, the families are still facing the consequences of the lapse, and the government has only continued to make things harder for them.

Despite orders from a judge to give Ms. L. class members more time to stay in the country legally while plodding through the asylum process, court filings say the administration has failed to demonstrate that it is doing so.

“It started off slowly, but now we’re seeing breach after breach” of the settlement agreement, said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney in the case. “The administration, while claiming the settlement is still in place, is trying to undermine it in various ways that will have the effect of allowing families to be reseparated and deported.”

It’s not unusual or improper for the government to renegotiate court-ordered settlement agreements, said David Super, an administrative law expert at Georgetown University who has litigated against both Democratic and Republican administrations. But, he said, it’s “extraordinary” for the government to change its policy before receiving permission from the court, as the DOJ has done in Ms. L. this year.

“When the government unilaterally stops complying, that’s not negotiation,” he said. “That’s contempt of court.”

The Department of Justice declined to answer questions about its challenges to the settlement agreement, saying it doesn’t comment on matters that are in litigation. But in hearings before Judge Dana M. Sabraw, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego, DOJ attorneys have maintained that government agencies are “trying to meet their obligations under the settlement agreement,” and that the deportations are legal.

The California Newsroom also asked the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, how it avoids reseparating families that are entitled to protection under the Ms. L. agreement.

“ICE does not separate families,” an unnamed DHS spokesperson wrote in an email. “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”

Among those deported was a mother of five who was detained at a routine ICE check-in, along with her two youngest children, according to an ACLU court filing. The woman, whose family members had been separated during the first Trump presidency, had permission to stay in the United States under the terms of the settlement. She and the toddlers were deported to Honduras anyway, while the rest of their family was left behind in the U.S.

“My two youngest children cry for their father and siblings every day,” the woman, who was identified only by her initials, wrote in a declaration to the court. “It breaks my heart to see them in such pain.”

‘The sole purpose of causing them harm’

Upon approving the Ms. L. settlement agreement in December 2023, Sabraw called family separation “one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country.”

For decades, the federal government rarely separated families at the border, often allowing them to stay in the country together while they pursued asylum. But soon after Trump took office in 2017, immigration officials began a coordinated effort to apprehend all adults who crossed without authorization, including those with children in tow. While adults were detained and deported, kids — some only a few months old — were placed in federal custody. They slept on the floors of makeshift detention centers and were later sent to other relatives or foster homes.

Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take them into custody in 2018 near McAllen, Texas.

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The Trump administration called the policy “zero tolerance.”

In its rush to scale up the campaign, the government lost track of which children belonged to which families. Anguished parents were kept in the dark about where immigration officials had taken their kids — and when they could see them again. Families remained separated for weeks, months, and in some cases even years. As many as 1,000 children, parents and guardians may still be separated today, according to the ACLU, which is struggling to locate and reunite them all.

Trump officials have said, both during and since “zero tolerance,” that the explicit purpose of family separation was to make the crossing so painful that it would discourage other families from trying.

The pain has lasted.

“These events caused by the government have integrated into the psyche,” said Alfonso Mercado, a psychologist in South Texas who has done clinical research and consulted as an expert witness in family separation cases at the border. The trauma, he added, makes it difficult for families to function as they struggle to move on with a new life in the U.S.

Border Patrol agents take Central American immigrants into custody on Jan. 4, 2017, near McAllen, Texas.

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“We were intentionally tearing parents and kids from each other with the sole purpose of causing them harm,” said Sara Van Hofwegen of Acacia Center for Justice, the main contractor tasked with providing separated families with legal help. “Part of what the government did through Ms. L. was it promised to help people rebuild their lives and give them a small piece of redress for everything that they went through.”

In all, the Ms. L. settlement agreement applies to roughly 8,000 people, including close family members who were affected by the separation. California is home to the largest proportion — about 12% — of class members with known addresses, according to Acacia. The organization placed two of its eight contractors in California to manage the heavier caseload.

The vast majority of the families came to the U.S. seeking refuge from violence or persecution in their home countries, Van Hofwegen said. But before pursuing asylum cases, attorneys working with families through Acacia’s legal-services contract have helped them establish temporary immigration status and get permission to work, so they can support themselves and not worry about being deported during the asylum process, which can take years.

That work ground to a halt with little warning in April, when the Trump administration abruptly cut off funding for Acacia’s legal services.

Rolling back protections

Pulling the plug on the Acacia contract was only the first of a series of government steps that have made it more difficult for formerly separated families to stay in the U.S., according to the ACLU’s court filings and advocates who provide services to them.

In May, for example, the government stopped paying travel expenses for reuniting families. It also lets invoices pile up from an adjudicator who handles disputes about who qualifies for protections. Both services are required under the settlement agreement.

A Honduran migrant and his daughter, who are taking part in a caravan heading to the U.S., rest as they wait to cross the border from Ciudad Tecun Uman in Guatemala to Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on Oct. 22, 2018.

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The next month, the DOJ let another contract lapse, this one with Oakland-based Seneca Family of Agencies, which provided mental health care, medical copays and general case management for separated families.

While the ACLU fought to get funding reinstated, some families couldn’t afford medications or access mental health care on their own. Some parents, who should have been flying to reunite with their children, were stuck in their home countries. One of the deported mothers searched for legal help to keep her family in the country, but none was available during the lapse of Acacia’s contract, according to the recent ACLU filing.

“One of the M.O.s of the Trump administration in this case has been to wait until there’s almost no time to fix things and then force us to rush into court,” said Gelernt, the ACLU attorney. “But while we’re litigating that issue, there’s this lapse in services.”

DOJ lawyers defended cutting off the Acacia contract by saying it would be cheaper for the agency to provide some legal services itself and let pro bono lawyers do the rest. The ACLU argued there aren’t enough private lawyers with the willingness and expertise to do that. The Justice Department also told the court that the government had only “temporarily paused” the travel and adjudication payments while officials reviewed the contracts for cost savings.

Asylum seekers line up at the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico. The ACLU announced today a preliminary agreement with the Trump administration to allow some parents already in the U.S. but separated from their children at the border to apply for asylum.

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As for the checks the government stopped cutting to Seneca, the administration suggested the organization’s efforts to hire a diverse staff may have violated anti-discrimination laws, an allegation that Seneca rejected.

“We take pride in our compliance with civil rights and employment laws and have received no specific evidence of any violations,” Seneca wrote in a June statement. “Should such information emerge, we would welcome the opportunity to review and address it.”

In four separate orders throughout the summer, Sabraw found the government was in breach of the settlement agreement by withholding funding for services. After a series of failed attempts to push back, the DOJ finally reinstated the Acacia and Seneca contracts and paid for the other lapsed services.

Advocates say they welcome the reversal, but don’t expect the government to give up its fight against the settlement agreement.

“While we’re really grateful that our contract is reinstated and that people are getting services,” Acacia’s Van Hofwegen said, “we’re prepared for ongoing attempts to roll back protections for class members.”

‘In real jeopardy’

In fact, while Acacia and Seneca scramble to rebuild teams they were forced to lay off during the lapse in services, slog through their backlog of cases and attempt to reach families they’d turned away, the government has continued to undermine the settlement agreement and fight the court on multiple fronts.

Last month, it challenged Sabraw’s standing order that requires DHS to notify the ACLU within 24 hours if it detains anyone covered by the settlement agreement, and to provide a list of those already in ICE custody or required to check in with the agency. The DOJ told Sabraw that following the orders would be too “operationally challenging,” and in early September, it appealed them in the 9th Circuit. The case is not scheduled to be heard until December.

Young migrants lie down inside a pod at a Department of Homeland Security holding facility in Donna, Texas, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, on March 30, 2021.

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Meanwhile, the ACLU remains in the dark about how many Ms. L. families are at risk of being swept up by immigration enforcement.

“Everyone’s entitled to notice and everyone’s entitled to good faith in the exercise of their contractual rights,” Sabraw told DOJ lawyers during a July 17 hearing. “The fear, of course, is that the government is detaining and removing people, and to the extent they fall within the corners of the settlement agreement, it seems to me it would have an obligation, no matter how burdensome, to get it right.”

The DOJ also recently opened an entirely new objection to the settlement agreement, arguing that noncitizens applying for legal status — including Ms. L. families — should pay hundreds of dollars in fees per person and be required to reapply annually, as laid out in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July. Under the settlement agreement, applying should be free and status should last for three years at a time, according to an ACLU court filing.

In declarations filed with the court, legal services providers wrote that nearly 30 people protected by the settlement agreement have already been denied work authorization renewals over the fees, even though Sabraw has not yet ruled on whether they should have to pay. According to one example in the ACLU’s court filings, a family of 10 could not come up with the $2,475 to renew their papers. Several of them have lost their jobs because their work authorization expired during the lapse in legal services.

If the chaos continues, Van Hofwegen said, the added burden of renewing status more often will also tax legal-services providers, delay asylum applications and ultimately eat away at the support the settlement agreement is supposed to provide for separated families.

“It makes every piece of this legal process that’s supposed to exist for them harder and harder, with the goal of denying permanency in the U.S. to as many class members as possible,” she said.

Given the lapse in legal services, Sabraw recently extended deadlines for class members to apply for immigration documents and ordered the government to reinstate their legal status or work authorizations that expired during the stoppage.

But it’s unclear if the government has complied with that order, according to the filings. Attorneys advising class members say the administration has not responded to their requests for proof of the extension. Without official documents, the attorneys said, Ms. L. families can’t show they have a right to be in the country if they’re stopped by law enforcement.

Even if the administration eventually complies with the court’s orders, say advocates, formerly separated families can only be protected by the settlement agreement if the government is willing to honor it.

“All the work the court did and all the work the parties did over two years to reach this settlement is in real jeopardy,” Gelernt told the court during one of many hearings this summer. “We cannot leave these families drifting.”

This story was produced with The California Newsroom, a collaboration of public media outlets throughout the state. 

The 99 Cents Only chain may be gone, but a new art exhibit at its former store at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is keeping its legacy alive in the most eccentric way possible.

From shopping carts suspended upside down to video art at the checkout counters to paintings and graffiti in every nook and cranny, this is not the same 99 Cents Only store where you used to buy your cleaning supplies.

The curators behind 99CENT, which is on display through the end of this weekend, have filled the space with artwork and L.A. artifacts for a free exhibition. So I had to check it out:

99CENT's art

Many of the involved artists used practically every square inch of parts of the store.

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The artists on display at 99CENT work across mediums.

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Art and graffiti were both on full display at 99CENT.

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Many of the works of art look like regular street signs ... until you look a little closer.

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Presumably, this fruit wasn't bought at the 99 Cents Only store, which closed last year.

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Many different art styles were on display at 99CENT.

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The exhibit makes creative use of space, including hanging things from the ceiling.

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Despite this sign, the inside of the store was covered in graffiti, though some staff members could be seen cleaning up graffiti on the outside.

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Many of the items on display were carefully crafted. The $9.99 sticker may not be accurate pricing.

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What you can see

As soon as you walk in, you’re treated to a complete reimagining of the 99 Cents Only store. This former site of the modern big-box discount chain has been infused with a healthy dose of the West Coast art styles that sprung up from places like the Mission District, Haight-Ashbury and Venice.

One of many sections of the repurposed store that showcases objects, graffiti and artworks.

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Artists whose work was on display used all kinds of mediums. In this case, mirrors and wheelchairs.

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All the original shelving is there, but nearly every nook and cranny has been filled with art.

Inside the old freezer

Even the store's freezers were fair game to show off art at 99CENT.

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The inside of the store's freezer, which was repurposed as a gallery space.

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But look close and you’ll see cheeky nods to the 99 Cents Only store of yore. Much of the old shelving and signage is still there, even if slightly rearranged. On some shelves, hygiene supplies sit side by side with artworks and found objects.

99CENT displays

Some parts of 99CENT even loosely resemble the former store.

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Though this is an artists' flea market, these works of art presumably would cost more than 99 cents to buy.

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Many books on display this week, like this one, probably never went for sale at the original 99 Cents Only stores.

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These curated vintage shirts presumably were also not for sale at the original 99 Cents Only store.

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Some old shopping carts have been converted into suspended sculptures. In between songs, the loudspeakers play what I’m pretty sure are authentic 99 Cents Only in-store announcements in English and Spanish.

One major auditory difference — and I can confirm this as a former 99 Cents store shopper — the music on the store’s PA system is much more lo-fi and homespun than the radio pop the old store used to have on.

Inside the "tent"

In the background, behind the hanging shopping cart, you can see the entrance to an improvised structure in aisle 11.

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Inside the improvised structure in Aisle 11.

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Since this is a self-described “artist flea market of sorts,” many of the artists have also scrawled their phone numbers and Venmo usernames near their works, and walking through different stations at the store really does feel like walking through different stations of a carefully curated swap meet or flea market.

Many works of art coexisted with produce and groceries, like this work held down by two Grey Poupon bottles.

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Even for works that aren’t on sale, most paintings and sculptures I saw identify the artist, though it’s admittedly a little more haphazard than most galleries I’ve been to.

About the curators

Representatives for the gallery The Hole, which curated this exhibit, said that the works in the store pull from its “West Coast network of artists and outsiders.”

These paintings share wall space with this sculpture made of repurposed blue jean fabric.

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One artist in particular takes the spotlight: The walls are covered by paintings by the San Francisco-based street artist Barry McGee and works from his personal collection — people who parked in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s garages in the early 2000s may remember his now-lost murals. All told, the curators say over 100 artists were represented.

With so many artists on display, very little space in the former store goes unused.

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How to visit

You can see “99CENT” for yourself at the former 99 Cents Only store at 6121 Wilshire Blvd., a stone’s throw away from LACMA.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday.

In her State of the City address this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted that her administration had fast-tracked the construction of more than 30,000 affordable housing units.

A Crosstown analysis of the data indicates the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders already had broken ground on 6,000 of them.

Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.

Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1’s first year, 2023, have been granted building permits, all of which have been approved for two years or more.

“Mayor Bass was correct in her statement that 6,000 units are currently under construction,” the mayor’s press office said in a statement to Crosstown. The mayor’s office did not provide a clear explanation as to how that total was calculated.

The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.

Los Angeles faces an acute housing shortage, a problem that has exacerbated a longstanding homelessness crisis and has contributed to rising unaffordability that burdens many of the city’s residents. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, the city of Los Angeles must produce 456,643 housing units during the decade, a pace it now appears certain to miss by a wide margin.

Despite the chronic need for more housing, builders say they are up against an array of obstacles in Los Angeles. Production costs are more than double the average costs in Texas, according to a RAND study. The controversial Measure ULA, informally known as the ”mansion tax,” has also been blamed for construction slowdowns. The levy, which went into effect in April 2023, adds a 4% tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $5.3 million or more, and a 5.5% tax on properties sold for over $10.6 million, including apartment blocks. The revenues are intended to be put toward affordable housing. But the extra tax makes building an apartment project and then selling it particularly burdensome.

Ari Kahan, principal of California Landmark Group, said his development firm has significantly scaled back their Los Angeles projects.

“We still explore unique opportunities, but we cannot afford the risk of both ULA and the inevitable other shoe dropping on another related issue in the city of L.A.,” Kahan said.

The city’s housing crisis has been at the forefront of Bass’s first term agenda. ED 1, which went into effect in 2023, was intended to fast-track construction by reducing approval times for affordable housing projects and shelters to 60 days. The directive prompted a flurry of new proposals. But moving those proposals from the drawing board to actual construction has been slow.

Building struggles

ED1 and programs that encouraged affordable housing, such as bonus diversity programs and the Transit Oriented Communities Incentive Program — which incentivizes low-income housing near bus and train stations — have been big enticements for new development. However, Kahan said Measure ULA has made it difficult for developers to turn a profit on those projects, and he predicts that most of them will never be built.

The measure has generated over $1 billion through January 2026. Critics assail the nickname “mansion tax” because the levy equally applies to multifamily apartment buildings and commercial properties, not just expensive single-family homes. Fifty-nine percent of transactions are single-family residences, 25% are commercial properties and 13% are multi-family residences, according to the ULA Revenue Dashboard.

Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition of housing, labor and renters groups behind the measure, defended the tax and said it’s important to let the policy “breathe and take effect” to understand its full impact. He called the measure an economic engine for the city, adding that $400 million in ULA revenue went out to affordable housing developers last fall.

“We’re talking about hundreds of new homes being built, thousands of new construction jobs, investment in neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment like this in a long time,” Donlin said.

Donlin said Los Angeles’ housing struggles are likely due to stubbornly high interest rates, insurance costs and construction material costs around the time Measure ULA went into effect.

Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president of LA Family Housing, said she has been able to sidestep Measure ULA because she manages the properties she builds instead of selling them. For her, one of the biggest affordable housing hurdles is a lack of federal assistance to help low-income tenants pay rent.

“[Los Angeles’s] largest housing gap is for our extremely and very low-income households. In order to make housing affordable to that target income group, it would require a larger allocation of rental subsidies,” Klasky-Gamer said.

President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal aimed to cut over $26 billion from federal rental assistance programs, but the House Appropriations Committee rejected the cuts and increased funding for housing assistance programs. Tenant-based vouchers received $2.4 billion more than they did in the 2025 fiscal year, and the project-based rental assistance program received an extra $1.65 billion.

Westchester grows, downtown dwindles

In a rocky year for issued apartment permits, some Los Angeles neighborhoods showed marked increases, while others saw steep declines.

Westchester had 787 apartment units permitted last year, the most of any neighborhood. North Hollywood had the second most at 502, and Mid-City had the third most with 449.

Downtown saw a substantial dip in permits issued. Last year, 207 units were approved, nearly half as many as the year before and an 87% decrease from 2022.

The regression comes as downtown contends with a massive homelessness population. Downtown had the most non-emergency calls for homeless encampments, 8,417, of any neighborhood in 2025, according to MyLA311 service data.

How we did it: We examined all ED1-related projects on the city’s case summary dashboard and compared those with the Department of Building and Safety’s permits issued for new apartments. In addition, we compiled the number of apartment new units permitted for construction in the city over the past decade. In a previous article, Crosstown used a slightly different methodology to determine the number of permitted apartments in the city. The slight changes in methodology account for the difference in numbers in that article.

Have questions about our data? Write to us at askus@xtown.la

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 24, 2026.

East Los Angeles is home to nearly 119,000 residents, but the community has no mayor or city hall.

So who makes decisions? Who fixes potholes? Who gets called to report illegal dumping?

East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.

According to the L.A. County Planning Department, there are approximately 120 to 125 unincorporated areas in the county, which altogether represent two-thirds of its total area and one-tenth of its population.

“For the 1 million people living in these areas, the Board of Supervisors is their ‘city council’ and the supervisor representing the area is their ‘mayor,’” the department website says.

So what does it mean to live in an unincorporated community?

Let’s break it down:

What is an unincorporated community?

An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government.

Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

East L.A. residents have called for representation that’s more closely tied to their community and financial transparency, saying they want to know how their tax dollars are spent locally.

Who represents East LA?

East L.A., located in Supervisorial District 1, has been represented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis since 2014. Her term is set to end this year.

Solis also makes decisions for the nearly 2 million other residents who live in District 1, which covers more than 20 cities, stretching from Silver Lake to Pomona, as well as various neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights and downtown.

On a state level, East L.A. is represented by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents East L.A. in Congress.

Who provides key services for East LA residents?

Independent cities often provide residents with their own municipal services such as law enforcement, firefighting, animal control, trash collection, road maintenance, library services and parks.

Here’s a list of services available to East L.A. residents:

• First District Field Office – East Los Angeles
  
  • Services: Here’s how you can get in touch with Solis’ office if you have questions or concerns.
  • Location: 4801 E. Third St., Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 881-4601
• East LA Sheriff’s Station 
  
  • Services: In addition to serving East L.A., the station also serves the cities of Commerce, Cudahy and Maywood, as well as unincorporated Belvedere Gardens, City Terrace, Eastmont, Saybrook Park and Union Pacific.
  • Location: 5019 E. Third St., East Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 264-4151. For emergencies, call 911. 
  • Website: lasd.org/east-los-angeles
• LA County Fire Department
  
  • Services: The L.A. County Fire Department serves all of the unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, as well as 60 incorporated cities, 59 of which are in Los Angeles County and one in Orange County. 
  • Contact: (323) 881-2411. For emergencies, call 911.
  • Website: fire.lacounty.gov
• Public Works
  
  • Services: L.A. County Public Works responds to calls about graffiti, potholes, illegal dumping, homeless encampments, transportation services and building and safety permits, among other things.
  • Contact: Reports can be submitted online. Urgent requests can be made by calling the 24-hour line at (800) 675-4357.
  • Website: pw.lacounty.gov
• 211 LA County
  
  • Services: 211 L.A. County provides health and social service resources, including housing support, mental health care, financial assistance and recovery resources. During disasters, like wildfires and other crises, the line provides real-time information and can help people find shelter, food, financial help and emotional support.
  • Contact: Dial 211. Those unable to reach 2-1-1 service can call (800) 339-6993. TTY/TDD# (phone for hearing impaired): (800) 660-4026
  • Website: 211la.org

For a full list, check out this guide to unincorporated areas services for District 1.

Why isn’t East LA its own city?

Over the decades, multiple efforts to incorporate East LA into a city have failed. A recent fiscal analysis concluded that cityhood remains financially unviable for the region. Residents have continued their calls for more financial transparency and better representation. A new effort on the horizon may allow citizens to directly advise the county on issues unique to East LA.

How can residents make their voices heard?

The report that deemed cityhood unfeasible for unincorporated East LA last year recommended the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) — a formal, citizen-led body that would provide residents with a structure for public input and give stakeholders a direct line of communication to county leadership.

At the first of six community forums on Saturday, Feb. 21, some residents deemed the MAC a stepping stone towards proper incorporation down the line. Others asked for better economic investment and access to a localized, itemized budget every year for residents to understand how their tax dollars are spent on improving social services and local businesses.

“Every problem we have, can be solved if we have a local government,” resident Francisco Cardenas. “We have nobody to complain to.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the MAC and the upcoming community forums where residents are invited to weigh in. The next meeting will take place Thursday at East L.A. Library, located at 4837 E. Third St. Register here.