The Brief

L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian recalls the pandemonium following the release on Oct. 9, 2022, of a secretly recorded audio tape of colleagues making racist and derogatory remarks. For weeks, council meetings were marked by loud, angry protests that often shut down the proceedings.

City Hall was in crisis.

“The anguish was visceral in the council chambers and the council meetings were bedlam,” Krekorian remembers. “We could barely proceed with the work of the city.”

The scandal involved former councilmembers Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, Councilmember Kevin de León, and Ron Herrera, the former president of the influential L.A. County Federation of Labor. The audio was from a meeting where the four were discussing how to redraw council district boundaries in a way that would maintain their power.

In the year since the tapes were leaked, the fallout from the scandal has fundamentally changed City Hall. Martinez resigned, and Cedillo was voted out of office. (Herrera also resigned from the labor federation.) De León was urged to resign but remained defiant, not only staying on the council but announcing that he’ll run for reelection next year.

File: Los Angeles City councilmembers Gil Cedillo (L) and Kevin de Leon (R) speaking at separate events in 2021.

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There was also turmoil apart from the scandal. Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted on federal charges of bribery and corruption. Councilmember Curren Price was indicted on charges of embezzlement and perjury. Just last week, Councilmember John Lee was accused of ethics violations. Former Councilmember José Huizar pleaded guilty to federal charges of racketeering and tax evasion.

Perhaps most importantly, the tapes scandal laid bare the racial dynamics that sometimes pit council members against one another and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to maintain power. Combined with the corruption charges against sitting and former council members, it upended public trust. Six new members were voted onto the council and one was appointed — none of whom had previously held elected office — and calls for government reform are now at the center of council politics.

The City Council, then and now

Martinez was council president at the time and stood at the center of the controversy. Her comments on the tape were the most offensive. In an exclusive interview, she talked to LAist Studios for a new podcast “Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes."

“There is no way I could undo what I said, or undo the hurt that I created,” she says on the podcast. “So the only thing I knew how to do was hand over my responsibilities as a council president and make sure that I didn't mess up anything else there.”

Krekorian replaced the often confrontational and sometimes bellicose Martinez as council president.

“The difference is dramatic,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “They have a very different style and personality.”

He said Krekorian “refrains from strong-arming” the council.

Rob Quan heads Unrig LA, an organization focused on money in politics and representative government in the city. He’s a regular observer of the council.

“The biggest thing was it dislodged a tyrannical council president,” Quan said of the release of the audio recording. In the podcast, Martinez said she believed she was a fair president who championed the rights of working families.

Krekorian prides himself on collegiality and believes it's been important to moving the council beyond the controversy.

“My style is to welcome debate, to welcome different viewpoints,” he told LAist.

Progressives have gained a foothold

It's also a vastly different council.

Seven of the 15 members joined it in the past year. None of them had ever held elected office.

And the council leans decidedly more left.

“Things that I didn’t think would necessarily pass previously like renter protections are passing unanimously,” said Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics at Pomona College.

The more progressive council has focused less on the role of policing in addressing homelessness — something that in the past produced acrimonious debate and protests. Some council members continue to request the use of LAPD officers under Municipal Code 41.18 to remove unhoused people from around schools and daycare centers. But any debate is cordial if there is one at all, said Harris-Dawson.

It helps that Mayor Karen Bass, who took office just two months after the release of the tape, generally opposes the use of LAPD officers to remove unhoused people from encampments and has centered attention on her Inside Safe program.

“I think having a new mayor has breathed new life into the council,” Sadhwani said. “You see the mayor’s call to lock arms being quite effective at pulling the council members together.”

An outcry for reform

Amid calls for government reform, Krekorian in December created an ad hoc committee to examine changes to L.A. city government. On Thursday, that committee voted to refer to the full council charter amendments to create an independent redistricting commission.

If passed by voters, it could be one of the biggest changes to result from the release of the audio recording.

Removing the once-every-10-years redrawing of council district boundaries from council members and handing it over to an independent panel would end the kind of backroom dealing heard on the audio, supporters of the idea have said.

It's not a new idea. Reformers have been lobbying for it for years. The state and L.A. county already use independent commissions.

The City Council Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Reform took public comment on a proposal to establish an independent redistricting commission at a hearing on Oct. 5, 2023.

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The release of the tapes breathed new life into the idea for the city.

The ad hoc committee is also considering a proposal to increase the size of the council.

Expanding the council would mean each council member would represent fewer people and, ideally, be more responsive to constituents. It is also an old idea that’s gained support.

Sadhwani is part of the L.A. Governance Reform Project, which is making proposals to the council reform committee on independent redistricting, council size, and changes to ethics laws. So is Gary Segura, dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA and part of the Latino Policy and Politics Institute at the university. He said the project’s aim is to “ensure a governance structure that secures fair and adequate voice for all Los Angeles communities.”

“Structures have a big impact on how people behave,” Segura said.

It’s up to the full council to decide whether to place the reforms on the ballot — likely in November 2024. But it may be eight years — during the next redistricting process — before the changes are implemented. That frustrates reform advocates who say any changes should be implemented immediately.

“It's the same old City Hall culture of doing far too little too late,” said Quan, who noted Krekorian’s committee has yet to vote on what reformers say is the much needed strengthening of city ethics laws.

“Until you have some reforms that bolster our Ethics Commission, it’s all for not,” said Sadhwani.

Krekorian has said he intends to place ethics on the agenda at a future date.

The power play behind the racist comments

The anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and other derogatory language used on the tapes shocked and angered many people. But the discussion around carving up council districts based on race surprised few.

Martinez and the others can be heard lamenting that half the city’s population is Latino, but Latinos hold only four of 15 council seats. In the course of the conversation, de León is heard saying essentially that Black people have too much power. Black people represent about 8% of the L.A. population and hold three seats on the council.

While the comments were denounced in both Black and Latino communities, there’s likely “simmering tension” over what was heard on the tape, Segura said.

“I suspect there is a hangover,” he said. “Distrust between and among communities is inevitable when you play zero sum politics.”

Sadhwani said the Governance Reform Project will take those dynamics into account.

“I think there are still conversations about race relations in the city that haven’t yet been had, and I hope we don’t just gloss over these dynamics,” she said.

How the renters rights movement fits in

A woman calls for rent relief as a coalition of activist groups and labor unions participate in a May Day march for workers' and human rights in Los Angeles on May 1, 2021.

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One aspect of the conversation on the tapes that is often forgotten is how Martinez and others were scheming to dilute the power of renters in the city. It was not just a conversation.

The city council under Martinez’s leadership approved a redistricting map that changed the constituency of Councilmember Nithya Raman — a champion of renters rights — by 40%.

The result: Raman faces a tough reelection battle next year.

No other councilmember’s district changed by more than 18% and most changed by single digits or not at all, according to a New York Times analysis.

In the wake of the release of the tapes, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigation to determine if the conversation violated the state Voting Rights Act as it pertains to redistricting. A statement from Bonta’s office last week said the investigation is ongoing.

Whether the conversation was illegal, it added to the perception that there exists a culture of corruption at L.A. City Hall. Over recent years, three former members of the council, and more than a half dozen City Hall staffers and others have been convicted of various charges, including bribery and obstruction of justice.

Krekorian rejects the idea of any cultural problem.

“That suggests that corrupt intent is widespread..at City Hall and I refuse to accept that’s true,” he said.

The council president said this the day after Councilmember John Lee was accused of ethics violations. Lee has denied the allegations.

A year later, Council politics are still ‘challenging’

Council members are seated alphabetically around the horseshoe of desks inside city council chambers. That means Harris-Dawson, who is Black, sits next to de León, who expressed anti-Black sentiment on the tape.

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“It's challenging,” Harris-Dawson said. “It tests my home training.”

After the tape scandal, de León was removed from all of his committees and censured by the council. Every other member has called on him to resign. He’s convinced his constituents will forgive him and re-elect him to a second term next year.

One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the tape is who recorded it. Using unnamed sources, Los Angeles Magazine has reported it was a union bookkeeper who was spying on Herrera, the labor leader, whom he believed was sleeping with his wife. Neither the union nor the LAPD, which is investigating the potentially illegal secret recording, has commented.

On Friday, Councilmember Kevin de León and former council member Gil Cedillo filed separate lawsuits over the release of the tape, alleging it did permanent harm to their reputations as well as invasion of privacy and negligence. The lawsuits name the bookkeeper and his wife, both of whom are no longer employed by the Federation of Labor. Cedillo also names the federation. The tape is believed to have been recorded during a meeting at the federation’s offices.

An equally intriguing mystery is who leaked the tapes and why a year after it was recorded. Police searched the Eagle Rock home of the bookkeper and his wife in July with a search warrant alleging eavesdropping and destroying or concealing evidence. Neither has been charged.

There is an argument that the release a month before the 2022 mayoral election was to foment anti-politician attitudes and help businessman Rick Caruso beat Mayor Karen Bass. That obviously didn’t work. Besides, the opposite can be argued — that only a Black mayor could heal the city after the release of a recording featuring racist comments.

Harris-Dawson is well aware of the challenges facing City Hall one year after the bombshell of the tapes.

“We are fighting for our credibility,” he said.

The immigration detention center closest to Los Angeles has placed dozens of people in solitary confinement each month since June, according to the most recent data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In May 2025, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center had 14 people in isolation. When the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort revved up in June 2025, the number of detainees in solitary confinement there more than tripled. By July, it was 73; by August, 105.

The most recent data available shows that number went down slightly in January, to 74 people.

Ranked by percentage of the detainee population in “segregation,” as it is called at immigrant detention centers, Adelanto is among the U.S.’s top 10 facilities as of January, according to an LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data.

The data shows that of 229 ICE facilities that reported holding people since October 2024, between 50 and 60 usually reported putting at least one person in segregation in a given month. Out of the facilities that did place people in solitary confinement, Adelanto tended to do so less often than others until June 2025. (The facility held just a few people from October 2024 into January 2025.) When ICE’s presence increased in L.A. in June, the number of people sent to isolation in the facility also shot up — three to five times as many people have been isolated in Adelanto compared to the average facility that used any solitary confinement.

Since June, only two facilities have sent people to solitary confinement more times than Adelanto: one southwest of San Antonio, the other in central Pennsylvania.

Both of those facilities held twice the number of detainees as Adelanto on average from October 2024 through September 2025; but the number of people held in Adelanto since then has tripled, growing larger than either of the other facilities to hold an average of 1,800 people a day since October.

More on solitary confinement  

According to ICE, detainees may be placed in segregation for “disciplinary reasons,” or because of:

• “Serious mental or medical illness.”
• Conducting a hunger strike.
• Suicide watch.

The agency also says it might place detainees “who may be susceptible to harm [if left among the] general population due in part to how others interpret or assume their sexual orientation, or sexual presentation or expression.”

Not only is ICE holding more people in solitary confinement, but the agency's data also shows that detainees across the country are being isolated for longer periods of time. Detainees ICE considers part of the "vulnerable & special population" spent an average of about two weeks in solitary confinement each time they were isolated in 2022, when ICE first made the data available. By the end of 2025, the average stay in isolation had risen to more than seven weeks straight.

The GEO Group Inc., a private company that operates the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, has not responded to requests for comment.

How isolation can affect immigrant detainees  

UN human rights experts consider solitary confinement placements that last 15 days or more to be torture, though the U.S. Supreme Court has held that isolation doesn’t violate the Constitution.

The UN also maintains that solitary confinement should be prohibited for people “with mental or physical disabilities when their conditions would be exacerbated by such measures.”

In January, a coalition of immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of current detainees, calling for conditions at Adelanto to be improved. In addition to an unsanitary environment and a lack of healthy food and clean drinking water, detainees say solitary confinement is frequently used to punish those who speak out about conditions at the facility.

People held in immigrant detention centers are technically in “civil detention,” meaning that they are being detained to ensure their presence at hearings and compliance with immigration orders — not to serve criminal sentences.

According to the immigrant rights groups’ complaint, one detainee was placed in solitary confinement after complaining about the showers being broken. Another detainee said that, after asking a guard to “use more respectful language toward him, he was ridiculed, written up and given the middle finger by a guard who shouted, ‘Who the f--- do you think you are?’” Then, the detainee was placed in solitary confinement for 25 days.

Alvaro Huerta, the director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center who is representing detainees at Adelanto, told LAist that when people are placed in isolation at the facility, they’re typically in the same cell for 23 hours per day, unable to receive visits from their families.

For clients who are experiencing mental health challenges — especially those with suicidal thoughts — being placed in solitary confinement “can really exacerbate their condition,” he added.

In multiple statements to the media, ICE has said that the agency “is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments.” The agency has also said that detainees receive “comprehensive medical care” and that all detainees “receive medical, dental, and mental health intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility.”

Huerta called that “laughable.”

“We have countless examples of people who have said that this is not true, that they're not getting the medication that they're requesting, that they're not being seen for chronic conditions and emergency conditions,” he added. “And we know it's not true because 14 people have died in ICE custody this year alone.”

Lori Rovner of Manhattan Beach is a big sports fan, so there was no question that when tickets for the Olympic Games went on sale, she'd be signing up.

She scored a slot in the first ticket drop, which launched Thursday, and logged on right at 10 a.m., hoping to score tickets to the Opening Ceremonies and some finals too. After battling her computer to get through "access denied" screens and a lost shopping cart due to a 30-minute time limit, she bought 16 tickets.

It was only when she was about to purchase that she noticed the service fees, which were around 24% of each ticket. One $2,100 ticket had a $505 service fee, bringing the total cost to $2,604.63.

"It's insane," she said of the fee. "I don't understand what the service is."

As the locals-only sale kicks off and Southern Californians have their first chance to buy tickets to the Olympic Games, some fans are wide-eyed at the high fees on all tickets and the prices in general, which start at $28 but go up to more than $5,500 a pop. Opening Ceremony tickets start at $328.68

The service fees aren't a surprise add-on. The price fans see when browsing the site is the total cost, including the fee. Still, some who bought in the first phase of sales were surprised when they saw the fees add up.

One user on Reddit of shared their cart of 10 tickets, which added up to $11,264. That included $1,038 in fees alone. Commenters responded in shock and awe.

Service fees are standard in ticket sales, but the percentage they charge can vary widely. High fees have been a source of ire for music and sports fans for years. A 2018 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the average fees on a primary ticket market were 27%.

LA28 did not respond to LAist's requests for details on the service fee, like what it pays for or why it's a percentage rather than a flat rate.

Not everyone seemed bothered by the prices. Some people LAist spoke with opted for only $28 or similarly priced tickets, even if it meant missing some of the biggest Olympic events. One user on Reddit said they purchased 18 tickets for around $550.

"I went with all $28 tickets," they wrote in the online forum about the Olympics. "I got women’s soccer, gymnastics, beach and regular volleyball, track and field, baseball and a few others."

For some, the ticket process, the prices and the dense web of events to choose from made it too hard to pull the trigger.

Jeff Bartow of Sierra Madre made a spreadsheet with some competitions he was interested in seeing before he logged on to buy tickets Friday.

"So many times, so many schedules, so many events," Bartow said. "I think I initially thought I was going to go to a bunch, but thinking about how crazy it's going to be … I might be a little more limited."

This is just the first ticket drop. There will be more opportunities to buy tickets in the months to come — and on a resale market that launches in 2027.

Some ticket-buyers told LAist they already were contemplating which tickets they'd keep and which ones they'd re-sell, just minutes after buying them.

In the more than two months since the Department of Justice released its latest batch of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors have not brought any new charges based on the documents, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.

The more than 3 million pages of documents include accusations by alleged victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's abuse and thousands of emails and photos showing Epstein associated with prominent figures. The files indicate that many of these people maintained contact with the disgraced financier long after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to sex crimes that involved minors. Appearing in the files is not necessarily an indication of criminal wrongdoing.

The release of the Epstein files came after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to make public all documents it held related to Epstein.

Epstein died in prison about a month after a 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted on sex-trafficking charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Since the release of the files in 2025 and 2026, there have been no related arrests in the U.S. However, the disclosures have led to some resignations and other reputational repercussions for some high-ranking Americans.

The lack of arrests in the U.S. contrasts to the fallout in the U.K., where investigators have pursued charges related to corruption, not sexual abuse, in their dealings with Epstein. Two former government officials — former Prince Andrew and ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson — were arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has denied wrongdoing and has not been formally charged. Mandelson has also not been charged, and lawyers for Mandelson have said that the arrest was prompted by a "baseless suggestion."

In the U.S., top Justice Department officials have said that they found no evidence compelling enough to pursue further charges related to Epstein, and that the public can make their own assessments based on the disclosed documents.

In a statement to NPR, Justice Department spokesperson Katie Kenlein said that "there have not been additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell because there has not been credible evidence that their activities extended to Epstein's network. However, if prosecutable evidence comes forward, the Department of Justice will of course act on it as we do every day in sexual trafficking and assault cases across the count[r]y."

On Thursday, President Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out of the top job at the Justice Department, following bipartisan criticism over her handling of the Epstein files.

NPR asked four former prosecutors and one former law enforcement officer why there may not have been enough evidence to levy additional charges. Here's what they said.

Prosecutors must prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt"

Prosecutors must prove to a jury that a person committed a crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," according to Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

"One of the biggest misconceptions people have is how difficult it is to charge and convict somebody for a criminal case," said McQuade, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

A prosecutor's ethical responsibility is to charge cases only if they believe there is enough evidence for a conviction, McQuade said. Documents, including emails, jokes, and even plane itineraries, can be a place to start, but, alone, they are not enough to prove guilt, McQuade said.

"What you would need [is] rock solid evidence," McQuade said. "You can't charge someone for a crime without sufficient evidence, and I have yet to see evidence of a crime involving an Epstein associate that has gone uncharged."

Based on his understanding of the case, Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law, said he agreed that prosecutors who investigated Epstein's alleged associates "may have believed that they couldn't persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt." He said problems with witness credibility or certain forensic evidence can prevent a case from moving forward.

The U.K. cases are focused on corruption 

In the U.K., the two people arrested are being investigated on suspicion of "misconduct in public office." McQuade said the U.S. does not have a single equivalent federal law. Instead, the U.S. prosecutes public corruption through statutes that focus specifically on crimes such as bribery and extortion.

After the release of the latest files, British police began investigating Andrew's correspondence with Epstein when Andrew was a U.K. trade envoy. At that time, Andrew allegedly shared government itineraries, investment plans and notes from official foreign trips with Epstein. The information may have been covered by the United Kingdom's Official Secrets Act.

Similarly, Mandelson has been accused of passing confidential government information to the late sex offender when Mandelson was a U.K. Cabinet minister.

Meeting the burden of proof is especially challenging for sex crime cases

Victim statements are essential for establishing basic elements, such as the timeframe of events, required to build sexual assault cases, said Diane Goldstein, a retired police lieutenant from California and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. But a victim may be reluctant to come forward because of a fear of retaliation, not believing the police can help, believing it is a personal matter, or not wanting to get the perpetrator in trouble.

McQuade noted that in some sex trafficking cases, especially those in which a perpetrator is in a position of power, victims may experience intimidation or threats that prevent them from speaking out.

Victims also may be hesitant to move forward with allegations because they fear having to testify at trials where defense attorneys may attempt to poke holes in their allegations, McQuade said.

Goldstein said that for sex crime cases to advance, investigators need to follow certain policies and procedures. "If you don't have a legitimate police investigation to start, you're not going to get any type of criminal filing," Goldstein said.

Other potential charges are also a difficult path

Prosecutors may have considered pursuing charges of criminal conspiracy related to sex trafficking against people associated with Epstein, said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law. FBI documents in the files relating to its investigation into Epstein's crimes identify certain people as "co-conspirators."

But Ankush Khardori, a senior writer and columnist at Politico magazine who worked as a federal prosecutor on financial fraud cases, told NPR those identifiers are not "formal accusation[s]" and are simply part of "interim documents."

"The FBI does not determine who is a co-conspirator," Khardori said. "That is a legal judgment that prosecutors make."

But for those conspiracy cases, "criminal intent," in particular, is difficult to establish, said Roth, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. Criminal conspiracy charges "would require knowledge and intent on the part of each individual who was charged," Roth said. If a person who communicated with Epstein had some suspicion that he was engaged in illegal activity, that alone would not be sufficient evidence to press charges, she said.

Investigators may have considered charges related to criminal tax violations, McQuade said. But the statute of limitations has likely ended on those cases, she said, meaning that prosecutors can no longer bring charges.

The current evidence lacks context

Legal experts say the haphazard way the documents were released and redacted makes it difficult for the public to understand why no additional charges have been filed.

Roth, the Cardozo law professor, said the information is in "isolation," without the appropriate context. "We'll see an individual photograph that looks perhaps incriminating. We'll see an email that looks incriminating, but we don't necessarily have everything that was said before and after that email and that exchange," Roth said.

One document that could explain why no charges were pursued, according to Butler, is a heavily redacted DOJ memo naming "potential co-conspirators" of Epstein. "The parts that should indicate why the department declined prosecution on any alleged co-conspirators other than Ghislaine Maxwell [are] redacted," said Butler, the Georgetown law professor and a former federal prosecutor.

Butler said those redactions are "unusual" because they do not appear to follow the permissible reasons for redactions in the Epstein documents. Those reasons include confidentiality for Epstein's alleged victims, or anything that would compromise an ongoing investigation, Butler said.

"When the Justice Department grudgingly releases information when pressed by politics or forced by Congress, it also creates the impression that they have something to hide," Butler said. "That there is some cover-up going on."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Nearly 30% more students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness from 2022-23 to 2023-24, making it the county’s highest rate in the past five years and far outpacing the rate of homelessness across the state in the same timeframe, as the resources to identify and support this student population have decreased.

The UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools published two reports on Wednesday on the state of student homelessness in the county: “Rising Numbers, Fading Resources: Students Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County” and “Hidden in Plain Sight: Fear, Underidentification, and Funding Gaps for Housing-Insecure Students in Los Angeles County.”

Researchers found that Norwalk-La Mirada Elementary Unified School District had the highest rate of student homelessness in the county — 1 in 3 students, meaning that over 4,700 students were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2023-24 school year out of a total cumulative enrollment of about 15,600.

The city of Norwalk, where the district is located in the eastern region of the county, was sued by the state in 2024 for banning emergency shelters and other support services for people experiencing homelessness. Last year, the state reached a settlement with the city, which was forced to overturn the ban and put $250,000 toward building affordable housing.

Student homelessness is defined differently under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that requires every public school to count the number of students who are living on the street, in shelters, in motels, in cars, doubled up with other families, or moving between friends’ and relatives’ homes.

As a result of this expanded definition, McKinney-Vento includes doubled-up students in the count of homelessness. Doubled-up is a term used to describe children and youth ages 21 and under living in shared housing, such as with another family or friends, due to various crises.

There were a few other patterns seen in the L.A. County data analyzed by the UCLA researchers:

• Latino students were disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness: they represent 65% of the county’s student population, but 75.5% of student homelessness
• A third of homeless students were in high school
• Many districts with the highest rates of homelessness had higher school instability but lower dropout rates

While McKinney-Vento has an expanded definition that includes more types of homelessness than several other definitions, identifying students remains difficult.

The second report from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools focuses on the lack of dedicated funding for school staff to identify and support homeless students. Students and families facing homelessness do not always self-identify, whether due to fear, shame or being unaware that their housing situation is considered homelessness under McKinney-Vento.

“A lot of these young people are dealing with a lot of trauma, so they don’t want to be identified. They don’t want to be pointed out; sometimes it’s scary for them, because they think we’re going to report them to the Department of Children and Family Services,” said L.A. County Office of Education staff interviewed for this report.

School staff, known as homeless liaisons, who work with homeless students received a historic influx of federal funds during the Covid-19 pandemic — $98.76 million for California, out of $800 million nationwide, from the American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth.

That funding has since ended, and there is no other dedicated, ongoing state funding set aside solely for the rising number of homeless students. This has led districts in California to “heavily depend on highly competitive and unstable federal streams,” the UCLA researchers wrote. Those federal streams have become increasingly precarious as the federal administration last year sought policy changes that would shift how they are structured.