The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority on Thursday that the agency is barred from participating in federal funding competitions until HUD’s Office of Inspector General completes its investigation.

In its letter, HUD accused the agency, known as LAHSA, of mishandling public money and failing to make progress in reducing homelessness. Federal officials alleged the agency did not properly document when people left motel housing, used government funds to pay for services covered by a separate contract, and could not provide records verifying the existence of housing units it was responsible for.

“Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement announcing the action.

LAHSA, a joint city-county agency created in the 1990s, has long served as the central coordinator for homelessness services across the Los Angeles region, which has the largest unhoused population in California. The agency receives federal homelessness funds on behalf of the city, county and nonprofit providers.

Last year, LAHSA received nearly $200 million through HUD’s Continuum of Care program, the largest federal funding stream for homelessness services.

The suspension comes after months of scrutiny and upheaval at the agency. Two critical audits found LAHSA had not adequately tracked spending or program outcomes. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors later pulled county funding from LAHSA and shifted it to a newly created county agency. LAHSA’s former chief executive resigned after criticism over contracts signed with a nonprofit connected to her husband. In April, the agency laid off 284 employees.

Despite those problems, LAHSA remains the designated lead homelessness agency for the region, making the federal suspension potentially far-reaching for programs that serve people living on the streets, in shelters and in supportive housing.

In a statement, LAHSA warned that blocking the funding could undermine existing efforts and put thousands of formerly homeless residents at risk of returning to homelessness.

“This appears to be a blatant attempt to pull yet more resources from Los Angeles, a city they have targeted time and again, when it is clear that LAHSA has either corrected or is in the process of correcting nearly all of the issues raised,” spokesperson Ahmad Chapman said.

Chapman said the agency is strengthening internal controls, updating its financial systems and improving how it tracks its programs. He said LAHSA’s immediate focus is to “explore all available options” to keep federal homelessness dollars flowing to the region.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she shares concerns about LAHSA’s performance but argued that cutting off funding would worsen the crisis rather than solve it.

“Ultimately people will lose their lives,” Bass said in a statement. “We urge HUD to work with the City of Los Angeles to provide the necessary funding to reduce homelessness.”

The action comes as homelessness in Los Angeles County has shown signs of decline. According to the point-in-time count, the number of unhoused people dropped in both 2024 and 2025. Last year, the county had an estimated 72,000 unhoused residents.

The Trump administration has also been pushing broader changes to how Los Angeles and other California communities address homelessness. Federal officials are seeking to shift money away from permanent housing programs and toward temporary shelters, while giving preference to housing programs that require sobriety.

Earlier this month, HUD opened the latest application period for Continuum of Care funding and included those policy changes. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has estimated the changes could cost California nearly $238 million in funding for permanent housing and could put close to 15,000 people at risk of losing their homes.

California has sued over an earlier Trump administration attempt to impose similar changes. That case remains pending.

Original source: CalMatters

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The California Department of Aging is revising its intrastate funding formula, the method used to divide state and federal aging dollars among local agencies. The state’s goal is to better align funding with need and improve equity across regions.

But Los Angeles County aging officials warn that the proposed formula could have serious consequences in large, high-demand communities. Maral Karaccusian, director of the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities Department, said the plan does not fully account for the scale and complexity of serving older adults in the state’s most populous county.

Across Los Angeles County, thousands of seniors rely on publicly funded meals each day. Some receive food delivered to their homes, while others gather for meals at senior centers and community sites. For many older adults, those programs provide more than nutrition; they also offer regular contact with others and a way to remain safely at home.

According to projections cited by county officials, Los Angeles County could see a 17% reduction under the proposed funding approach. That could translate into nearly 186,000 fewer meals served annually at community locations and more than 157,000 fewer home-delivered meals each year.

Combined, the reductions would amount to roughly 1,300 fewer meals per day.

County officials say the concern is not with the state’s effort to modernize the formula, but with how the proposed model weighs different factors. The formula considers age, income, disability and geography, giving them roughly equal weight. Critics argue those factors do not drive demand for services in the same way.

Low-income older adults, for example, are more likely to rely on publicly funded meal programs and supportive services. Dense urban counties also operate at a different scale than smaller regions, serving larger numbers of seniors with complex needs.

Los Angeles County serves about one-quarter of California’s older adults, including large numbers of low-income seniors and those requiring more intensive support. Officials also point to growth in the county’s aging population, noting that Los Angeles County added more than 92,000 older adults in a single year.

If the formula does not adequately reflect those realities, they argue, money could shift away from areas with the greatest demand. Other large regions with significant senior populations could face similar pressure.

Advocates say the state should test alternative versions of the formula before making a final decision, to ensure the system reflects actual service needs and does not unintentionally reduce access to food and care.

California has made aging in place and independent living major policy goals in recent years. Local officials say those commitments depend on funding systems that work not only in statewide calculations, but also in the communities where seniors rely on daily services.

Original source: CalMatters

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Last week, Newsom celebrated the program’s accomplishments. 

“Over 1 million people that didn’t have access to clean, safe drinking water today have access to clean, safe drinking water,” Newsom told a conference room filled with California’s water leaders, to a round of applause. 

“I’m not saying that to impress you, but to impress upon you real progress. A lot more work to be done.” 

But that work could lose critical funding as the Newsom administration overhauls its source: California’s carbon market. The changes to the program’s funding priorities and revenue threaten efforts to bring clean drinking water to schools, homes and communities across California. 

“If that funding goes away,” said Sherry Hunter, who has long battled the arsenic leaching into the water supply in the historic Tulare County town of Allensworth, “Oh my god, I can’t even imagine.”

Climate money for clean water

A critical piece of California’s clean water funding is linked to the state’s carbon market, which sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions that oil refineries, power plants and manufacturers can meet by buying and trading carbon credits. 

Lawmakers tap this fund for environmental efforts, like combatting unsafe drinking water in rural communities.

In 2019, Newsom signed a law that gave rise to the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience, or SAFER, drinking water program at the State Water Resources Control Board. The law called for funding it with $130 million a year from carbon market revenues through 2030.  

It can be a risky source of funding, subject to the rise and fall of credit auctions. But the law came with a promise: When the proceeds fell flat, the state’s general fund would make up the rest. 

This isn’t the only pot of money that California draws on for its safe drinking water efforts, but it’s the most versatile, paying for emergency and other types of assistance that bonds and more restrictive funding can’t. 

When Newsom and California lawmakers don’t budget enough to provide bottled water for households and schools with dry or dangerous taps, this fund covers the costs. 

When low-income communities can’t pay for the technical expertise to manage their water systems or compete for grants needed to drill new wells and connect to safer water, the safe and affordable drinking water fund can help bridge that gap.

Thousands of households and dozens of schools rely on this money for emergency supplies  — like Hope Elementary School in Porterville, where the taps flow with elevated levels of nitrate. The contaminant is linked to cancers, pregnancy complications and a life-threatening condition in infants known as “blue baby syndrome” when consumed in high enough quantities.  

More than $83,000 has been awarded from the fund since 2021 to supply the school with bottled water and roughly $110,000 for technical assistance as the school district works to connect to safer supplies, according to the water board. 

The funding lets school officials put their budget to work in the classroom. 

“Thank goodness,” said Melanie Matta, the school district’s superintendent and principal. About three-quarters of the students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, Matta said. “That water can get expensive, right? We’re already running on a pretty tight budget.” 

Matta has a message for Newsom: She’d like him to tour her school, and witness why this money is so important. 

“When you meet our kids and walk our small school community, you’ll see exactly why this fight matters and why this funding must be protected,” Matta said in an email. “Safe water is not a gift. It’s a promise. And we need your help to keep that promise.”

‘There’s nothing left’ 

The cuts began in September, when Newsom and lawmakers struck a deal to reauthorize the state’s carbon market after weeks of tense and chaotic negotiations — renaming it “cap and invest.” 

The new laws deprioritized funding lawmakers had promised to safe drinking water, clean air, fire resilience, affordable housing and other programs — shifting their priority behind $1 billion for high-speed rail and $1 billion for lawmakers to direct through the budget. 

The laws removed the 2030 expiration for the safe and affordable drinking water program. But they also dropped the original promise to make up any funding shortfalls from the carbon market — putting $100 million at risk through 2030, according to a Department of Finance forecast in January. 

Assemblymember James Gallagher, a Republican from Chico, called the new priority system “unfortunate” and “misplaced” at a budget subcommittee hearing in March.

“If you ask these Central Valley communities, these rural communities, ‘What would you prefer? Would you want safe drinking water coming out of your faucet, or do you want a high-speed rail in your community?’” he said. “I’m pretty sure I know the answer.” 

Now, climate regulators on the California Air Resources Board — chaired by Newsom appointee Lauren Sanchez — are proposing to overhaul the carbon market in ways that could cut revenues in half. 

If adopted, the changes could leave no funding at all for safe drinking water and other third-tier programs as soon as the 2027–28 fiscal year, according to legislative analyst Helen Kerstein — though, Kerstein added, the forecasts are uncertain. 

Sanchez, who was Newsom’s top climate advisor before leading the air board, defended the staff proposal at a Senate oversight hearing last week.

“Do you believe the Legislature intended to eliminate funding for affordable housing, transit, drinking water, wildfire prevention and clean air programs with the reauthorization?” Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino and chair of a Senate budget subcommittee, asked Sanchez.

Sanchez said the staff proposal didn’t specifically call for defunding those programs. 

“Let me stop you for a moment. That will be the effect,” Reyes said. “There’s nothing left … and those are the most important programs that have served the community.”

Newsom deflected, pointing to the Legislature. 

“Any suggestion that California is ‘trading away’ clean drinking water ignores both the current budget proposal, and the Legislature’s ongoing role in funding these priorities,” spokesperson Anthony Martinez said in an emailed statement. Martinez hinted at, but did not specify, what’s coming in Newsom’s May budget revision Thursday. 

‘Many of them were left behind’ 

Roughly 613,000 people still rely on water systems that fail to meet state requirements for safe and reliable drinking water. Regulators at the state water board deem another 661 water systems serving nearly 2 million people “at risk” of failure. 

Still, almost one million more people have safe drinking water than in 2019 — which state water officials attribute to the safe drinking water program and its unique, flexible pot of money. 

“When we were relying on the community to spend its own time and money to get ready, many of them got left behind,” said Darrin Polhemus, who leads the state water board’s Division of Drinking Water. “The safe drinking water fund has allowed us to prepare communities to do long-term projects, faster.”  

The program, which draws from other state and federal funding sources, has awarded more than $1.8 billion in grants for disadvantaged communities. It’s helped around 320 water systems serving 3.3 million people come off the state’s failing list, even as other, at-risk suppliers stumble onto it. 

The safe and affordable drinking water fund also has helped pay for emergency repairs, technical assistance, bottled water supplies and even some construction costs in communities from San Bernardino to Tulare, Monterey and Sutter counties — all contending with aging and contaminated water systems.  

“We could not have done it without them,” said Sherry Hunter in Allensworth, which started work on a new well and storage tank in January to bring clean water to a town struggling with arsenic and other water problems for over a century. 

“There’s a lot of other smaller disadvantaged communities that depend on them as well,” Hunter said. 

The costs for fixing these water systems and household wells could hit billions of dollars in the coming years, according to a 2024 water board analysis. And Polhemus said the challenge will  grow — even as funding shrinks — as water suppliers face new limits on contaminants like hexavalent chromium. 

“If we’ve started and committed to a project, we’ve got the funding reserve to see it through,” Polhemus said. “It’s just, we won’t be starting new projects.” 

Federal money is also running out. A Biden-era funding boost ends this year, slashing another, more restrictive fund for drinking water infrastructure projects from hundreds of millions of dollars to tens of millions, according to federal and water board data. Congressional earmarks could eat into what remains. 

Tami McVay, emergency services director for the nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises, which connects rural communities to affordable housing and safe drinking water, is worried. 

Her program provides bottled water to more than 3,000 households in the San Joaquin Valley, and trucks water to refill storage tanks at roughly 700 more. Her team helps replace domestic wells and test their water. And it relies on state funding. 

Seeing the potential cuts, she said, “it definitely made our mouths drop a little.” 

Polhemus said he understands communities are nervous.

“We’re going to work with the funds we’re given to continue the program as best we can, because we know the need still exists,” he said. “The question of how much of it exists, of course, comes out of our hands and into the political arena.”

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WASHINGTON — As a part of ongoing efforts to end Veteran homelessness, the Department of Veterans Affairs published a Notice of Funding Opportunity for approximately $5 million in grants per year (for up to two years) to help Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The funds are available through VA’s Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program, which offers financial assistance to eligible community organizations that provide Veterans with transitional housing and case management — including connecting eligible Veterans to VA benefits, community-based services, and permanent housing. These special needs grants support homeless Veterans who are women, elderly, terminally ill, chronically mentally ill, or who have care of minor dependents.

Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority of VA and President Biden, who has made supporting Veterans a key pillar of his Unity Agenda for the nation. Earlier this week, VA announced that it permanently housed 46,552homeless Veterans in 2023 — surpassing the calendar year goal to house 38,000 Veterans by 22.5%. Thanks in part to these efforts, the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by 4% since early 2020 and by more than 52% since 2010.

“We won’t rest until every Veteran has the safe, stable home that they deserve,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “These grants will allow VA — alongside community organizations —to help provide housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans.”

VA’s efforts to combat Veteran homelessness are grounded in reaching out to homeless Veterans, understanding their unique needs, and addressing them. These efforts are built on the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes getting a Veteran into housing, then providing them with the wraparound support they need to stay housed, including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more. This initiative is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader efforts to reduce homelessness.

Only the 16 existing special need grantees are eligible to apply. Awards will fund two years of operations starting fiscal year 2025 on Oct. 1, 2024, and ending Sept. 30, 2026. Grant applications must be received by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 15, 2024.

View the special need NOFO, and learn more about GPD or email GPDGrants@va.gov.  For more information about VA’s comprehensive efforts to end Veteran homelessness visit VA.gov/homeless.

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• Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Grants: Within the coming year, VA will award hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to organizations that help rapidly rehouse Veterans and their families, prevent the imminent loss of a Veteran’s home, or identify new, more suitable housing situations for Veterans and their families. The exact funding amount will be determined by VA’s budget.
• Legal Services for Homeless Veterans and Veterans At-Risk for Homelessness Grants: Within the coming year, VA will award more than $26 million in funds to organizations that help homeless Veterans with legal representation, assistance with court proceedings, defense in criminal cases related to homelessness, and more.

This announcement comes shortly after the Department of Housing and Urban Development  released the results of the 2023 Point-in-Time  Count, the annual effort to estimate the number of Americans — including Veterans — experiencing homelessness. The data shows that on a single night in January 2023, there were 35,574 Veterans who were experiencing homelessness, a 7.4% increase over 2022. This uptick mirrors the increase in homelessness among all Americans, which increased by 12% over 2022.

Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority for VA and the entire Biden-Harris administration. In total, the estimated number of Veterans experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has decreased by 52.0% since 2010 and by 4.5% since 2020. 

“One Veteran experiencing homelessness will always be one too many — and we will do everything in our power to ensure that Veterans get the safe, stable housing they deserve,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “These new grants are a critical part of that effort, empowering VA and our partners to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before. Together, we will not rest until Veteran homelessness is a thing of the past.”

“Every American deserves a safe and affordable home. Like air, water, and food, housing is a basic human need required for the health of individuals, communities, and nations,” said U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness director  Jeff Olivet. VA is a critical part of USICH’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness.“The Biden-Harris administration’s plan calls on all parts of the federal government, as well as mayors, landlords, developers, and everyone involved to help us build a future where no one experiences the tragedy of homelessness, and everyone has a safe and affordable home.”

From day one, the VA has taken aggressive action to combat Veteran homelessness. VA has permanently housed 38,847 homeless Veterans thus far in 2023, surpassing the calendar year goal to house 38,000 Veterans two months early. This year, VA has also expanded access to health care for homeless Veterans, expanded access to legal assistance for homeless Veterans, helped more than 145,000 Veterans and their families retain their homes and avoid foreclosure, and awarded more than $1 billion in grant funding to help homeless Veterans. In partnership with HUD, VA also convened 10 national HUD-VA Supportive Housing  bootcamps, in which local VA homeless program staff with public housing agencies from across the country participated in intensive two-day workshops to improve coordination to more quickly rehouse Veterans through the HUD-VASH program. During 2023, the HUD-VASH program helped over 13,000 Veterans exit homelessness and obtain permanent affordable housing with supportive services.

There are many possible reasons for the increase in homelessness among Veterans and all Americans in January 2023, including the cost of housing and the end of COVID-related supports. VA will investigate these barriers and do everything in its power to help Veterans overcome them.

VA’s efforts to combat Veteran homelessness are grounded in reaching out to homeless Veterans, understanding their unique needs, and addressing them. These efforts are built on the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes getting a Veteran into housing, then providing them with the wraparound support they need to stay housed, including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more. This initiative is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader efforts to prevent and end homelessness. President Biden has also called on Congress to triple the number of Veterans who receive housing vouchers — a critical tool to help prevent Veteran homelessness.

For more information on the SSVF grant opportunity, visit here. For more information on the legal services for homeless Veterans grant opportunity, visit here. For more information about VA’s comprehensive efforts to end Veteran homelessness, visit VA.gov/homeless.

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The funds are available through VA’s new Legal Services for Veterans Grant Program and will help Veterans in several ways, including:         

• Providing representation in landlord-tenant disputes to prevent eviction.
• Assisting with court proceedings for child support, custody or estate planning.
• Helping Veterans obtain disability compensation and other benefits.
• Providing criminal defense services for certain issues that are symptomatic of homelessness, such as outstanding warrants, fines and driver’s license revocation.
• Upgrading characterization of discharges or dismissals of former members of the Armed Forces.

“Veterans who face legal challenges are more likely to become homeless,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “Through these grants, VA is providing Veterans with the legal assistance they need to access the housing they deserve.”

This funding will be awarded in grants of up to $150,000 to 75 eligible organizations, with at least 10% of funding being utilized for women Veterans. The Notice of Funding Opportunity provides information about the grant program eligibility and award process. VA will host a technical assistance webinar for grant applicants in October. Monitor VA’s homeless LSV website for webinar information and updates. Applications must be submitted by Dec. 30, 2022.

In this calendar year, VA has already placed more than 26,500 homeless Veterans into permanent housing — putting VA on track to meet its goal of 38,000 permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans in 2022.

Learn more about legal services for Veterans or email lsv@va.gov.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee have agreed to pay $113,000 to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether they violated campaign finance law by misreporting spending on research that eventually became the infamous Steele dossier.

That’s according to documents sent Tuesday to the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, which had filed an administrative complaint in 2018 accusing the Democrats of misreporting payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to obscure the spending.

The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, which then hired Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, to conduct opposition research on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. But on FEC forms, the Clinton campaign classified the spending as legal services.

“By intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” the campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” the initial complaint had read.

The Clinton campaign and DNC had argued that the payments had been described accurately, but agreed, according to the documents, to settle without conceding to avoid further legal costs.

The Clinton campaign agreed to a civil penalty of $8,000 and the DNC $105,000, according to a pair of conciliatory agreements that were attached to the letter sent to the Coolidge Reagan Foundation.

The documents have not yet been made public and FEC spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the FEC has 30 days after parties are notified about enforcement matters to release them.

The Steele dossier was a report compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and financed by Democrats that included salacious allegations about Trump’s conduct in Russia and allegations about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Documents have shown the FBI invested significant resources attempting to corroborate the dossier and relied substantially on it to obtain surveillance warrants targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

But the dossier has been largely discredited since its publication, with core aspects of the material exposed as unsupported and unproven rumors. A special counsel assigned to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe charged one of Steele’s sources with lying to the FBI and charged a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Clinton’s campaign with lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting in which he relayed concerns about the Russia-based Alfa Bank.

Trump, who has railed against the dossier for years, released a statement celebrating the agreement and once again slamming the dossier as “a Hoax funded by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign.”

A DNC spokesperson played down the decision, saying: “We settled aging and silly complaints from the 2016 election about ‘purpose descriptions’ in our FEC report.” The lawyer representing both the campaign and the DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter was first reported by the Washington Examiner.

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On March 9th, the House passed an omnibus appropriations package for Fiscal Year 2022 that will bring federal funding directly to California’s 36thDistrict. The package includes $10 million secured by Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36) to expand access to health care, bring clean water to the Eastern Coachella Valley, and drive economic growth in the 36th District.

“I am thrilled to see the House pass the $10 million in federal funding that I secured to bring new health care resources to Blythe, economic development to San Jacinto, infrastructure improvements to the Pass Area, and clean drinking water access to the Eastern Coachella Valley,” said Dr. Ruiz. “In addition, I’m thrilled to see the House pass funding that’ll launch an Army Corps of Engineers project at the Salton Sea, which will strengthen our all-hands-on-deck approach to this environmental and public health crisis. Once signed into law, this funding will bring incredible value to our communities, grow our local economy, and make a positive difference in the lives of my constituents.”

“Expansion and widening of Pennsylvania Avenue is a critical project for Beaumont and the Pass Area. These improvements will enhance access and help alleviate traffic congestion along I-10,” said Todd Parton, Beaumont City Manager. “This would not be possible without the tireless efforts of Congressman Ruiz. With his assistance, one of the area’s most vital retail centers will continue to flourish while much needed traffic relief is provided to area residents. Additionally, Beaumont will be able to reallocate our local dollars to other critical projects that benefit our community as well as the region.”

“We are excited to learn the House of Representatives will pass an appropriations packaged that includes funding for our water reservoir project. Constructing this water reservoir will secure the continued supply of reliable, clean, and safe drinking water and fire flow protection for our residents,” said Mayor Dale Reynolds of the City of Blythe. “The City appreciates Congressman Ruiz and the House Appropriations Committee for supporting this much needed water infrastructure project for the City of Blythe.”

“Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo would like to thank Congressman Ruiz and the House Appropriations Committee for providing $1M in support of the renovation and expansion of our primary care Health Clinic in Blythe,” said Yvonne Bell, President and CEO of Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo. The new facility will expand much needed access to health care for the low-income and remote community of Blythe. The renovation will allow us to serve more patients with the addition of 11 new exam rooms as well as newly added dental and integrated behavioral health services.”

“We are grateful of Congressman Ruiz’s partnership with CVWD and for his leadership in securing federal funding to support the Eastern Coachella Valley community,” said Coachella Valley Water District Board Vice President Cástulo R. Estrada. “These funds continue to advance CVWD’s priorities and initiatives in communities affected by the lack of water availability. Improvements to our potable system in the Eastern Coachella Valley promotes economic development opportunities that benefit the community and also helps spur the development of quality affordable housing. CVWD will continue to partner with Congressman Ruiz and is dedicated to improving the living conditions of the communities we serve.”

“The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition, a 39 year old nonprofit community development corporation, is pleased to learn of the funding approval of our Community Project grant application through Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz’s recommendation to the Appropriations Committee,” said Pedro S. G. Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition. “The $500,000 in funding will provide much needed financing for renovations to our headquarters building in Indio, CA. The renovations will allow the agency to remain in Indio and continue its successful mission of improving the living conditions of low-income individuals and families by constructing and operating affordable housing infused with community services programs and other opportunities that enrich, build, and grow their lives. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D., and his team for his support of our organization and the renovation grant application.”

“Loma Linda University Medical Center is delighted our request to establish a Federally Qualified Health Center in Rancho Mirage has been selected by the House Appropriations Committee,” said Dr. Richard Hart, President of Loma Linda University Health. “This new clinic will serve the expanding Medicaid (MediCal) population in this area, providing much needed clinical and preventive care. In partnership with SAC Health, Loma Linda is committed to serving this large population demographic with quality health care services. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Raul Ruiz for his assistance in obtaining this grant.”

“On behalf of the Palo Verde Hospital, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Congressman Ruiz for the $350,000 award and support in the Palo Verde Hospital’s Integrated Community Health Program-PVHICHP,” said Liz Manjarrez, Outreach Project Administrator of Palo Verde Hospial. “The ICHP will address the lack of services in low-income families that live in Blythe and it’s remote/isolated areas (Ripley, Mesa Verde, and Cibola). This award will provide much needed clinical services; therefore, will close the health care gap by providing remote whole person care such as, diabetes education, managed care in chronic illness, and primary/mental health services.”

“We are deeply grateful to Congressman Ruiz and our Congressional delegation for securing this new funding to move the Corps’ feasibility study of a long-term Salton Sea management plan forward,” said Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Patrick O’Dowd. “The Authority looks forward to advancing that study in partnership with the local communities surrounding the Sea, the Corps and the State of California.”

“With economic development more important than ever, we appreciate Congressman Raul Ruiz’s continued efforts to seek passage of appropriations that will facilitate construction of the 10-acre Soboba Crossroads shopping center in San Jacinto,” said Isaiah Vivanco, Chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. “The benefits to our local communities, which will include an estimated 100 permanent jobs, enhanced local services, increased tax revenues, support for public services and new opportunities for business growth, will be reaped for many years to come. On behalf of the people of Soboba, I’d like to thank Dr. Ruiz and all others who worked tirelessly to secure funding for this all-important infrastructure project.”

Kelly O’Keeffe | Contributed

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Health Center Partners (HCP) of Southern California, the region’s health care policy advocate for community health and underserved patient populations, is proud to announce that 13 of its 17 member health centers earned Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) badges for their recent achievements in access to care, quality outcomes, health equity, information technology, and contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic response. The HCP member health centers placed among the nation’s top performing, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in clinical quality measure performance and quality of health care services.

Additionally, as part of the American Rescue Plan, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded approximately $14.9 million in funding to 13 HCP members to advance health equity and health outcomes in underserved patient populations throughout southern California. Recipient HCP member health centers included Community Health Systems, Inc., Clinicas de Salud Del Pueblo, Borrego Health, San Ysidro Health, Imperial Beach Community Clinic, La Maestra Community Health Centers, Neighborhood Healthcare, TrueCare, Samahan Health Centers, San Diego American Indian Health Center, San Diego Family Care, Father Joe’s Villages, and Vista Community Clinic.

“These awards in the Improving Quality of Care category recognize the highest performing health centers nationwide which have made significant improvements to quality of care in the past year,” said Henry N. Tuttle, HCP president and chief executive officer. “Our members work tirelessly to deliver high quality, comprehensive care to marginalized communities throughout southern California and have continued to do so on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Quality, value-based care continues to be a top priority for HCP members,” said Lori N. Holeman, HCP board chair and chief executive officer, Community Health Systems, Inc. “Both the awards and financial investment will allow us to further strengthen our offerings to patients in safety-net populations, closing quality gaps and raising care standards to enhance patient outcomes.”   

Improving Quality of Care Awards recognized federally qualified health centers in four categories:

• La Maestra Community Health Centers, San Diego Family Care, San Ysidro Health and TrueCare were recognized as Health Center Quality Leaders for performing “best overall” in clinical quality performance – among all health centers in the U.S.
• Borrego Health, Imperial Beach Community Clinic, La Maestra Community Health Centers, Neighborhood Healthcare, Samahan Health Centers, San Diego Family Care, San Ysidro Health and TrueCare were recognized for Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality. These centers met all criteria to optimize HIT services that advanced telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and the collection of social determinants of health.
• Borrego Health, Clinicas de Salud Del Pueblo, Community Health Systems, Inc., Indian Health Council, Imperial Beach Community Clinic, La Maestra Community Health Centers, Neighborhood Healthcare, TrueCare, San Diego American Indian Health Center, Samahan Health Centers, San Diego Family Care, San Ysidro Health and Vista Community Clinic were recognized for sustaining their designation as Patient Centered Medical Homes.
• Also, HRSA recognized organizations for their contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic response via data reporting and testing. Among them: Neighborhood Healthcare, San Diego American Indian Health Center, San Diego Family Care, Father Joe’s Villages, and Vista Community Clinic.

For more information about the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Community Health Quality Recognition badges, please visit HRSA Health Center Program website. For more information about HCP, please visit https://hcpsocal.org/.   

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The City of Needles worst fears were realized In July when the onlywell that supplies the community with portable drinking water failed.  The city was able to identify the replacement part and repaired the well within 24 hours. The city relied on storage tanks during this outage to get through the day in temperatures exceeding 115 degrees. By the time the spare part was installed, and the well was returned to operations approximately 16 feet of water remained in the storage tanks. The city’s distribution system has over 200 leaks a year and they continue to increase.

The city of Needles has received $1.9 million from the State Water Resources Control Boards to fund a much-needed well to provide drinking water to Needles. The city has officially accepted these funds. On Monday, August 30^th. Rebuild SoCal Staff will be on site to be on hand for the announcement as well as record a multi-episode version of the podcast and to produce a video. 

An additional $1.1 million in funds has also been approved for a booster station. Though the city is grateful for this much needed funding, there is still much work to be done on behalf of its citizens.

“We are very pleased that our persistent efforts helped the City of Needles receive this much needed funding,” said Rebuild SoCal Partnership Executive Director, Jon Switalski. “Our belief is that water rights are at the heart of equity in California and that it is a human right.”

“While we are grateful that the California State Water Resources Control Board will be funding a new well for the City of Needles, there is still so much work to be done,” said Rainie Torrance, Assistant Utility Manager for the City of Needles. 

Current needs for the City of Needles include:

1. The city does not have adequate storage for emergency preparedness of fire protection
2. There is no backup generator for the only well. 
3. The City’s mains are primary Asbestos-cement (AC) pipe that dates to the early 1960s and service laterals are a mixture of copper and orange berg that dates to the 1950s. The city has over 200 service lateral breaks and has experienced major main breaks.

The fight in the City of Needles for water funding is gaining statewide publicity and was highlighted last month in a front-page article in the Los Angeles Times. A link to the article can be found here.

ABOUT THE CITY OF NEEDLES – Needles is a city in eastern San Bernardino County, California. It lies on the western banks of the Colorado River in the Mohave Valley subregion of the Mojave Desert, near the borders of Arizona and Nevada and roughly 110 miles (180 km) from the Las Vegas Strip.

It is the easternmost city of the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area. Needles is geographically isolated from other cities in the county. Barstow, the nearest city within the county, is separated from Needles by over 140 miles of desert and 2 mountain ranges.^[5] The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95. The population was 4,844 at the 2010 census, up from 4,830 at the 2000 census.

Needles was named after “The Needles”, a group of pinnacles in the Mohave Mountains on the Arizona side of the river to the south of the city. The large Mohave Native American community shares the nearby Fort Mojave Indian Reservation and the town. Needles is a gateway to the Mojave National Preserve.

ABOUT REBUILD SOCAL PARTNERSHIP – The Rebuild SoCal Partnership, (RSCP) is an organization that represents 2,750 construction firms and more than 90,000 union workers in all 12 Southern California counties. Based in Anaheim, California – RSCP is dedicated to working with elected officials and educating the public on the continued need for essential infrastructure funding including airports, bridges, ports, rail, roads, and water. 

Rebuild SoCal Partnership is the producer of the Rebuild SoCal Zone Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms where podcasts are available.

To learn more about the RebuildSoCal Partnership please visit www.RebuildSoCal.org. 

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