Politics
L.A. hotel’s homeless residents forced school to shut down, lawsuit says
All across the Academy of Media Arts, there are signs of an active campus life.
School projects are still plastered on the walls; books are strewn on tables; apples sit uneaten in the cafeteria.
What is missing are the students — some 50 ninth- through 12th-graders, many from low-income Black and Latino families, who were forced to scramble after the private high school in downtown Los Angeles abruptly shut its doors Jan. 15.
The school occupied the first three floors of the L.A. Grand Hotel, which since 2021 has been used as temporary housing for hundreds of homeless Angelenos. The school’s founder, Dana Hammond, filed a breach of contract lawsuit in January against the building’s owner, claiming that the presence of so many homeless people made the campus unsafe, forcing it to close.
A syringe on the ground outside the Academy of Media Arts school, housed in the L.A. Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
In an interview, he also blamed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for repeatedly extending the city’s lease at the property for her Inside Safe interim housing program.
“Human poop on sidewalk. The smell of urine across campus. Outburst from ‘Inside Safe’ tenants. Break-ins by ‘Inside Safe’ tenants. Drug paraphernalia found on campus. ‘Inside Safe’ tenants found in trash bins,” read comments left on a classroom whiteboard.
Asked about Hammond’s allegations, Clara Karger, a spokesperson for Bass, said in a statement that the city heightened security at the Grand by installing more fencing, conducting on-site visits to address the school’s concerns and collaborating with the academy’s security personnel to respond to urgent calls.
When Hammond signed the lease to move his school into the L.A. Grand in 2022, it was the culmination of nearly two decades of work.
His school, which began in a South Los Angeles church, now had its own space where the students could have access to state-of-the-art facilities.
After an aggressive recruiting campaign pushed the student body up to 250, a mass exodus began, dropping the enrollment to around 50. Hammond said that by mid-January, he was unable to pay the $100,000 monthly rent.
Reports compiled by school security and reviewed by The Times describe incidents involving the hotel’s residents, including a man threatening to fight security outside the school’s gate; a woman exposing herself to students at 9:30 a.m.; another woman lying completely naked behind the school, who threatened to “shoot and stab” a security officer when confronted; a man who broke into the school through the back.
Academy of Media Arts school principal Dana Hammond stands in the school’s outdoor amphitheater.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Empty classrooms at the Academy of Media Arts school, which has temporarily closed down.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“Our students’ lives were in jeopardy because of the Inside Safe residents,” Hammond said. “We’re not enemies of the homeless shelter, we just can’t put them in the same building as a high school.”
But records reviewed by The Times show that the school had long struggled with problems not directly connected to the homeless presence.
For years, the academy operated as a Los Angeles Unified School District charter school, which meant it received funding from the California Department of Education but maintained a level of autonomy over its operations. As a private school, the school obtained funding through donors and tuition.
The academy had been scrutinized by LAUSD for failing to meet academic standards as students fell behind in subjects such as math and English. The school also failed to do proper criminal background clearances for teachers and had seven different principals over a four-year period, according to LAUSD records.
“The charter school’s current academic performance levels are not meeting the academic needs of its students,” the LAUSD’s Charter School Division wrote in a “notice of violation” report on the Academy of Media Arts in April 2023.
While Hammond disputed the allegations, the school converted from charter to private later that year.
LAUSD officials did not respond to requests for comment on the district’s former relationship with the academy.
Hammond didn’t directly respond to The Times inquiry about the notice of violation, sharing instead a document from 2020 that detailed how the academy would address concerns over teacher credentialing.
In the lawsuit, Hammond claimed that the hotel’s owner said the homeless residents would be moved out soon after the school moved in. But that did not happen.
The hotel is owned by Chinese billionaire Wei Huang, whose real estate company, Shen Zhen New World I, was found guilty of fraud and bribery charges in connection with the corruption case involving disgraced former Councilmember José Huizar.
A judge fined Shen Zhen $4 million.
Huang was charged with bribery and fraud in the case. He fled the country after the FBI began executing search warrants in 2018 and is considered a fugitive by the U.S. attorney’s office.
“Huang repeatedly made false and misleading representations to suggest that the L.A. Grand Hotel would cease to be a homeless shelter in the near future, despite the fact that Huang had no intention of terminating the lucrative agreement,” wrote lawyers for Hammond and Dennis L. Smith, who hopes to open a nightclub on the roof of the hotel and joined Hammond in the lawsuit.
Russ Cox, a representative for Huang’s company and himself a defendant in the case, declined to comment.
Dennis L. Smith is trying to open the Rome Nightclub on the roof of the L.A. Grand Hotel downtown. He is disappointed because he has all the necessary permits, but there are delays.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Huang acquired the Grand in 2010, operating it as a four-star, 14-story hotel described on social media as an “urban oasis.”
In 2021, the Grand became a site for Project Roomkey, a federally funded program that provided shelter to unhoused people at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city has paid Shen Zhen more than $25 million since the academy opened at the site in 2022, according to city records.
“The mayor’s office does not condone the behavior of the fugitive owner of the Grand,” Karger, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in a statement to The Times.
The city continued operations with L.A. Grand — and added more residents — after Bass took office in late 2022, even with the academy already present at the building.
The city extended its lease to continue operating the shelter through the end of July. The extension will cost $20 million, including $13.9 million for the lease and food and $6.8 million for services, according to the city records.
The mayor’s office did not respond directly when asked by The Times whether it might seek further extensions beyond July 31. In a statement, Karger said the L.A. Grand’s residents are expected to begin moving to the Mayfair Hotel in May.
“The L.A. Grand has brought hundreds of unhoused individuals inside from the tough elements of living on the streets. The work continues to save lives every day,” Karger said.
Around the school the sidewalks are strewn with garbage, empty liquor bottles and even discarded syringes. The sign welcoming visitors to the Academy of Media Arts is graffitied over.
Graffiti, trash and an abandoned scooter in front of the Academy of Media Arts school.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“We moved from the church to the hotel, which I thought was a wonderful idea before I found out about the homeless shelter,” said Mary Tascian Williams, who worked at the school from June 2022 until it shut down.
Williams said she used to spend much of her day walking the floors making sure no one broke into the school.
On Jan. 10, an intruder broke into the school lobby just minutes after students had gone to lunch in a different part of the campus.
When approached by the security guard, the man said, “They are trying to kill me,” according to an school incident report.
It took numerous LAPD officers to subdue him, the report said.
Hammond said the episode left students afraid and him at a loss for how to protect the teens. On Jan. 12, Hammond and more than a dozen students went to a City Council meeting to speak about the problems.
Academy of Media Arts school principal Dana Hammond walks up a stairwell toward a homeless shelter in the same building. Residents of the homeless shelter have caused numerous incidents, which led the school to temporarily close down.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
He met with Councilmember Kevin de León, who spoke about the issue at the meeting and toured the school that night.
“The location raised legitimate and serious concerns for students, faculty, and staff, especially regarding breaches into the school by the residents of the Grand,” De León told The Times in a statement. “It was my hope in meeting with parents and administrators that we could avoid the school’s closure which has become a real tragedy for Black and Brown students and parents alike.”
At the hearing, De León questioned the mayor’s office on when it planned to exit the Grand and move Inside Safe participants into the Mayfair Hotel. Officials did not provide a timeline.
“When the mayor first took office in December 2022 we were very much aware there were security concerns, public safety concerns,” Lourdes Castro Ramírez, the mayor’s chief housing and homelessness officer, said at the council meeting. “There were immediate actions taken to increase security, bring in service providers. … I take their concerns very seriously and plan to follow up to better understand how to resolve these issues.”
Her comments came after three students cried at the council meeting. Others spoke about how much they loved the school and how sad they would be to lose it.
A security guard patrols the halls of the L.A. Grand Hotel’s Project Roomkey homeless shelter housed in the same building as the Academy of Media Arts on Jan. 30 in downtown Los Angeles.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“I’m not against the Inside Safe program. I want all the homeless people to have a safe place to live. But they can’t be doing that while my education and the education of my peers are at stake,” student Alex Hernandez said. “I feel threatened because this is very dangerous.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Politics
DOJ expands indictment against SPLC, alleging $4M secretly funneled to KKK and extremist groups
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The Department of Justice last month announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), alleging that the civil rights nonprofit defrauded donors by secretly paying informants associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan.
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment in April charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, according to the Justice Department.
The superseding indictment retains those charges while expanding on the alleged misconduct.
According to the DOJ, the SPLC “secretly funneled” more than $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to numerous individuals associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Movement, participants in the Unite the Right rally and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
NEO-NAZIS, ‘SADISTIC’ BIKERS AND CHARLOTTESVILLE ORGANIZER: 5 OF THE MOST SHOCKING SPLC INFORMANTS
The Southern Poverty Law Center has widespread influence in education. FILE: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, left, and SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair are shown in a split image as the Justice Department pursues charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images)
The original indictment alleged approximately $3 million in payments between 2014 and 2023.
“The SPLC’s paid informants (‘field sources’) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” the indictment states.
Prosecutors further allege the SPLC opened bank accounts tied to fictitious entities in order to conceal donor funds that were allegedly routed to confidential sources.
MIKE DAVIS: SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: A TALE OF A RACISM SCAM
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) building seen in March 2020 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images)
According to the indictment, the SPLC began operating a covert informant network in the 1980s, and between 2014 and 2023 allegedly paid those sources in a clandestine manner.
The DOJ alleges an SPLC employee instead encouraged the pair to remain involved and offered them a monthly salary of $1,200.
The two subsequently agreed to remain in the organization, according to the indictment.
DR. BEN CARSON: I KNOW HOW BAD THE SPLC WAS, IT CAME AFTER ME AND PUT ME AT RISK
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke during a press conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel at the Department of Justice on April 21, 2026, in Washington, D.C., following the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Prosecutors allege an SPLC employee instructed the individuals to claim they worked for a company called Rare Books and helped college students with research and writing assignments if anyone questioned the source of their income.
The indictment alleges donor funds were used to pay both individuals through SPLC accounts.
According to prosecutors, the pair were also reimbursed for expenses related to Ku Klux Klan activities, including cross-burning events and associated costs such as wood and fuel.
One of the individuals is also accused of recruiting new members using donor-funded payments. The indictment further alleges the SPLC knew donor funds were used to purchase materials for Ku Klux Klan garments.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, attorney Abbe Lowell, who represents the SPLC, denied the allegations.
A composite image shows Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche overlaid on photographs of the Department of Justice and FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This apparent superseding indictment attempts to shore up the flaws in the initial charges, but it changes nothing,” Lowell said.
“The SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives,” he continued.
“It appears the Justice Department shared the indictment with media before it was unsealed by the court – another example of the government’s troubling handling of this case.”
“We will be addressing these irregularities with the court and look forward to presenting the truth at trial,” he added.
NONPROFIT REVENUE TOTALS SURGE AMID GROWING SCRUTINY AFTER MAJOR FRAUD CASES
SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair speaks during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Southern Poverty Law Center Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., on March 5, 2026. (Jake Crandall/Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
The superseding indictment also notes that the SPLC’s reported revenue increased from roughly $38.7 million in 2010 to more than $129 million in 2023, an increase of approximately 233%.
According to the filing, the organization’s net assets grew from approximately $238 million to nearly $787 million during the same period.
The SPLC is a longtime nonprofit organization that says it combats white supremacy and extremism through research, reporting and monitoring efforts intended to assist law enforcement and the public.
During a news conference announcing the original indictment, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged the SPLC paid members of extremist groups so it could generate “work product” documenting their activities.
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“To that end, [SPLC] was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing – not dismantling extremism but funding it,” Blanche said.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch, David Spunt, Jake Gibson and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
Buoyed by a new Congressional map favoring their party, California Democrats were eyeing Tuesday’s primary elections as a critical first step toward flipping a handful of House seats and taking back power in Washington.
Results from California’s massive and slow-moving election process were not immediately clear late Tuesday, as polls closed and mail ballots continued to be processed and counted. Still, Democrats were bullish about their chances of advancing candidates to November’s general election in all five districts that were redrawn in their favor as a result of last year’s Proposition 50 ballot measure.
“The path to winning back the House starts with voting in the June 2nd primary,” the California Democratic Party posted online Monday.
Meanwhile, California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin urged Republican voters to make their own voices heard too.
“Like President Trump said, we need to make it too big to rig,” Rankin said on “The Benny Show.” “We need to swamp the vote.”
One of the most closely watched races was in the redrawn 22nd Congressional District in the Central Valley, where incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) is facing challenges from moderate Assemblymember Jasmeet Kaur Bains (D-Delano) and progressive college professor Randy Villegas.
Another closely watched race was in the redrawn 48th Congressional District in San Diego and Riverside counties, where Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) decided to retire rather than run for reelection, and where Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond — who is endorsed by Trump — is running against a pack of Democrats.
Prop. 50 — which Californians passed with nearly 65% of the vote a year ago — was California Democrats’ response to Texas Republicans redrawing their state’s Congressional maps in the GOP’s favor, at President Trump’s behest. It was also the only major Democratic counterpunch in the wider mid-decade redistricting brawl that has spread across the country in the last year.
Experts expect the redistricting battle to deliver a net gain of a handful or more House seats to Republicans. But Democrats could gain even more ground given Trump’s lousy approval ratings and the long history of midterm election losses for the president’s party.
Combined, those factors make the battle for control of the House incredibly close, which in turn makes the five seats up for grabs in California pivotal — and potentially decisive.
Tuesday’s primaries won’t determine if any of those five seats will indeed flip parties in November. However, the primaries will define those head-to-head races to come and better inform the odds of Democrats toppling Republican incumbents, experts said.
In addition to flipping the seats currently held by Valadao and Issa, Democrats are hoping to pick up three additional seats.
In the 1st Congressional District — which after Prop. 50 lost rural reaches of northeast California and picked up liberal North Bay communities — various candidates were vying for the seat long held by the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), who died in January. They include Democratic state Sen. Mike McGuire and Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher, who is endorsed by Trump.
Voters from the existing district are also voting in a special election Tuesday to fill the remainder of LaMalfa’s term.
In the 3rd Congressional District, which lost an eastern rural stretch along Nevada and now holds more tightly to the Sacramento suburbs, Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove) — who currently represents a different district — is running to remain in Congress in a new seat.
Meanwhile, the 3rd Congressional District’s incumbent, Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Rocklin), is seeking to do the opposite. He quit the Republican Party, became an independent and is now running for Bera’s current seat in Congressional District 6, which includes the city of Sacramento and Placer County suburbs.
In the 41st Congressional District, which became more liberal after Prop. 50 by losing voters in Riverside County and gaining them in Los Angeles County, a slate of candidates — including Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Whittier), who currently represents a different district — are running to replace Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona). Calvert, a 17-term incumbent, decided to run in the neighboring 40th Congressional District instead.
In the 40th Congressional District, which covers a swath of inland Orange County and portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, incumbent Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) is now going head-to-head with Calvert, while also facing several Democratic challengers.
Other districts that were not part of the Prop. 50 shuffle are also attracting attention.
In the 11th Congressional District in San Francisco, several Democratic candidates are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the retiring former House Speaker, including state Sen. Scott Wiener; tech millionaire and Democratic political operative Saikat Chakrabarti; and Connie Chan, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors who Pelosi endorsed.
Democrats are also closely watching several races where younger Democrats and progressives are challenging older incumbent Democrats, and where newer Democratic incumbents are seeking to hold onto their seats in relatively competitive districts.
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LOS ANGELES — Outside a Bristol Farms market in LA’s Westchester neighborhood, residents who spoke to Fox News Digital all agreed that homelessness is a top problem facing the city, but disagreed on which mayoral candidate is the right choice to clean it up.
“Love him,” Shelley Zuckerman said about reality television star and independent candidate Spencer Pratt, adding that homelessness is a main motivator of her support for the reality TV star’s mayoral run.
“The fact that he’s not a politician, so he may or may not be a liar, we don’t know that yet, and I know that he wants to do something for LA that the politicians have been saying they’re going to do and then don’t,” Zuckerman added. “And I know politics works, that once you get in there you can’t always do what you want to do, but at least he’s got the passion.”
SPENCER PRATT SAYS HIS POLICY WILL FORCE HOMELESS OUT OF LA AND INTO CITIES LIKE SEATTLE
Los Angeles residents say homelessness is the top problem facing the city as they head to the polls for the mayoral primary. (Fox News Digital)
When asked if crime was a motivating factor to vote for Pratt, Zuckerman’s husband Saul responded, “Of course.”
The couple says they are supporting Republican Steve Hilton for governor.
Patrick Reynolds, who lives in the neighborhood, said he is “not happy with any of the candidates” and called Pratt a “clown” before saying he voted for incumbent Mayor Karen Bass “a little reluctantly.”
Homelessness has been a top-of-mind concern for voters in Los Angeles, and despite Bass being mayor for the last four years, Reynolds said he believes she’s the best choice on that front.
Reynolds, who said he is supporting billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer for governor, spoke at length about the problems with homelessness, including a local park he said has become “too dangerous” to visit in recent years.
KAREN BASS GRILLED OVER BROKEN HOMELESSNESS PROMISE, BLAMES BUREAUCRACY FOR SLOWED PROGRESS
Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt hosts a campaign block party on 10th Avenue in Los Angeles on May 20, 2026. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“Homelessness for sure,” a woman named Diane, who said she voted for Bass, told Fox News Digital, “That’s number one on my list, and I think she’s tried very hard to fix that problem. It’s a big problem, I know. And I just think she is down to earth. She’s not some rich billionaire, which I appreciate.”
Diane said she is supporting former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served in the Biden administration, for governor because he is a “good guy.”
“I like that he is an immigrant and that he has worked his way up in this world,” Diane said. “I think he has a good sensibility. I like also that he isn’t a billionaire. I can relate to him.”
Dan Madden, a resident of nearby Manhattan Beach, told Fox News Digital that if he could vote in LA proper, he’d go with Pratt.
WHO IS TOM STEYER? ANTI-ICE BILLIONAIRE IN CA GOVERNOR’S RACE FACES SCRUTINY OVER DETENTION INVESTMENTS
A Los Angeles city councilwoman and progressive candidate for mayor Nithya Raman, left, pictured alongside incumbent mayor Karen Bass, right. (Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“That’d be my man,” said Madden, who added that he is voting for Hilton for governor. “The last 20 years in Los Angeles has been screwed.”
“It’s getting worse,” Madden said about the homeless situation in the Los Angeles area. “They cleaned up here and there. Spots, especially along the beach, coastline, you see it cleaned up. Two months later, everybody’s back.”
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Pratt, a registered Republican running as an independent, faces off in a nonpartisan mayoral primary against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a socialist.
Tuesday’s election will determine which two candidates advance to the November general election. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, they will automatically be named the next mayor.
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