The Brief

The state of California is launching an investigation stemming from the Eaton Fire to determine whether race, age or disability discrimination were factors during the emergency response in the historically Black community of west Altadena.

“We'll be looking at whether the systems and structures at play contributed to a delay in the County’s evacuation notice and possible disparities in emergency response… , ” state Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Thursday.

The investigation follows reporting by the Los Angeles Times that found west Altadena received late evacuation alerts when compared to east Altadena. Eighteen of the 19 people who died in the fire lived in west Altadena, and nearly half of all black households in Altadena were lost, according to a fire survivors group.

The fire burned more than 14,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,000 structures.

The investigation is “a trailblazing move for civil rights and environmental justice,” the group Altadena for Accountability said in a statement.

Bonta said in the statement that residents in the community reported consistently — and the county-commissioned McChrystal Group After-Action Report confirmed — that west Altadena did not receive any emergency evacuation orders until at least nine hours after the Eaton Fire ignited.

Reaction to the announcement

Fire survivors welcomed the investigation.

“Losing my home and seeing my parents lose theirs was devastating,” said fire survivor Gina Clayton-Johnson. “I’m heartened today knowing that we have a real pathway to answers and accountability for what went wrong. This is a big day for all fire survivors today and victims of climate change disasters in the future.”

The civil rights investigation is expected to assess Los Angeles County’s emergency response through a disparate impact analysis — meaning it does not have to find discriminatory intent in order to prove violations of civil rights protections occurred.

“There is a long history of marginalized communities receiving less support during times of crisis," said fire survivor Shimica Gaskins. “This may be the most consequential act taken by any official in California for accountability since the fires ravaged Los Angeles.”

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, welcomed the inquiry as well.

“The concerns raised by residents of West Altadena deserve to be taken seriously and examined thoroughly,” Barger said in a statement. “If there were gaps, we must acknowledge them. If there were disparities, we must confront them. And if systems need to change, we must change them.”

County Fire Department response

Bonta named the L.A. County Fire Department as one focus of the investigation.

In a statement, the Fire Department said the county “has fully cooperated in all independent reviews, and none have found any discriminatory or structural bias in the County’s response.”

“We believe the Attorney General will find that emergency responders did the best they could under unprecedented and extreme conditions as they fought to save lives, homes, and businesses,” the statement read.

The department said it would fully cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation.

Nithya Raman turned the tide in the L.A. mayoral race by winning over large swathes of the city that voted for Karen Bass in 2022, according to an LAist analysis of election data.

Bass was a favorite in many areas that voted for Rick Caruso when she faced him in 2022. She held onto a majority of voters across South L.A., but lost much of her previous support.

The switchup came after Bass — a veteran in progressive politics — took a relatively-conservative approach on issues like policing and high-density housing developments compared to Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority told its employees Friday to stop work, shut down their computers and stay off agency systems while it looked into “a potential security issue affecting our systems,” its chief executive confirmed to LAist.

That shutdown order was still in place Monday evening, according to a LAHSA official not authorized to speak on the record.

Gita O'Neill, the agency’s interim CEO, told LAist on Friday evening that the agency did not “yet have enough information to say definitively whether any sensitive or confidential personal information was accessed.”

She has not answered questions about whether or not services for unhoused people are disrupted.

Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of LAHSA, speaks ahead of the annual homeless count on Jan. 20, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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LAist

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LAHSA holds highly sensitive information collected from people experiencing homelessness in the region. The agency oversees the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, which includes unhoused people’s names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and disabilities, as well as self-reported mental health and substance abuse history, income sources and domestic violence history.

In a statement Monday, LAHSA said it had taken its internal computer systems offline “as a precaution” and “engaged outside cybersecurity specialists to investigate the nature and scope of the incident.” The statement, sent on O'Neill's behalf by outside public relations strategist Trevor Daley, continued to call it “a potential cybersecurity incident.”

The agency is “taking steps to maintain essential operations,” the statement added, saying LAHSA “remains open” while the investigation continues. It said the agency is working with its technical and legal teams.

What staff were told

Friday’s email to "Team LAHSA" carried the subject line "URGENT: Log Off and Shut Down for the Week." LAist obtained a copy, and O'Neill confirmed by text message that she had sent it.

“As a precaution while we look into a potential security issue affecting our systems, we're asking all staff to stop work and take their machines offline for the remainder of today and through the weekend,” the email said.

It told employees to “Log off and shut down your LAHSA computer” and not to log back in or connect to LAHSA systems, including email, “until you receive an all-clear from us.”

The email also told staff to report anything “unusual” before shutting down, such as “files renaming on their own, unexpected pop-ups or messages.”

What LAHSA leadership has said

In a texted response to LAist on Friday evening, O'Neill said she asked staff to take their computers offline “out of an abundance of caution” while the agency’s IT team assessed the situation.

“Our IT team is actively reviewing the situation now and working to understand exactly what occurred and whether any information was affected,” she wrote. “Protecting people’s personal and confidential information is a top priority in that review.”

Leaders of three LAHSA-funded service providers told LAist on Monday afternoon that they had not received any communications from LAHSA about the potential cybersecurity issue. All three use the HMIS system that holds unhoused people’s personal details.

Previous attacks against another LA housing agency

Another L.A. housing agency was previously hit by cyberattacks. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles — a separate agency known as HACLA — has said hackers got inside its network in 2022 and may have accessed people’s names, Social Security numbers, financial accounts numbers and medical information.

Two years later, HACLA was breached again, according to an official notice, with hackers potentially accessing names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and phone numbers.

LAist reporter Aaron Schrank contributed reporting to this story.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced Monday that she is running to be the county’s first elected chief executive. Horvath is the only candidate so far to enter the race, which is set for 2028.

The new executive post will take the place of the county’s appointed CEO and implement key priorities of the county Board of Supervisors. The executive will oversee the county budget, which is currently roughly $50 billion, and labor relations with more than 100,000 employees.

Horvath was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2022 and was re-elected in June to another four-year term. She represents the county’s 3rd District, which covers the San Fernando Valley and parts of the Westside and Central Los Angeles. She is a former mayor of West Hollywood.

The supervisor made her announcement Monday via social media and her campaign website. She called the race a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

The backstory

Voters created the position in 2024 when they approved Measure G, which was proposed by Supervisors Horvath and Janice Hahn.

Among other changes, the measure allowed the Board of Supervisors to expand from five to nine members by 2030 and established an independent Ethics Commission, which held its first meeting last month.

The pushback

On Monday, Supervisor Kathryn Barger issued a statement saying she believed it was “premature” to campaign for the new county executive position when it remained unclear whether “the office itself is constitutional.”

Barger pointed to questions raised by former federal judge Stephen Larson about whether California’s Constitution allows an elected county executive to veto board decisions, control county contracts and take on powers state law currently gives the Board of Supervisors.

“Moving forward with an office that would fundamentally change how Los Angeles County is governed, without first resolving these questions, is putting the cart before the horse,” Barger said in her statement. “We need clarity.”

The primary election is scheduled for March 7, 2028.