A man's shirt and sticker are displayed at the Billionaire Tax Now booth at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026.
(
Jeff Chiu
/
AP
)
Topline:
Want to know who’s who in Republican politics? Look no further than the megadonors bankrolling California’s voter ID initiative.
About Prop 39: California voters currently need a driver’s license and Social Security number to register to vote but not when they cast their ballots. If Prop. 39 passes, voters who mail their ballots would have to write the last four digits of their Social Security or other government-issued number on their ballots.
Prop 39 funders: Illinois billionaire packing supply magnate Richard Uihlein, who has poured tens of millions of dollars into conservative causes, has contributed $17 million to the campaign for Proposition 39, a GOP-backed ballot measure to require voters to show a driver’s license or other government ID to vote. Uihlein is joined by Southern California businessman Steven Bray, who loaned the campaign more than $3 million and gave $50,000 outright. The right-wing political group Reform California, tech entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan are also major donors. Combined, they have helped the campaign rake in more than $28 million — $11 million more than their opponents a month from Election Day.
Why it matters: Uihlein’s involvement and that of other deep-pocketed Republican donors is a signal that conservatives view Prop. 39 as a test of support for future battleground states in the broader push by President Donald Trump to tighten voter restrictions. Proponents point out that 36 states request or require voters to show some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Want to know who’s who in Republican politics? Look no further than the megadonors bankrolling California’s voter ID initiative.
Illinois billionaire packing supply magnate Richard Uihlein, who has poured tens of millions of dollars into conservative causes, has contributed $17 million to the campaign for Proposition 39, a GOP-backed ballot measure to require voters to show a driver’s license or other government ID to vote.
Uihlein’s involvement and that of other deep-pocketed Republican donors is a signal that conservatives view Prop. 39 as a test of support for future battleground states in the broader push by President Donald Trump to tighten voter restrictions.
Uihlein is joined by Southern California businessman Steven Bray, who loaned the campaign more than $3 million and gave $50,000 outright. The right-wing political group Reform California, tech entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan are also major donors. Combined, they have helped the campaign rake in more than $28 million — $11 million more than their opponents a month from Election Day.
Prop. 39’s supporters argue that requiring ID at polling places will ensure California’s elections are secure, and say the mandate is no different from needing an ID to fly on a plane or buy alcohol. Proponents also point out that 36 states request or require voters to show some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California voters currently need a driver’s license and Social Security number to register to vote but not when they cast their ballots. If Prop. 39 passes, voters who mail their ballots would have to write the last four digits of their Social Security or other government-issued number on their ballots.
It’s a long-awaited moment for the state’s weak Republican Party which has fought for decades to put a voter ID measure on the ballot in deep blue California.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican, created Reform California and is spearheading the initiative. The freshman San Diego lawmaker’s group funded the ballot operation that collected more than a million signatures to qualify the measure after similar proposals failed in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
Common Cause and other voting rights groups that oppose the measure fear Prop. 39 would unnecessarily block from voting citizens who can’t find or don’t have a government-issued ID. They argue that this would disproportionately impact, and unfairly penalize, people who recently moved, changed their last name or are low income — and other groups who historically have supported Democrats.
Civil rights advocates also argue the measure is unnecessary because voter fraud is rare.
“You are more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to commit voter fraud in a U.S. election,” California League of Women Voters executive director Jenny Farrell said. “There’s no need to add on these additional burdens and security checkpoints in California.”
Despite numerous studies showing there is no widespread evidence of voter fraud in U.S. elections, Claremont McKenna College political scientist John Pitney said such claims have circulated for decades in far-right circles.
Attempts to constrict voter laws through ballot measures have increased in some states ever since the expansion of voting rights to African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.
But fears about voter fraud accelerated during the first Trump administration when the president falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen. Shortly after, DeMaio and other GOP lawmakers introduced unsuccessful bills to tighten voter restrictions before he pivoted to orchestrating a citizen-led ballot initiative last year.
“Recently Trump has promoted the idea that large numbers of undocumented people are voting, for which there isn’t any evidence,” Pitney said.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio announces that supporters of the CA Voter ID Initiative will submit more than 1.3 million signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2026 ballot during a press conference at the west steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 3, 2026. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersDemocrats bankrolling the opposition to Prop. 39 are also a who’s who of California politics.
The state Democratic Party is by far the largest contributor at nearly $5.5 million, followed by the Sonoma-area Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria with $2 million.
Longtime Democratic donors Patty Quillin, a film producer and wife of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Quinn Delaney, a real estate investor and philanthropist, have each pitched in $1.5 million. Labor heavyweights such as the Service Employees International Union have contributed $1 million.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas have created a joint committee to raise money for the No campaign and U.S. Sen Alex Padilla is stumping at events.
Nearly 90% of Californians now vote by mail, according to the secretary of state’s office. That means the vast majority of voters would be required to write their Social Security or driver’s license number on their ballot should the initiative pass.
Many people aren’t going to be comfortable with that, No on 39 campaign spokesperson Tenoch Flores said.
“This is about creating new avenues to reject valid mail ballots,” Flores said.
“Yes on 39” spokesperson Meredith Shields told CalMatters that no one from the campaign could be made available for an interview. DeMaio declined an interview with CalMatters for this story. Uihlein did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment.
The biggest donor
Megadonor Uihlein and his wife, founders of the Wisconsin-based packaging company Uline, have poured millions into the Restoration of America PAC, a super PAC that frequently bankrolls Republican candidates in Illinois and Wisconsin. The Uihleins have donated $35 million to the PAC this year alone, and Prop. 39 is the latest target in their effort to fund agenda-setting conservative causes.
Shanahan, an attorney and the former wife of Google executive Sergey Brin, has funneled $370,000 into the Yes campaign, while the Winklevoss brothers have each contributed $250,000.
The interest from the ultra-wealthy in Prop. 39 is a sign that the GOP could be looking to replicate a similar playbook in toss-up states, Sonoma State University political science Professor David McCuan said.
Republican proponents want to see how well or poorly voter ID does in Democratic-heavy California. If it does better than expected, that might mean a similar ballot measure could be fairly popular in more moderate battleground states, such as Michigan,Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.
“There is a spillover effect if you do better than expected, even if you lose,” McCuan said.
Election security becomes about Trump
Several Republican states moved to expand voter restrictions after the 2020 election, including Wyoming, Kentucky and Oklahoma. And while voter sentiment toward Trump is at historic lows, the GOP was surprisingly successful at getting the voter ID measure on the California ballot.
The “Yes on 39” TV campaign has begun airing ads distancing the measure's supporters from Trump, while the No campaign released an ad airing in the Bay Area featuring images of Trump and characterizations of Prop. 39 as a “power grab."
It’ll likely still be a tough road ahead for the Yes campaign. The default position for most voters is “no” on ballot propositions, meaning supporters of the measure will have to persuade enough voters to agree with them.
An April poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showed Californians broadly support requiring voters to present identification at the polls, but it found that support dipped below 50% when respondents were given specific details about the measure, such as that it’s meant to combat alleged voter fraud. A Public Policy Institute of California poll in September found support for Prop. 39 has dropped to 43%.
While this could be effective at turning out liberal voters, it’s unclear how even a hot-button issue will be enough to get Republicans out in a midterm election cycle with an unpopular president.
“It’s hard to pass a red-coded measure in a blue wave election,” Pitney said.
Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published November 3, 2026 5:00 AM
From left to right, Daniel Moisés, Elisa Nixon, Julia Ahumada Grob and Rasheed Ali on stage in the David Henry Hwang Theater in downtown L.A.
(
Mykle Parker
/
Mykle Parker
)
Topline:
Eaton Fire survivors recently took their experiences to the stage. It's part of a national tour of disaster survivors putting on similar events in their own communities.
Why it matters: In a play by and for fire survivors, longtime Altadena residents Gayle Nicholls-Ali and Rasheed Ali turn interviews with displaced neighbors into a script for a play.
Read on ... for more about what the performance meant to the people who made it happen.
Altadena artist and muralist Austin Scott is painting a portrait in a courtyard outside the Union Center for the Arts in Little Tokyo. As a steady stream of people walk in, he sketches some details of the face of a woman holding a bouquet of flowers. She wears a wide-brimmed purple hat, her eyes are closed, her face tilts upward toward sunbeams.
Her name is Evelyn McClendon. The retired Pasadena school bus driver was the first victim whose body was found in the rubble of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
“It’s going to be a portrait of her face made up of little portraits of all the other faces of the people we lost in the fire,” Scott says.
Something like a memorial, he says, for the 19 people who perished.
Altadena muralist and artist Austin Scott paints a portrait of Evelyn McClendon, the first identified victim of the Eaton Fire.
(
Erin Stone
/
LAist
)
In front of the building entrance, as people eat tacos and chat, Emeka Chukwurah starts the music.
“Can you see it? We rising up,” he raps as his father, Onochie, and members of their band play drums, guitar and traditional African instruments. They specialize in Nigerian highlife fusion music.
Chukwurah lost his Altadena business, Rhythms of the Village, in the fire. The store sold goods sourced from countries across Africa and hosted drum, dance and Nigerian language classes.
They’re finally about to reopen in a temporary space.
“What we went through is life-changing. It was very traumatic,” Chukwurah says. “But to turn something so traumatic into triumphant moments like these and create new memories, I'm truly grateful for how far we have come.”
Emeka Chukwurah lost his business, Rhythms of the Village, in the Eaton Fire. He's close to reopening in a temporary space.
(
Erin Stone
/
LAist
)
Putting real experiences on stage
The idea for tonight’s play was born after the Eaton Fire, when photographer Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband, Rasheed, returned to Altadena after a trip to the Bahamas. Their home and community of 30 years were gone.
So they sought out their displaced neighbors. Gayle photographed them. The two collected more than 20 hours of interviews. After the fire, during mutual aid efforts, they happened to meet Sunder Ganglani, the artistic director for Cornerstone Theater Company. With Ganglani’s help, they turned the interview transcripts into the play’s script.
Union Center for the Arts is the theater home of East West Players, considered the nation's first Asian Pacific American theater company.
(
Mykle Parker
/
Mykle Parker
)
“And so the four speakers on stage, all of whom are fire survivors, end up speaking around 20 different people, you know, from every walk of life,” Ganglani says.
Eventually, the nonprofit Extreme Weather Survivors, which connects disaster survivors with each other, got in touch as well. The play became a part of a national tour of similar events hosted by disaster survivors across the country ahead of the midterms.
On this October evening, the crowd settles into the seats of the David Henry Hwang Theater. Gayle Nicholls-Ali takes the stage to applause.
“Tonight is a chance to see one another more fully, to feel something together, to remember that we still belong to Altadena even if we're not living there right at the moment,” she says.
The show begins
The lights go down. Four actors walk onto the stage, one by one.
“My name is Rasheed. My name is Francesca. Shakira. My name is Sam. Darina. My name is Sunny.”
As they speak the stories, Nicholls-Ali rotates pictures of the people she interviewed, projected onto sheets hung behind the actors.
The performers onstage during "From Ashes We Gather."
(
Mykle Parker
/
Mykle Parker
)
The building that houses this theater — the Union Center for the Arts — has been privy to some of the biggest events in Los Angeles history. It was a church for Japanese Americans before their mass incarceration during World War II, then a community center for Black Americans during the Great Migration. It was witness to racial attacks known as the Zoot Suit Riots, and was damaged by the Northridge earthquake.
Today, the art space and theater continues to be a place to process pain, to find refuge.
Like the actors in the play. All of them are fire survivors.
Their voices become a chorus with phrases repeated by survivors.
“Driving back to Altadena for the first time was really chimney after chimney after chimney…”
“They killed 19 of our neighbors.”
“This is our generational wealth. We don't want to lose that.”
The questions they were constantly asked: “How are you? Where are you? What's going on? Were you affected?”
Rasheed Ali performs the piece he composed for the play.
(
Mykle Parker
/
Mykle Parker
)
At the close, the actors exit one by one. Rasheed Ali is alone on stage. The musician and composer sits at the keyboard and plays a piano piece telling the story of Altadena before, during and after the fire.
At the end of the night, some special guests take the stage, including Zaire Calvin, the brother of Evelyn McClendon, whose portrait was being painted earlier. He performs a rap he wrote with his cousin. The show ends with Medusa, who grew up in Altadena and is a hip-hop legend who has collaborated with icons like Tupac Shakur, Erykah Badu and Common.
A healing moment
Gayle Nicholls-Ali thanks the crowd at the end of the show. At left, Zaire Calvin looks on.
(
Mykle Parker
/
Mykle Parker
)
After the show, as everyone packs up, Rasheed Ali is reflective.
“For me, it was a breakthrough,” he says. “The fire has a paralyzing effect on your creativity.”
Gayle Nicholls-Ali feels the same.
“I have not been able to feel creative because this fire is like a big knot in your stomach that you can't get rid of,” she says. “And so this helps to unknot the knot.”
Not just for her and Rasheed, she hopes, but for their community too.
Vote centers are open until 8 p.m. People who are in line by 8 p.m. are legally allowed to cast their ballots.
(
Apu Gomes
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
All vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to vote in person or drop off your vote-by-mail ballot. If you're in line by 8 p.m., you are legally allowed to cast your ballot.
What's next: Keep in mind that in tight races, particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day. The first batch of results (typically ballots received before Election Day) will be posted shortly after the polls close.
Election Day is here, and with it comes your last chance to vote in the 2026 general election.
So far, a lot of people have cast ballots. Early voting turnout in L.A. and Orange counties has been higher than the previous midterm cycle in 2022.
All vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for in-person voting or to drop off your vote-by-mail ballot — in L.A. County, there are more than 600 to choose from. Remember: If you’re in line to vote by 8 p.m., stay in line. You’re legally allowed to cast your ballot if you get in line by the 8 p.m. deadline.
Tip: You aren’t required to bring your vote-by-mail ballot with you — those get voided during the check-in process.
If you haven’t registered yet or you’re worried you’ll have an issue, election workers can help you. California allows same-day registration. (Check your registration status here.) If you register at the same time that you vote, you’ll cast a provisional ballot. Officials will verify your registration information and count all ballots of voters who are eligible.
You can also drop your ballot in an official ballot drop box anywhere in the state before 8 p.m.
If you prefer to mail your ballot in, just make sure it’s postmarked by Tuesday. No postage is required. (Pro tip: If you’re mailing your ballot, take it into the post office to ensure it’s postmarked on time. It'll be counted as long as it arrives within 7 days of Election Day.)
You can also designate another person to return your completed ballot, as long as they aren’t paid. Make sure they fill out the envelope as directed for another person returning your ballot.
Here’s a map of ballot drop boxes near Metro stations.
(
Metro
)
Lyft is offering discounted rides with the code “VOTE26.” You’ll get 50% off up to $10.
What to do if you can't get to your local vote center
Not to worry — if you’re out of town, you can drop off your ballot at an official ballot drop box or polling location anywhere in California. It will be routed to the correct county. There’s no need to drive back to the vote center closest to where you live.
The same goes for voting by mail. Remember: If you have a vote-by-mail ballot, you can get it postmarked at any post office. As long as it’s postmarked by Tuesday and arrives within 7 days of Election Day, it will be counted.
What to do if you make a mistake on your ballot
If you make an error on your vote-by-mail ballot, you can draw a line through it and make your correction.
You can also go to any vote center, request a new ballot and vote in person.
How to sign your ballot
Make sure to sign your ballot envelope with the signature that matches what your county registrar has on file, which is probably the signature on your driver’s license or state ID. Otherwise, your ballot might get flagged. If that happens, you’ll be notified by mail and will have a chance to fix it.
What to do if you come across an unfamiliar ballot item
It’s not required to vote on every item. If you haven’t had time to research, it’s OK to skip a race or ballot measure you’re unsure about — or several of them if you like. Whatever votes you do cast will still be counted, even if parts of your ballot are left blank.
Follow LAist’s Voter Game Plan. We’ll keep you updated as results come in after 8 p.m.
When will my ballot be counted?
Keep in mind that in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day.
Election results will start posting shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m.
(
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
)
In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote-by-mail ballots received before Election Day (8:30 to 8:45 p.m.), followed by early votes cast at vote centers before Election Day (8:45 to 9:00 p.m.), then votes cast in-person on Election Day. This process is expected to wrap up in the early hours of Nov. 4. Then, additional results will be released following a schedule you can see on the county's site. In California, ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3 are counted toward the results as long as they arrive within seven days of the election.
County election officials must certify election results by Dec. 3.
If your mail-in ballot is rejected for any reason (like a missing or mismatched signature), your county registrar must contact you to give you a chance to fix it.
If you come across any other challenges, be sure to let us know. We have reporters out across L.A. County, along with staff standing by to answer your questions.
What questions do you have about this election?
You ask, and we'll answer: Whether it's about who's funding the campaigns or how to track your ballot, we're here to help you understand the 2026 election.
Editor's note: A version of this story was first published in 2022, and we continue to update it for subsequent elections.
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published November 2, 2026 7:00 PM
The Skid Row Care Campus is L.A. County's main homeless services hub.
(
Aaron Schrank
/
LAist
)
Topline:
L.A. County quietly stopped handing out syringes and pipes at its Skid Row Care Campus in August and has ended its contract with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, the nonprofit that ran harm reduction there, effective Tuesday.
Why it matters: The goal of these programs is to keep people who use drugs alive and free of infections like HIV and hepatitis, while working to connect them with services including treatment. The pause comes amid a growing cluster of HIV cases in Skid Row.
Why now: The county says the temporary pause stems “in part” from concerns raised by community stakeholders and local businesses.
What’s next: Homeless Health Care Los Angeles is laying off 134 workers. New providers have rehired many of them, the county says.
Los Angeles County quietly stopped handing out syringes and pipes at the county’s flagship services hub in Skid Row in August, and has now terminated the contract of the nonprofit that ran harm reduction programs there, the Department of Health Services told LAist.
The pause — which county officials said is temporary — began in August, “in part due to concerns that community stakeholders and local businesses raised to County leadership,” according to a statement provided to LAist by Thomas Lynch, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Health Services.
The changes come amid a growing cluster of HIV cases in Skid Row and mounting pressure from the Trump administration and neighboring businesses on L.A. programs that distribute drug paraphernalia. Critics argue the programs enable drug addiction and contribute to crime in the area.
The goal of these programs is to keep people who use drugs alive and free of infections like HIV and hepatitis, while working to connect them with services including treatment.
In late August, the county Department of Public Health identified a cluster of HIV cases among people who live in and around Skid Row. As of Sunday, 15 people had been linked to it, 11 of them women, according to Becky Schlikerman, a spokesperson for that department.
In a statement, Schlikerman said both substance use and sexual transmission are being investigated as possible factors, and that the department is working with street medicine teams and harm reduction groups to expand HIV testing and prevention in the area.
“There is an active HIV outbreak in Skid Row, so reducing safe injection supplies to people who use drugs in this moment seems particularly dangerous,” said Ricky Bluthenthal, distinguished professor of population and public health sciences at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
The Skid Row Care Campus still distributes naloxone — the opioid overdose reversal drug — wound care supplies and safe sex supplies, Lynch said, but “distribution of syringes and pipes is currently on pause.”
He also said they have not set a date for syringe services to resume, that the pause applies only at the campus, and that staff are referring people to syringe programs elsewhere.
The state lists 24 authorized syringe services programs in L.A. County, according to the California Department of Public Health. Two are based in or next to Skid Row.
Harm reduction services are provided across much of L.A. County, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
Darren Willett, director of the Center for Harm Reduction in Skid Row, in September of 2021.
(
Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
/
via Getty Images
)
Provider layoffs
The county has also terminated its contract with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles effective Tuesday, county officials said. The county announced the change in an Aug. 28 statement, the same month the syringe and pipe pause began.
Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, one of L.A.’s best-known harm reduction providers, notified the state in September that it would permanently lay off 134 workers — including 117 employees at the Skid Row Care Campus — effective Tuesday, Nov. 3, according to state Employment Development Department records.
“Right now, HHCLA is being forced to say goodbye to some deeply valued staff and reduce services that some of LA’s most marginalized rely on every day,” the nonprofit wrote in an Instagram post in late September.
In the same post, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles said its jobs program for people in Skid Row “no longer exists.” The nonprofit said the program offered “real income, real pathways forward for people too often shut out of opportunity.”
The county is bringing in nonprofits St. Joseph Center and LA Community Health Project instead, officials said. Meanwhile, Social Model Recovery Systems will expand its existing services and Wesley Health Centers will continue providing healthcare on site.
In statements provided to LAist, L.A. County's health services and homelessness departments described the shake-up as “contractor changes” made as part of an effort to “strengthen operations.” Officials are updating campus protocols, “strengthening on-site safety” and expanding substance use treatment and healthcare, according to those statements.
County officials said they are committed to a transition that avoids disruption for people using the campus.
“Providers are hiring from within the Skid Row community and have worked hard to retain staff who were working for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles,” Lynch told LAist.
Those providers have hired more than 80 people so far, and nearly 90% previously worked for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, according to the department.
Representatives for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles did not respond to repeated requests for interview or comment.
The nonprofit has worked in Skid Row since the 1980s and ran the campus’s harm reduction and overdose response programs. It celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
A group of Skid Row community members and laid-off campus workers calling itself the Skid Row Coalition for Community Safety has launched a campaign saying L.A. County is “playing politics with people’s lives.”
“Supervisor Hilda Solis and LA County chose to cowardly abandon the recommendations of public health experts and the Skid Row community,” the group said in a statement on its website.
County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents the area and authored the 2022 motion that created the Skid Row Action Plan, told LAist in a statement that the decision to end Homeless Health Care Los Angeles’ contract was made jointly by the county’s health services and homelessness departments.
“Some services have been paused to allow the incoming provider to onboard staff and establish operations,” Solis said. “This is a necessary part of coordinating the transition.”
“I am proud of the Skid Row Action Plan and its commitment to expanding low-barrier services, health care, and pathways to housing,” Solis’ statement continued. “That commitment remains unchanged.”
Solis completes her final term next month and is on Tuesday’s ballot running for California’s 38th Congressional District, which covers parts of eastern Los Angeles and Orange counties but not Skid Row.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Solis represents Skid Row and authored a 2022 motion that created the Skid Row Action Plan.
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
Criticism of the campus
The Skid Row Care Campus opened in spring 2025. County officials call it the first community-designed homeless services hub in the nation.
The campus logs more than 2,700 visits a day, a count that includes repeat visitors, according to the county. It costs about $26 million a year to operate. Funding is secured through June 2027. The budget for the following fiscal year has not been finalized.
The campus in the heart of Skid Row drew scrutiny this year. In May, Fox 11 aired a segment featuring Estela Lopez, executive director of the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, who called the campus a “meth mansion.” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told the TV station she was concerned about problems at the campus.
LAPD responded 693 times to the two blocks around it between January and late May, and recorded four homicides there in the first four months of 2026, according to LAPD figures first reported by Fox 11.
On Oct. 8, federal agents and LAPD officers carried out a drug sweep dubbed “Operation Save Skid Row,” centered about a block from the campus. Federal prosecutors charged 28 people and arrested 23, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In July 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to stop funding “so-called ‘harm reduction’” efforts. In April, federal health officials barred grantees from using federal money for pipes and drug test strips, on top of a longstanding ban on federal funds for syringes.
L.A. County officials have not said whether federal policy played a role in the pause. The campus is funded through opioid settlement money, Medi-Cal managed care plans, the state and the county — not federal grants, according to officials.
County officials and employees have credited harm reduction programs with helping drive down overdose deaths, which fell 6% in 2025 — the third straight annual decline — according to the county Department of Public Health.
A person walks past an encampment of unhoused people in the Skid Row community. Skid Row is home to thousands of people who are either experiencing homelessness on the streets or living in shelters.
(
Mario Tama/Getty Images
/
Getty Images North America
)
Harm reduction’s track record
Harm reduction programs including needle and syringe exchanges started in L.A. more than three decades ago in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. L.A. County declared a local public health emergency in 2000 to authorize syringe exchange under a new state law, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
People who use fentanyl in L.A. have increasingly shifted from injecting it to smoking it, according to a 2025 study co-authored by Bluthenthal, with USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
Bluthenthal called the recent syringe and pipe distribution pause at the Skid Row Care Campus “obviously a setback.”
“Harm reduction programs, through providing social and material support, have been one of the most consistent pathways to treatment for people who are currently using illicitly purchased drugs,” he said.
In a statement on the pause, officials at L.A. County’s Department of Health Services said people who receive syringe services are three times more likely to reduce or stop using drugs and five times more likely to enter substance use treatment.
John Raphling, an organizer with the Los Angeles Community Action Network based in Skid Row, said his group is “extremely concerned that the county is cutting these services” and that Skid Row residents “were not at all consulted.”
“Harm reduction services, like those provided by Homeless Health Care, help save lives, prevent the spread of disease, and allow people to survive and work through their recovery,” Raphling said.
Some Skid Row residents see it differently — including Don Garza, who has lived in the neighborhood for 27 years and resides in a single-room-occupancy building there.
“It’s not helping anyone,” Garza told LAist. “It exponentially accelerates the overdose deaths.”
“The part of harm reduction that we still need is the overdose prevention, but without the pipes and the needles,” Garza said. “We still need the Narcan because Skid Row is not going anywhere, and people are still gonna OD, and they're gonna die.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a last-minute request from the Department of Justice to wade into its unprecedented feud with California over the state's voter rolls.
What happened: The court denied taking up the Justice Department's appeal today, just hours after it was filed. Election Day is tomorrow.
Why now: The appeal was the department's latest foray into state election administration, which a federal judge referred to last week as "a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials."
About the claims: The DOJ says it has identified 20,000 "likely" noncitizens on California's voter roll whose ballots should not be counted until their citizenship can be verified. Over the weekend, data scientists at University of California Los Angeles' Voting Rights Project were granted access to the DOJ's list through a court order in another lawsuit and found that 42% of the names on the list do not appear on California's current voter roll. That analysis also found naturalized citizens on the DOJ's list.
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a last-minute request from the Department of Justice to wade into its unprecedented feud with California over the state's voter rolls.
The court denied taking up the Justice Department's appeal on Monday evening, just hours after it was filed. Election Day is Tuesday.
The appeal was the department's latest foray into state election administration, which a federal judge referred to last week as "a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials."
After that judge, David Carter, a Clinton appointee, and a divided 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected the DOJ's request to order California to set aside and stop processing the ballots of thousands of people, the DOJ sought injunctive relief from the high court.
The DOJ says it has identified 20,000 "likely" noncitizens on California's voter roll whose ballots should not be counted until their citizenship can be verified.
Courts so far have sided with California and Los Angeles County's arguments that the federal government's list is unreliable, and that creating a novel system to segregate ballots while voting is already underway is infeasible.
"[T]here is a material risk that granting the United States its requested relief would result in disenfranchisement and could jeopardize the County's entire election," 9th Circuit Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, wrote in their Friday decision rejecting the Justice Department's emergency request.
The two judges cited longstanding legal precedent, known as the Purcell principle, that election rules should not be altered on the eve of an election, as well as the fact that the Constitution gives states authority to run elections. The opinion also cited the National Voter Registration Act, which bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election.
The panel's third judge, Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented.
The actual number of ballots in dispute is likely much smaller than 20,000, since county election officials have found that many of the people on DOJ's list did not have active voter registrations and were not mailed ballots.
Over the weekend, data scientists at University of California Los Angeles' Voting Rights Project were granted access to the DOJ's list through a court order in another lawsuit and found that 42% of the names on the list do not appear on California's current voter roll. That analysis also found naturalized citizens on the DOJ's list.
The Supreme Court's refusal to intervene comes as the Justice Department has been escalating its feud with California election officials.
In recent weeks, the Department of Justice has sent subpoenas to election officials in California, and reminded officials that they could be criminally prosecuted for allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots.
A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday barring the Trump administration from threatening, intimidating or coercing election officials to demand they stop processing the ballots of registered voters that the federal government alleges are ineligible to vote. The federal government has appealed the order.
Copyright 2026 NPR
