Scott, Hayes, and Alissa look back on how the pandemic has changed LA, five years later. Then, a scathing audit of homelessness services at the city and LAHSA, a famous content creator’s burglary raises questions about LAPD response rates, and the brazenness of Huntington Park’s corruption scandal, "Operation Dirty Pond."

Listen to the March 16, 2020 episode of LA Podcast: “SoCal Distancing”

Coverage of the court-ordered audit of LA’s homelessness programs in the Daily News, LAist, and LA Times, plus the audit-report-on-la-city-homelessness-spending-released-by-judge-carter-on-march-6-2025.pdf">audit report ordered by Judge David O. Carter

Leaders at the county and city are calling for new oversight, with LA County leaders voting on whether to pull funding from LAHSA

Statement from LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and statement from LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman

Meanwhile, the number of homeless people who die in LA County has reached seven deaths per day

On "LA In a Minute” Evan Lovett said 911 didn’t pick up for an hour, then followed up with a correction, then talked about what happened next. The day before he asked what’s happening to the spirit of LA

The LA Times updated its story on Lovett clarifying 911 picked up after 78 seconds, but most local news outlets did not

One way to improve emergency response rates is by dispatching unarmed responders. LA’s pilot program is at risk of being zeroed out in the new budget. LA Forward is holding a teach-in on unarmed crisis response on March 25 at 7 p.m. RSVP here

Operation Dirty Pond: 11 Huntington Park locations were searched in an LA County District Attorney corruption probe

Huntington Park is reeling from the fallout with four former city employees suing for retaliation and constituents screaming at officials at a recent city council meeting

Produced by Sophie Bridges