Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is Relativity Space’s new CEO at Long Beach startup

• March 12, 2025

For a decade, Eric Schmidt ran Google as chief executive and as the “adult” in the room, mentoring the internet company’s young founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 2011, Schmidt handed control of Google back to Page. He had not taken another CEO job since.

But on Monday, Schmidt told employees of Relativity Space, a rocket startup based at Boeing’s former C-17 manufacturing plant in Long Beach, that he had made a significant investment and taken a controlling stake in the company, and would take over as CEO, two people with knowledge of the meeting said.

Schmidt, 69, succeeds Relativity Space’s current chief and co-founder, Timothy Ellis, the two people said. It is unclear how much money Schmidt has invested in the startup.

Relativity Space is one of a crop of startups angling to manufacture rockets that can carry smaller payloads of around 2 tons or less, up to low to medium Earth orbit. Some of these companies focus on building cheaper, reusable rockets to launch commercial payloads — usually satellites — into space for a fraction of the cost of legacy manufacturers that use pricier, disposable rockets.

The aim would partly be to take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the dominant rocket maker. Relativity Space has also said it has a long-term goal of creating an industrial base on Mars.

Ellis, who once worked at Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, founded Relativity Space in 2016 with a former SpaceX employee, Jordan Noone, on the premise that more could be done to bring down the costs of building rockets, using technologies like 3D printers, automated robotics and artificial intelligence.

The company has raised close to $2 billion at an estimated valuation of $4 billion to $6 billion from investors such as Coatue, BlackRock, Bond, Fidelity and Mark Cuban, among others, according to data compiled by PitchBook.

In recent years, Relativity Space has run into challenges. It launched its small Terran 1 rocket once, in 2023, and it failed soon after liftoff. A month later, Relativity Space announced it would retire Terran 1 to focus on the Terran R, a larger rocket that would compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The startup has moved away from focusing entirely on 3D printed materials and has begun incorporating more traditionally made parts in building its rockets.

At the same time, Relativity Space faces stiff competition. The company, which has said it plans to launch the Terran R in 2026, could by then face many rivals including the New Glenn, the orbital rocket from Blue Origin; Vulcan by United Launch Alliance; Neutron by Rocket Lab; and the Medium Launch Vehicle by Firefly Aerospace, a Texas startup that landed a spacecraft on the moon last week.

By late last year, Relativity Space faced difficulties raising new funding, according to the two people with knowledge of the matter.

Schmidt, who holds a pilot’s license and has personal investments in the aerospace and defense industries, including drone research and AI, grew interested in Relativity Space in 2024, they said.

This year, he agreed to invest in the company through Hillspire, his family office investment firm, and continue supporting Relativity Space on the condition that he would take over day-to-day operations, the people said. Bloomberg reported Schmidt had invested in Relativity Space in January.

Schmidt will focus on building up operations and improving product and manufacturing execution, the people said. In Monday’s meeting with employees, he expressed his passion for the project, they said.

Despite the struggles, Relativity Space executives have expressed confidence in the company’s progress. The startup has noted milestones from its Terran 1 rocket, such as how it was the first time a 3D printed rocket had reached “max-q,” which is the point when the vehicle experiences the strongest stresses. Terran 1 also achieved stage separation, when the booster used for liftoff drops from the vehicle’s second stage.

It’s unclear how consequential these are, since the company has decided to move away from 3D printed materials, which will ultimately raise the cost of building rockets higher than previously expected.

After the Terran 1 launch, Relativity Space reached close to $3 billion in future launch contracts with customers, the two people familiar with the company said.

In 2022, before the Terran 1 failure, Relativity Space, collaborating with another startup named Impulse Space, announced an audacious plan to send the first private space mission to Mars.

At the time, Ellis acknowledged the plan was “at the edge of crazy.” He added that the mission, launching on a Terran R, could be ready in 2 1/2 years, when Mars and Earth were properly lined up. That window, in late 2024, passed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump administration resumes detention of immigrant families after Biden-era pause

• March 12, 2025

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, Associated Press

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration resumed family detention of immigrants last week in a South Texas facility after a Biden-era pause, a legal nonprofit group providing services to migrant families said Wednesday.

Fourteen immigrant families with children as young as one year old were in the detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio, according to RAICES, which provides services to families at the center. The families are originally from Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil.

Faisal Al-Juburi, the organization’s chief external affairs officer, said the families had been detained in the U.S. near the Mexican and Canadian borders. Some were in the U.S. for as little as 20 days and others for as long as about 10 years, Al-Juburi said. The nonprofit provided service to adult detainees at the center prior to last week’s shift in the center’s detention population when the adult detainees were moved out.

Both the Obama administration and Trump’s first administration detained families until their immigration cases played out. Trump severely curbed asylum and forcibly separated children from their parents at the border in a policy widely denounced as inhumane.

The practice of family detention was largely halted, but not abolished, during the Biden administration, which briefly considered restarting it in 2023.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Wednesday.

Geo Group, the private corporation that operates the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center, said the facility can hold up to 1,328 people in a statement issued Monday. It said its contract with the federal government runs through August 2029 and will generate about $79 million in revenue in its first year.

It’s the second facility planned for family detention. Last week, CoreCivic, a company that operates detention centers, announced it entered into a contract with ICE to hold immigrant families at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, with a capacity of 2,400 people.

Immigration advocates expressed concern for the welfare of children held in detention.

Dr. Alan Shapiro is a cofounder and chief strategy officer for Terra Firma National, which works to provide immigrant children and families access to healthcare and legal representation. Shapiro visited family detention centers under the first Trump administration and said detained children experienced behavioral regression, anger and thoughts of self-harm.

“We also heard about suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts from children in the facility themselves and other significant mental health concerns, including self-harm and eating disorders that were not present prior to detention,” Shapiro said.

​ Orange County Register 

SpaceX scrubs Crew-10 launch attempt delaying trip to the space station

• March 12, 2025

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The astronauts left behind on the International Space Station when NASA sent the Boeing Starliner home are expected to return to Earth in the coming days, but will have to wait at least one more day.

SpaceX scrubbed a Wednesday night launch attempt from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A because of a hydraulic issue on a clamp arm of the transporter erector apparatus that holds the Falcon 9 rocket up adjacent the launch tower.

The Crew-10 astronauts were sitting in Crew Dragon Endurance atop the rocket with just over 40 minutes to go before the planned launch. If SpaceX can solve the problem at the pad, the crew could come back for another launch attempt Thursday potentially at 7:26 p.m. or Friday at 7:03 p.m.

But it’s not decided yet if NASA and SpaceX can take advantage of those opportunities.

When it does launch, the mission marks the final portion of a long odyssey for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who docked at the space station last June for a planned eight-day stay, and have been there ever since. They could be home as early as Sunday, but NASA won’t announce target times until Crew-10 arrives to the station.

The pair were stranded by safety concerns with the Starliner, which returned to Earth without crew. Then their extended stay became a focus for President Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, leading to accelerated timing for the Crew-10 mission.

Heading to the space station are a pair of NASA astronauts, commander Anne McClain and pilot Nichole Ayers, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

The quartet got suited up and made the drive over from KSC’s Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building to the pad in a set of black Teslas after 4 p.m. making their way up the launch tower and climbing into their seats by 5 p.m.

SpaceX had reported the clamp issue early on and McClain had reported the crew is “go for launch.”

They’re set to arrive less than a day later to the space station where they will have a two-day handoff with the people they’re replacing.

That includes the duo that flew up last summer on Boeing Starliner’s Crew Flight Test, Wilmore and Williams. The pair arrived June 6, 2024, one day after launching from Cape Canaveral on the first human spaceflight of Boeing’s spacecraft.

“Honestly, I’m kind of most looking forward to breaking bread with those guys, talking to them, giving them big hugs,” McClain said.

Starliner suffered thruster failures and helium leaks on the way that ultimately led to NASA’s decision to send it home without Williams and Wilmore.

Instead, they joined the space station crew and were reassigned to fly home with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. That crew flew up in the Crew Dragon Freedom with two, instead of the normal four astronauts, in September to make room on the ride home for Wilmore and Williams.

Now they will join Crew-9 commander and NASA astronaut Nick Hague along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov with a departure as early as Sunday headed for a splashdown off the Florida coast.

During a pre-departure press conference last week, Williams said the most difficult part of their stay has probably been how their families have had to deal with it.

“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us, you know? We’re here. We have a mission. We’re just doing what we do every day,” she said. “Every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun. So I think the hardest part is, you know, having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we’re coming back.”

The decision to switch capsules and move up the pair’s return came shortly after SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced President Trump had tasked him with bringing them home “as soon as possible.”

NASA officials said discussion about the switch, though, was already in play at least a month before the Musk and Trump statements.

“But the president’s interests sure added energy to the conversation,” said NASA’s Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate. “It’s great to have a president who’s interested in what we’re doing.”

Musk later claimed SpaceX offered to fly up a specific rescue mission, but that was turned down by the Biden administration for political reasons. Bowersox, though, said NASA managers made their recommendation based on the mission needs and capability of Williams and Wilmore.

“We thought the plan that we came up with made a lot of sense, and that, especially for Butch and Suni, we know they’re experienced astronauts,” Bowersox said. “They’re great in space. We knew they’d be great additions to the crew and we knew that for most astronauts, spending extra time on orbit is really a gift, and we thought they’d probably enjoy their time there, so we thought it was a good way to go and for a lot of reasons.”

Steve Stich, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager, added that a lot of technical requirements were in play such as having the correct size spacesuits and seats for the pair.

“The best option was really the one that we’re embarking upon now,” Stich said. “It really was driven by that in conjunction with Butch and Suni being very experienced crew members.”

Wilmore and Williams will have spent 9½ months in space along with the unique experience of having flown on four spacecraft: Starliner and Crew Dragon as well as Russian Soyuz and space shuttle missions.

“We helped put it together. We’ve been up here seeing it change throughout all these years, do a lot of science up here.” Williams said. “I think just the fact that we’re living up here in this very unique place gives you an amazing perspective, not only, you know, out the window, obviously, but also just on how to solve problems.

“I don’t want to lose that spark of inspiration and that perspective when I leave, so I’m going to have to bottle it somehow.”

For the Crew-10 quartet, the mission marks the beginning of what is normally about a six-month stay on board with the Crew-11 mission slated to fly in late summer. They will join Expedition 73 on the station, which has had continued human presence since November 2000. It’s McClain and Onishi’s second spaceflight while Ayers and Peskov are rookies.

Ayers becomes the first of NASA’s most-recent class of astronauts, which includes Central Florida native Luke Delaney, to be assigned a spaceflight.

“It’s an honor to represent my class and be the first one, but I think that all of us were ready at the same time, and so it could have been any one of us that got picked,” Ayers said. “There was nothing but love for me when I got announced for this mission, and there has been nothing but love and support from my crewmates and my classmates this entire time training.”

McClain said she has been talking more often with Williams and Wilmore.

“We’re about to be housemates here in a few days. Their spirits are high,” she said. “Of course, they’re ready to come home, and of course we’re ready to launch. But the most important thing is that we do both of those things safely.”

She insisted they have the same mentality as she does when it comes to the importance of NASA’s mission at the station, calling it significant to scientific development and a proving ground for deep-space exploration.

“All of us take very serious our responsibility to be stewards of the International Space Station,” she said. “We simply cannot leave it uncrewed or undercrewed for any period of time.

“That is first and foremost on all of our minds when we go is that level of responsibility. And it’s certainly foremost on their minds.”

Stumping for the station’s importance comes adjacent comments from Musk who recently called for it to be deorbited as early as 2027 stating that it was no longer useful.

SpaceX and Boeing were both originally contracted to provide taxi service for NASA to the space station as part of the Commercial Crew Program, designed to end reliance on Russia and bring launches back to Florida. Delays have plagued Starliner, though, which is now at least five years behind SpaceX.

The launch of Crew-10 marks SpaceX’s 16th human spaceflight for its spacecraft since the Demo-2 mission in May 2020. That flight marked the first time U.S. astronauts launched from the U.S. since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

With the space station slated to end service after 2030, time is running out for NASA to certify Starliner so it can have a chance to fly alongside SpaceX for rotational crew missions.

“We’ll continue to work for certification toward the end of this year,” Stich said. “Whatever we do the Starliner vehicle will be crew capable.”

​ Orange County Register 

Months after re-sentencing hearing, Menendez brothers have parole board hearings on the books

• March 12, 2025

State parole boards will conduct separate hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez on June 13, then send their reports to Gov. Gavin Newsom to help him decide whether they should receive clemency.

“We will submit that report to the judge for the re-sentencing, and that will weigh in to our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application to support a commutation of this case,” Newsom said Tuesday on his podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom.”

The podcast was posted one day after Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that his office will oppose the release of the brothers from state prison, where they are serving life terms without the possibility of parole for the shotgun murders of their parents more than three decades ago.

Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, were convicted of the Aug. 20, 1989, killings of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in Beverly Hills.

Newsom called Hochman’s announcement “very significant,” but “it doesn’t fundamentally change the facts as it relates to the independent investigation in my office or the Board of Parole hearings.”

“It just changes the recommendation from … the previous DA in L.A. supporting it and one now with the current DA opposing it,” Newsom said.

Newsom said with the exception of brief clips on social media, he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them.”

“I just want to be influenced by the facts,” Newsom said.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings host Capitals in a showdown packed with drama

• March 12, 2025

In a game burgeoning with storylines and intrigue, the Kings will throw down with the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena

First, the Kings and Caps made a stunning summertime swap. The Kings sent beleaguered center Pierre-Luc Dubois and the bulk of his $68 million contract to Washington in exchange for goalie Darcy Kuemper, a former Stanley Cup winner with Colorado who’d slid down the depth chart in D.C.

Then, Matt Roy defected to the nation’s capital, after the Kings held onto him through last year’s trade deadline and, in turn, lost the defender in free agency for nothing.

Oh, yeah, and Washington winger Alex Ovechkin remained just nine goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s seemingly untouchable NHL record of 894 career tallies.

Presently, the Capitals have won five consecutive matches and are perched atop the NHL, tied with Winnipeg for the highest points total, while the Kings just won all three contests they endured in the span of just four nights, braving overtime, a division leader’s resilience and eight shorthanded situations.

In Tuesday’s game against the New York Islanders, the Kings had two power-play goals against taken off the board by video review, with their four-man units and, above all, Kuemper taking care of the rest. He has bounced back brilliantly in 2024-25, while the Capitals switched No. 1 netminders again, moving Charlie Lindgren behind Logan Thompson.

“Darcy is obviously a massive piece of our team. If he plays like [he did against the Islanders] every night, we have a chance to do something good,” said Phillip Danault, whose sixth goal of the season stood as the game-winner Tuesday.

For the Eastern Conference leaders, Roy has been as dependable as ever, but Dubois has shown he can not only skate backwards, but also make sharp 180-degree turns. After his least productive and most egregious full season in the NHL with the Kings last year, Dubois is now on track for his most successful campaign yet. His pace will blow him past his highest-scoring season overall, and he’s already set a career best in assists.

Few would be surprised that Roy led Washington defenders in plus-minus rating at +27, but Dubois’ +28 mark trails only breakout star Aliaksei Protas for the Caps. Protas was on Dubois’ wing Tuesday when the Capitals put up seven goals on the Ducks in a back-and-forth barn-burner. He netted a hat trick while Dubois picked up three points, including a goal assisted by Roy.

“I’m liking the guys I’m playing with … whoever it’s been this year,” Dubois said. “It’s been fun to be on this team. They’ve helped me a lot throughout the season and they keep helping me. It just makes my life easier, that I just have to do my job, and they’ll do theirs.”

Dubois and Roy are recent arrivals, but the 39-year-old Ovechkin has been in Washington since the Capitals made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft. He’s established himself firmly in the pantheon of snipers, alongside the likes of Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull and Mike Bossy. Now, he set his sights on the mark of Gretzky, a man whose assists totals alone would make him the NHL’s most prolific point-producer, but who also potted nearly 900 goals.

Ovechkin, a Russian, and Gretzky, a Canadian, will soon be linked inextricably in the annals of hockey history, and fans around the league have been well aware of No. 8’s pursuit, which the NHL has dubbed “The GR8 Chase.”

“When he scores, even in an away building, 50% of the crowd gets up and celebrates, the other 50% has a smile on their face, even if they’re silent,” Dubois said. “It’s fun to be around it, it’s fun to be around him.”

Washington at Kings

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV: FDSNW

​ Orange County Register 

The do’s and don’ts of using AI to manage your finances

• March 12, 2025

By Elizabeth Ayoola, NerdWallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Juggling budgeting, debt management and investing for retirement can be overwhelming, but artificial intelligence may be able to help with the balancing act. There are many AI-driven tools you can use to manage personal finances, such as chatbots, robo-advisors, apps, financial assistants and search engines.

As the list of AI-driven tools continues to grow, you may be considering using one for your financial decisions. Perhaps you already are.

It’s important to understand the risks and opportunities of using AI to manage your money.

Do: Seek basic financial education

AI can be useful if you want to get a better understanding of financial topics, says Molly Nelson, a certified financial planner from Missoula, Montana, who runs The Money Coven, a financial community for women.

“I think when you’re looking for basic education, it’s a great tool to use to clarify financial concepts or financial definitions for yourself,” Nelson says.

Basic education may include understanding how budgeting, estate planning or insurance work.

Nelson adds that ChatGPT — an AI tool that provides responses to prompts you input — can be used for financial education. For instance, you could ask multiple questions about a financial topic you don’t understand and ask it to adapt those answers to your learning style or provide real-life examples.

One of the benefits of chatbots is you can engage in two-way conversations. In other words, the chatbot can be a sounding board or thought partner you use alongside other resources, such as a finance professional, books or vetted content produced by financial platforms.

Even if you’re using AI tools just for general education, verify the information you’re getting.

Don’t: Ask for investment advice

Most people can probably agree that investing can be intimidating. For this reason, it might be tempting to use AI tools for advice such as the best performing stocks to invest in, or the best cryptocurrency to buy. However, that probably isn’t the best idea, Nelson says.

She says people should be leery about using AI for investment advice because it could end up giving blanket information. This could especially be the case if you’re not well-versed in forming prompts, which are the questions you ask the bots.

The prompts you use can affect the quality of the answers you get. The more specific and descriptive your prompt, the better the quality your answers are likely to be.

“They’re not going to take into account a person’s other assets, financial implications or implications related to their debt payouts or income. That is where talking to a real person can be the most helpful,” Nelson says.

People may be wondering whether robo-advisors are the exception to the rule since they help with investing and use AI. The answer: It depends.

Robo-advisors can be a good option for some, because they often cost much less than a human financial advisor and can put together an investment portfolio for you quickly based on your answers to questions. But robo-advisors don’t take your entire financial picture into account, and don’t offer personalized financial advice in the same way a human advisor would.

Do: Get budgeting help

Budgeting can be time-consuming, especially when you haven’t yet established a system that works for you. AI can help automate some of the tedious aspects of budgeting such as sorting through transactions, says Anthony DiMaggio, co-founder of Candlestick AI, an AI-powered investment platform in New York.

“AI can be used to automate that process and sift through that information for you,” DiMaggio says. “So it’s reducing the effort outputted on your part, still getting that same result and helping you manage that budget or look at your finances or just get a better sense of things.”

There are multiple tools that use AI to help with budgeting needs. For instance, Cleo is an AI budgeting app that can provide a budget plan, send payment reminders and track your spending. Some general budget apps have started incorporating AI, too — through chatbots, for instance — to make their tools more efficient.

Apps aside, AI chatbots can be helpful when it comes to elements of budgeting, such as analyzing spending habits, identifying areas for improvement and providing recommendations. Be mindful of the latter, considering AI tools may be better at providing quantitative data than qualitative data, says Nelson. Qualitative data is an important part of budgeting because it takes personal values and triggers into account, she adds.

“If someone were to just hand their budget over to AI without knowing the person, it might just slash certain expenses that really for the person are non-negotiable,” Nelson says.

Don’t: Have unrealistic expectations

If you’re a hands-on investor, AI may be able to help you save time when it comes to researching and analyzing assets. But, you’d probably still want to verify any information given before taking action.

The bottom line is that AI can be a helpful partner in managing some aspects of your finances, but it likely can’t provide the level of personalization needed to help you achieve your goals.

Elizabeth Ayoola writes for NerdWallet. Email: eayoola@nerdwallet.com.

The article The Do’s and Don’ts of Using AI to Manage Your Finances originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register 

Man throws injured cat into dumpster in Laguna Hills

• March 12, 2025

Authorities sought the public’s help Wednesday in identifying a man caught on surveillance video tossing an injured cat into a dumpster in Laguna Hills.

The incident occurred around 7:20 p.m. Monday near the 25000 block of Cabot Road, according to Mission Viejo Animal Services. Surveillance video shows a man exiting a vehicle, retrieving a white garbage bag and discarding it into the dumpster.

Animal services officials said they were notified Tuesday about an injured feline found in a dumpster, just minutes before it was scheduled for collection.

The cat, now named Willow, was suffering from extensive injuries and was taken to a local animal hospital, where she is receiving treatment and is expected to recover, officials said.

“Despite this heartbreaking betrayal, Willow continues to show immense affection to the veterinary staff caring for her, purring and seeking comfort from those providing her with kindness and affection,” Mission Viejo Animal Services said in a statement.

It was unclear when Willow would be available for adoption, as her recovery and rehabilitation are still ongoing.

Animal control investigators identified the suspect’s vehicle as a light blue or gray Volkswagen Tiguan, model year 2022-24, or a similar small SUV.

Anyone with information about the case was urged to contact Mission Viejo Animal Services at 949-470-3045. Donations to support Willow’s recovery and other animals in need can be made to the Dedicated Animal Welfare Group at dawg.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Los Angeles spends billions on homelessness with little accountability

• March 12, 2025

If you believe homelessness spending in California is not accomplishing its intended purpose, you must be assuming that the purpose is to reduce homelessness.

It’s not.

The intended purpose is to take your tax dollars, replace them in your pocket with a silencing sense of guilt, route the money to political allies and make sure nobody gets blamed for it.

It’s working perfectly.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, for example, responded to a scathing new report assessing L.A.’s homelessness spending by saying, “This audit validates our work to change what’s festered for decades.”

The court-ordered independent report from Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services found $2.3 billion in homelessness spending related to city programs but auditors were “unable to completely quantify the total amount spent” because of a lack of recordkeeping by the people in charge of keeping the records.

The mayor declared that the city, the county and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), a city/county joint powers authority set up decades ago, “are working together to change and improve the system, and we are committed to continuing to do that.”

So no one is responsible.

LAHSA was disemboweled by the auditors’ report, which found that nobody verified the “quality, legitimacy or reasonableness of expenses” when reviewing invoices. In fact, LAHSA approved invoices without “clear indications of the specific services delivered.”

LAHSA is a bureaucracy that acts as a go-between for hundreds of millions of dollars annually from federal, state and local taxpayers to contracted service providers. But because of LAHSA’s “insufficient financial accountability,” auditors found that they were unable to “trace substantial funds” that were supposed to go to city homelessness programs.

Your tax dollars at work.

It’s not just Los Angeles that can’t find your money. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office just released a new report titled “Oversight of Encampment Resolution Funding.” Since the 2021-22 budget year, the Legislature has handed out $900 million from the General Fund “intended to help local communities address homeless encampments by funding housing and other services to the people living there.” Another $100 million is currently planned in the governor’s budget for 2025-26, but because of a lack of “compelling evidence that program goals are being met,” the LAO recommends holding off on that funding for now.

The LAO’s report says the January 2024 point-in-time count found 187,000 people who are homeless in California, an all-time high for the state, up 24 percent from January 2019. Two-thirds were unsheltered, living on the streets, sidewalks, parks and other places that should be totally unacceptable in a civilized society, or even in California.

Yet the LAO says the real numbers are “even higher.” Here’s how they know.

The California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) maintains a “Homeless Data Integration System” (HDIS) to keep track of data from 44 “Continuums of Care” (CoCs), which are federally required regional planning and coordination bodies made up of local governments, nonprofit service providers and “other member entities focused on addressing homelessness in their area.”

We should do a point-in-time count of the bureaucrats drawing salaries from the homelessness spending.

Cal ICH’s HDIS found that the CoCs “collectively provided services to about 337,000 people (unduplicated) who were experiencing homelessness during calendar year 2023.” In 2024, only through September, it’s 310,000.

The LAO says that’s an undercount, too. “The HDIS data do not include people experiencing homelessness who did not access any services” or who accessed services outside a CoC, such as veterans who receive services exclusively from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

According to the LAO, the state has spent $37 billion since 2019-20 on homelessness, allocated to the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and Cal ICH.

That doesn’t include local taxes. Property owners in the city of L.A. are paying off a $1.2 billion bond that was supposed to build 10,000 units of housing, including housing for the chronically homeless, and L.A. County residents and visitors have been paying a temporary .25% sales tax for homelessness services which was just doubled and made permanent by a November ballot measure approved by voters.

Conveniently, the court-ordered report on L.A.’s homelessness spending didn’t come out until after the election.

Everything is working exactly as intended.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley

​ Orange County Register