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A woman pushes belongings in a shopping cart near Pacific Coast Highway and Topanga Canyon Blvd as the Palisades Fire rages down the hills in Pacific Palisades, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
A new study by UCLA and USC researchers looks at how the fires affected L.A. County's unhoused population — and finds that a majority of those surveyed said the disaster put their lives in danger., published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, found that of the 374 people who participated, 56% reported their lives had been in danger and 21% said they had been injured. About 76% of all the respondents said their routines had been disrupted by the fires, and 46% said their living areas were damaged.
People who were “unsheltered” — living outside in tents or vehicles — were more likely to be injured, displaced or lose belongings in the wildfire than people living indoors in shelters or publicly-funded hotel rooms, the study found. L.A. County is home to the nation’s largest unsheltered population, with more than 52,000 people living outside on any given night, according to official estimates.
The study analyzed data from a monthly survey of unhoused Angelenos that has been going on since 2021, known as.
The participants completed surveys in both December 2024 and January 2025, and responded to specific questions about natural disasters and their housing situations.
In the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires last year, much has been reported about the thousands of Angelenos who lost their homes and the dozens who lost their lives. A new study by UCLA and USC researchers looks at how the fires affected Los Angeles County's unhoused population — and finds that a majority of those surveyed said the disaster put their lives in danger., published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, found that of the 374 people who participated, 56% reported their lives had been in danger and 21% said they had been injured. About 76% of all the respondents said their routines had been disrupted by the fires, and 46% said their living areas were damaged.
'People are living in these extraordinarily awful conditions where high winds can cause damage to where they live, can displace them and can cause injury,” said Ben Henwood, a professor at USC’s School of Social Work and an author of the new study. “And that's by definition because they are vulnerable living out on the streets.”
The study analyzed data from a monthly survey of unhoused Angelenos that has been going on since 2021, known as. The participants completed surveys in both December 2024 and January 2025, and responded to specific questions about natural disasters and their housing situations.
Unsheltered respondents described tents and vehicles damaged by falling debris and belongings swept away by high winds, according to the study. They also described disruptions to services, because of clinics and other service sites closing or burning down during the fires.
The 15% of participants who said they lived within wildfire evacuation zones reported that they experienced more frequent evacuations, more prolonged exposure to smoke and more difficulty finding shelter.
The study’s authors say L.A. County and other local governments should recognize the risks and incorporate unhoused Angelenos into climate disaster planning.
Last year’s wildfires in L.A. County killed 29 people, destroyed more than 10,000 homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents. The challenges the urban wildfires posed for L.A. County’s estimated 74,000
'Most of what we know about homelessness comes from systems-gathered data,” Henwood said. “With people who aren't connected to systems, it’s really hard to know how services or policies are affecting them. And in this case, how natural disasters might be affecting them.”
People who were “unsheltered” — living outside in tents or vehicles — were more likely to be injured, displaced or lose belongings in the wildfire than people living indoors in shelters or publicly-funded hotel rooms, the study found. L.A. County is home to the nation’s largest unsheltered population, with more than 52,000 people living outside on any given night, according to official estimates. Of those living in tents or similar makeshift shelters, more than 75% said they experienced damage to their living spaces during the wildfires and preceding windstorm.
'This was as much a wind event as a fire event,” Randall Kuhn, a UCLA public health professor and a study author, told LAist. “A lot of people had lost everything before the fires even sparked. You're living in a wind tunnel and suddenly 90-mile-an-hour winds come through.”
, which found that about 40% of that population in L.A. County had mental health conditions and about 33% had substance use disorders.on unhoused people, which found that a third of people living outside face sweeps at least monthly, and that routine sweeps are associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes.
Researchers say homelessness in L.A. County is in an emergency of disastrous proportions that's in need of its own solutions. And as long as the county has a large population living outside, they’ll be vulnerable. 'If we're gonna have people out on the streets, how do they access bathrooms, how do they access water, how are they gonna be protected when natural disasters happen?” Henwood said. “Those are the sorts of conversations that seem to me to be needed and more realistic.”
The authors recommend better access to emergency shelters near evacuation zones, more provision of protective equipment like goggles and masks and using mutual aid networks to fill in gaps in public services. The studies were funded by the universities, the National Institutes of Health, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Homeless Policy Research Institute and LA Care.
More than a decade after California began setting aside patches of ocean for conservation, change could be coming to its
The discussion comes amid escalating pressures on our ocean — from plastic pollution and offshore energy efforts to rapidly warming temperatures that have, in recent years, led to some of the worst mass dieoffs of marine life ever seen. But experts say protected areas are no silver bullet.
But experts say protected areas are no silver bullet.extending the marine protected area to fully encompass the city’s coast. The area is a key link for genetic dispersal of sea life between Palos Verdes and La Jolla, as well as a major draw for ocean tourism.
More than a decade after California began setting aside patches of ocean for conservation, change could be coming to its The state is considering a variety of changes to the network — a few proposals shrink those areas or remove certain protections, while most propose expanding existing protected areas or adding new ones. The levels of protection can range from a total ban on commercial fishing and certain recreational activities, to highly limited allowances. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is in the process of reviewing
The discussion comes amid escalating pressures on our ocean — from plastic pollution and offshore energy efforts to rapidly warming temperatures that have, in recent years, led to some of the worst mass dieoffs of marine life ever seen.all 10 of the non-tribal proposals. They have yet to release their recommendations for the five remaining petitions from tribes, includingby the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians that would encompass about 9 square miles off the coast of Santa Barbara.
Some say the state isn’t being bold enough in its approach to boosting protections for marine life, while others argue the existing network is strong enough. There is agreement, however: Marine protected areas can be a powerful tool in boosting certain fisheries and building resilience to climate change.
Marine Life Protection Act was signed into law. That kickstarted the process of establishing an interconnected network of marine protected areas off the state’s coast. But the process to get that done was a long and arduous one, slowed by competing interests and political infighting. It wasn’t until 2012 that the state completed the existing coastal network of more than 120 underwater refuges. That network provides protections from fishing and other activities for a little over 16% of California’s coast. By 2030, the state’s goal, codified by an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020,, found that marine protected areas were largely working — supporting larger, healthier and more abundant populations of many species, as well as creating a “spillover effect” that boosts certain lucrative fisheries, such as lobster, outside the bounds of the protected area. For example, a 2021found that a 35% reduction in fishing area due to protected area designation off the Channel Islands resulted in a 225% increase in total lobster catch after just six years. Marine protected areas have also been found to improve resilience for some species in the face of climate change, as the ocean absorbs nearly one-third of the carbon pollution in our atmosphere and about 90% of the excess heat that that pollution would otherwise generate.
off the California coast in the decades before and after the establishment of the state’s protected areas, focusing on the changes after a severe marine heat wave between 2014 and 2016. “Marine protected areas recovered more quickly, more strongly compared to the non-protected areas in Southern California,” Cavanaugh said.He said that's likely because these areas protect predators of sea urchins, which graze on kelp and can destroy entire forests if left unchecked. Their predators, such as sheephead fish and lobster, are found in Southern California’s waters. But the story was a little different in Northern California. Cavanaugh’s team found that marine protected areas didn’t have the same rebound effect for kelp forests there, likely because sea urchin predators up north are sea otters and sea stars. “Sea otters are protected anyway, and sea stars basically have been wiped out across California due to sea star wasting disease,” Cavanaugh said. That disease led to a proliferation of urchins up north, and a dieoff of around 85% of the kelp forest in just the last 10 years.
Though more conservation is likely necessary , a blanket approach to protected areas is not a silver bullet, Cavanaugh said. “ There's different things going on in different locations, and there's not going to be a one size fits all approach at all,” he said. “We might lose kelp in certain areas in a warming world, and so figuring out which patches might be more resilient to temperatures and protecting those is important.” Understanding the specific challenges to kelp forest growth or decline in varying regions is key, Cavanaugh emphasized.
At the same time, California’s marine protected area network is still young , and there’s much to learn about the role they play in boosting the health of our ocean overall. “These are baby protected areas, and that means we're still learning how they function,” said Douglas McCauley, an ecologist at UC Santa Barbara.
For Chris Voss, that specificity around the gains of certain marine protected areas is key.. He said marine protected areas have been a boon for some industries, such as lobster, but not all, such as urchin fishers. He argues that the existing network is strong, and that more regulations will harm the fishing industry, which has been declining over the past two decades. He’s particularly concerned about the proposals to expand or add entirely new marine protected areas. ”We are all small, independent businessmen with families and kids and a desire to scratch out a living from the ocean, but also produce a high quality food product in a sustainable way from the marine environment,” Voss said.
“They didn't put the initial network on low-value real estate in the ocean. They put it on a very high-value real estate in the ocean,” Voss said. “The fishing community has adapted.”He pointed to multiplying pressures on the industry, such as expanded offshore wind and oil drilling and aquaculture efforts, as well as the science that not every marine protected area benefits marine life in the same way. Voss said urchin fishers, for example, could help reduce kelp-eating urchin overpopulation in some areas. Such efforts have yet to scale, and urchins in kelp-barren areas are not very lucrative, though some researchers say urchin fishing as a management tool before kelp forest collapse could be a potential avenue.
“There’s nuance that we should embrace,” Voss said. “We need to think with and understand the complexity of the different fisheries and their impacts, and then make decisions with a more complete understanding so that we can get win-win situations.”
extend the marine protected area to fully encompass the city’s coast. The area is a key link for genetic dispersal of sea life between Palos Verdes and La Jolla, as well as a major draw for ocean tourism. “Marine life within the marine protected areas of Laguna Beach are really thriving, but as soon as you move past the boundary, there's less sea life,” said Mike Beanan with the nonprofit
only female sheephead outside of the bounds of the protected areas and a proliferation of kelp-eating urchins. Female sheephead don’t eat urchins like their male counterparts both said they understand the concerns about expanding protections from local fishing businesses. “There's going to have to be a sacrifice, and I don't want to belittle the impact on the commercial fishers,” Hiemstra said. “But I think this is a small, incremental, necessary step, and this is the time and the process where we're able to take action on that.”
Isaac Castellanos, fourth from left, stands next to his attorneys from the firm Wisner Baum outside a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.A federal court jury today ordered the City of L.A. to pay more than $11.7 million to Isaac Castellanos, who was partially blinded by an LAPD less-lethal projectile during the 2020 Dodgers World Series celebrations.: The jury unanimously found that LAPD Officers Cody MacArthur and Jesse Pineda acted negligently, used excessive force and violated Castellanos’ constitutional rights when they fired 37mm launchers into a crowd and caused his injury. Castellanos’ attorneys say they hope the jury’s decision will lead LAPD to reform their policies and prevent more people from getting injured.
An LAist analysis of data from the City Attorney’s office found the city has already paid more than $19 million since 2020 on liabilities stemming from LAPD’s crowd control actions, but this verdict comes at a much higher cost to the city than any other case over that time.
Castellanos testified in court that the injury ended his emerging career as an Esports athlete and streamer. Speaking to LAist after the verdict was announced, he said he is focused on mending relationships and his mental health, which suffered from the stress caused by his injury.
A federal court jury has ordered the City of L.A. to pay more than $11.7 million to a man partially blinded by LAPD officers during a 2020 Dodgers World Series celebration. Isaac Castellanos told the court that he was struck and permanently blinded in one eye early in the morning on Oct. 28, 2020, when two officers fired 37mm less lethal launchers toward the crowd he was standing in. He was 22 years old at the time. The jury on Thursday unanimously found that Officers Cody MacArthur and Jesse Pineda acted negligently, used excessive force and violated Castellanos’ constitutional rights when they fired into the crowd and caused his injury.
Castellanos isn’t the first crowd control injury case faced by the LAPD, and more are working their way through the courts. Already, Los Angeles has paid more than $19 million in liabilities stemming from LAPD’s crowd control actions since the beginning of 2020, according to city data.
Castellanos’ verdict is by far the largest sum awarded since then.
Castellanos and his lawyers told LAist that people should feel free to peacefully celebrate or exercise their first amendment rights without fear of being injured by the police. “ I'm grateful to have this system of justice where Isaac can be compensated,” Castellanos’ lawyer Pedram Esfandiary told LAist, “and I just hope that this sends a loud and clear message to the LAPD that this is not okay.”
Unidentified LAPD officers disperse crowds in downtown L.A. during a celebration of the Dodgers winning the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 27, 2020. A jury has awarded a man partially blinded by officers that night $11.7 million.
When the Dodgers won their first World Series in more than three decades on Oct. 27, 2020, Castellanos and his friends went to downtown L.A. to celebrate. Castellanos told the court that he and his friends didn’t see any police officers nearby when they arrived, but within minutes they noticed a squad of police officers gathering down the street. Video evidence presented in the trial showed that some people in the crowd threw rocks and glass bottles toward the officers. Castellanos said he was not involved. He said he did not act violently or aggressively. Castellanos said he saw the officers holding “some kind of firearms” start to move toward the crowd, but he did not hear any order for the crowd to leave. By this time, it was after midnight. He had begun to leave, he said, when he saw a bright muzzle flash from the direction of the officers and heard a loud pop. He was immediately in extreme pain and felt warm blood coming from his face, he testified. He also noticed a loss of vision in his right eye.
Dr. Jerry Sebag is an eye specialist who testified as an expert witness in the case. He said that Castellanos experienced “severe blunt force trauma” to his eye, most likely from a rubber bullet, causing legal blindness in his right eye and a loss of depth perception.
Evidence provided in the case later proved that the MacArthur and Pineda fired 37mm less lethal launchers at the same place and time as Castellanos says he was injured. Lawyers for Castellanos argued in court that the officers used their weapons outside LAPD policy, being too far away from the crowd to accurately use the weapons and not issuing a warning or dispersal order to allow Castellanos a chance to leave. The city’s attorneys claimed that it was not the officers who caused the injury, and that the officers’ use of their weapons was within policy as they were responding to a threat from the crowd.
At least seven other cases since 2020 stemming from LAPD’s crowd control actions have exceeded $1 million in liability costs to the city, according to city data. Behind Castellanos’ $11.7 million verdict, the next largest was $3.6 million awarded to filmmaker A. Jamal Shakir Jr. after he was found to have been shot by LAPD less lethal projectiles during a May 29, 2020, protest.
City data shows the LAPD’s actions over the course of a single day — May 30, 2020 — eventually cost the city a combined total of $4.25 million to settle three lawsuits.
by an LAPD less lethal projectile while attending George Floyd protests on May 30, 2020, was awarded a $1.25 million settlement from the city.
Seconds after Sinistra was hit, Patricia Hill could also be seen struck in the head by a less lethal round fired by LAPD in a
Monique Alarcon is an attorney who represented both Castellanos and Sinistra in court. Alarcon said that while the severity of injuries that have led to lawsuits against the LAPD over its crowd control tactics vary, she sees the improper use of force as a common thread. “ I think this behooves the City of L.A. and the LAPD to really take a look at their crowd control practices and consider discontinuing using these weapons in those settings, because people get really hurt,” she told LAist.
In the past year, at least two more people have filed lawsuits alleging LAPD less lethal munitions caused permanent eye damage and blindness. In one such case, Marshall Woodruff claims LAPD fractured his cheekbone and ruptured his right eye while he was photographing the “No Kings” protest on June 14, 2024. His lawsuit claims he is now permanently blind in that eye.
Jesus Javier Islas says he was blinded in one eye by a less lethal projectile allegedly fired by LAPD at a protest on Jan. 31, 2026. Lawyers for Islas told reporters they are asking $100 million in damages from the LAPD and the City of L.A.
Castellanos was a college student at Cal State Long Beach when he was injured. Before the injury, he'd been gaining momentum as an Esports athlete and streamer, testifying that he had recently won a $40,000 prize with a teammate at a competition and had won a qualifying match to play for a professional team. While he got some accommodations from his college and was able to graduate on time, Castellanos said his Esports career ended with his injury.
Castellanos testified that he played in an Esports competition with a college alumni team after his injury, but he couldn’t play like he did before. By the end of the competition he said his team had done well, but he felt he’d held them back. No longer able to follow his passion, he said he began working at an Amazon warehouse, packaging and sorting boxes part time. That work, too, was made much harder by the injury.
Now that the verdict is in, he told LAist he wants to get his life back on track so he can lead a full life. His lawyers described in court how he has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, depression and panic disorder as a result of the injury. Castellanos said the mental strain also made his relationships with friends and family suffer. He told LAist the next steps are to mend those relationships and get into professional treatment for his mental health.
The backers of USA Surfing say they have proof that their rival US Ski & Snowboard doesn't know anything about the sport of surfing. It's an image used by the Utah-based snow group that appears to show a surfer facing backwards on a board.
The U.S. surf team will officially be managed by surfers when the Olympics come to LA in 2028. Duh? Well, for a while there, it was in doubt. Let us explain:
In a news conference this week, Gene Sykes, board chair of the U.S. Olympic committee, credited USA Surfing’s “new leadership and new approach” with earning back the board’s confidence. “Surfing is a sport that has deep roots in Southern California and will no doubt be a highlight of the LA28 games,” Sykes said.
The U.S. surf team will officially be managed by surfers when the Olympics come to LA in 2028. Duh? Well, for a while there, it was in doubt. Let us explain:US Ski and Snowboard, based in Utah, had initially been vying for control of the Olympic surf team in hopes of turning itself into an action sports juggernaut. But faced with strong opposition in the surf world, the organization dropped its bid to manage the U.S. Olympic surf team late last year.
The designation of USA Surfing as the official “National Governing Body” for Olympic surfing is a kind of second chance for the organization. Previously, it had relinquished control over the U.S. Olympic surf team following a 2019 audit
LA28 to award billions in Olympic contracts. City officials worry local businesses won't get a slice.
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