The Brief

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

A large black bear still is hiding out under a house in Altadena, despite wildlife officials' efforts to coax him out of the crawlspace he’s been living in for weeks.

Biologists set up a trap for the roughly 550-pound male bear in a neighbor’s yard and sprayed more caramel- and cherry-scented lure around the property earlier this week, according to Cort Klopping, a spokesperson with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

But a member of the media — who did not have permission to be on the property — touched the trap and tripped it closed Friday morning.

“This was something that should not have happened,” Klopping told LAist, adding that officials are surprised by the incident. “This is a trap that's, you know, built and produced for a 500-plus-pound bear, so it's potentially very dangerous for the average human.”

The trap now will be locked over the weekend, Klopping said. Wildlife officials are expected to re-bait it with chicken, shrimp, apples, oranges, peanut butter and sardines to try to trap the bear again early next week.

How we got here

Wildlife officials believe the bear has been spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.

The hope was that the bear, which neighbors have nicknamed Barry, would feel more comfortable leaving the crawlspace once activity dies down — but that hasn’t happened yet.

“It's our opinion that the stimulation that's been going on surrounding the home since it's gained so much interest has been a limiting factor in what could have normally been successful resolving the issue,” Klopping said, including the lure and the trap.

Biologists have made several visits to the Altadena home, including earlier this week when they set up the trap in a neighbor's yard with a smorgasbord of bear-worthy baits.

Barry came out of the crawl space for a few minutes Thursday night to snack on the treats but didn’t spring the trap before retreating back under the home, Klopping said.

What’s next

It’s the same trap — and the largest available — that helped authorities capture and relocate Barry earlier this year after the Eaton Fire. The animal was moved about 10 miles away to the Angeles National Forest.

Wildlife personnel lured the bear out from under a different Altadena house and into the trap in January with rotisserie chicken, apples, butterscotch and peanut butter.

The bear spooked a SoCal Gas crew who stopped by for repairs after the Eaton Fire in January.

(

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

/

X

)

The male bear after it was removed from under an Altadena home earlier this year.

(

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

/

X

)

Klopping said that experience may be adding to the trouble this time around.

“If he's familiar with the trap … he may be hesitant to go into it for that reason,” he said. “We do think that might also be playing a role in why he's not gone into the trap so far.”

Wildlife officials say they’re hopeful the trap will be successful after they reset it early next week. In the meantime, the department is monitoring cameras placed around the crawlspace so the homeowner can secure the access point if Barry does leave.

Officials also are urging people in Altadena to steer clear of traps and other wildlife equipment.

“We're going to continue to stay on top of this, do whatever we can to kind of help the homeowner and continue to assess if more of a response may be needed at a further date,” Klopping said.

You can find tips on how to handle a bear in your backyard here and resources from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife here.

Starting next week, Los Angeles County will begin taking applications from people seeking a portion of $23 million in funds for rent and mortgage relief.

The program is designed to help landlords and homeowners catch up on missed housing payments and other expenses after living through January’s fires or recent federal immigration enforcement.

The application period opens Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

Stephanie Chandler, directing attorney of eviction prevention at the L.A.-based Housing Rights Center, said the purpose of the program is “to keep people housed and help mitigate some of the unfortunate impacts that folks have had over this past year from many different fronts.”

Receiving help depends on whether you meet specific eligibility criteria and can provide certain documents. The rules can be confusing to navigate, so LAist has put together this guide to answer the questions most likely to come up.

Will I be eligible? 

The program is meant to serve two primary groups:

• Landlords whose tenants have unpaid rent because of the Eaton and Palisades fires or recent ICE raids. 
• Homeowners who were displaced after fires destroyed or severely damaged their homes and who now have unpaid mortgages or unpaid rent in their new housing. 

If you’re a renter, you cannot apply on your own. The application must come from your landlord.

Tenants are allowed to fill out an interest form. They can’t submit a final application, but they can input their landlord’s contact information on the interest form.

Chandler said tenants should make sure their landlords are aware that payments will be made directly to landlords, not to tenants.

“Highlighting that reasoning might hopefully address some concerns that landlords might have that might hold them back from otherwise applying,” Chandler said.

Does it matter if I’m low income?

Potentially, yes.

The county’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs says funding priority will go to parts of the county deemed “high” and “highest” need. The department has provided this map with prioritized areas highlighted.

Priority also will be given to small landlords (those who own four units or fewer) and property owners with incomes up to 80% of the area’s median income (for a family of four, that cut-off is $121,150 per year).

If landlord income is not provided on the application, then priority will go to tenants who fall below the 80% of area median income threshold.

What information will I need to provide? 

If you plan to apply, you might want to start gathering your documents now. The checklist of required paperwork is quite long.

You’ll have to provide some proof of identification, such as a driver's license, birth certificate or green card. Proof of income also is required. This can include documents such as federal tax returns, pay stubs or proof of rental income.

Landlords must prove they own their rental property, and homeowners must prove they own their home.

For landlords, a tenant’s lease or some other proof of tenancy is required, as is proof of the amount of rent the tenant owes.

If a unit is empty because of needed post-fire repairs, property owners must provide estimates, bills or other documentation of the cost of the repairs.

If you’re applying because of financial hardship due to federal immigration actions, you’ll be asked to provide proof of deportation or detainment. This can include ICE or immigration court records, a letter from an attorney or self-attestation about the immigration actions if the prior information can’t be provided.

Chandler said this could be a barrier for some applicants.

“Even with the alternate options, I wouldn't be surprised that there would still be a chilling effect,” she said.

Though tenants will not fill out the application themselves, they may be contacted to verify information or provide further documentation.

How much funding can I receive? 

The limit on payouts is six month’s worth of back rent. Generally, the limit will be $15,000 per housing unit.

This money can be used to cover overdue rent or mortgage payments, as well as expenses such as utility bills, property repairs and billing late fees.

How can I get updates on the application process?

Instead of biding your time until the application goes live, you can fill out the interest form. County officials say they will use it to send you a reminder when the portal opens.