Home Care In Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles developer Cliff Goldstein just completed a plush new apartment complex on the Westside, but that’s the last one he’s going to build for the foreseeable future.

Even though demand for housing in the region is red hot, many people who build apartments for a living have paused putting shovels in the ground because, they say, it’s just too hard to turn a profit.

“It’s a needle in a haystack to find an opportunity that makes financial sense to build today,” Goldstein said.

Ari Kahan used to have multiple projects with as many as 800 total units being built in Los Angeles at any given time. No more, he says.

“We haven’t bought a site with the intention to develop it in over two years,” he said. “I don’t know when we will be building in L.A next.”

The supply of fresh rental units, which make up the bulk of new housing in Los Angeles, is petering out despite robust demand. The vacancy rate is among the lowest in the country, while rental rates are among the highest nationwide.

Still, the number of new units under construction in Los Angeles has been falling each quarter since early last year and is set to dive to a more than 10-year low, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

Under 19,000 apartments were under construction in the three months through September. That’s 30% fewer than three years earlier, according to CoStar’s count.

Developers say they can’t raise the money they need to build as many of their biggest backers — think pension funds, insurance companies and other institutions looking for long-term investments — don’t want to park their money in L.A. because the rapidly changing rules make it impossible to predict profits.

The years since COVID-19 have demonstrated how tangled regulation of the industry can get in L.A., observers say, so investors are taking their money to other cities.

“L.A. has been redlined by the majority of the investment community,” said Kahan, a principal of California Landmark Group.

If the investors won’t invest, builders can’t build.

“A developer without investors would be like a king without clothes,” said Goldstein. “I am an optimistic developer who wants to develop, but the investment community won’t participate.”

Recent policy out of Washington also hasn’t helped. Higher tariffs have sparked rising prices in construction materials and equipment, while the crackdown on undocumented workers has thinned and spooked much of the international workforce the industry depends on.

“Prices rose at an especially rapid pace in some of the categories most affected by tariffs,” including iron and steel prices, which have risen 9% in the last year, and copper wire and cable prices, which have jumped 14%, said Anirban Basu, chief economist of trade group Associated Builders and Contractors.

California’s construction industry depends on immigrant workers. Around 61% of construction workers in the state are immigrants, and 26% of those are undocumented, according to a June report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

“Finding construction labor was hard before, and now it’s even harder,” economist Richard Green said.

Green, who is director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, said findings from a new USC project that collects housing data on Los Angeles County neighborhoods illustrate the problem.

Housing production in Los Angeles County has slowed dramatically over the decades, dropping from over 70,000 new units annually in the 1950s to roughly 30,000 in the 1970s and 1980s to less than 15,000 in the 2010s. This long-term slowdown in housing construction has left the region with an older, more strained housing stock and a deep shortfall in affordable options, USC said.

With little urban land left for single-family subdivisions, most new housing is rental apartments. Over the last six years, around 152,000 new units were built in Los Angeles County. The vast majority of those were rental units, and only 10% were affordable to lower-income households.

Southern California stands out even among sharp nationwide declines in apartment production, according to HomeAbroad, which helps foreign investors buy U.S. real estate.

The number of multifamily building permits issued in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area in July fell 68% to 556 compared to the same month in 2020, HomeAbroad said. It was the second biggest drop in the country after the Silicon Valley area of San José-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara.

Among investors’ concerns are public policies such as the United to House Los Angeles transfer tax on large real estate sales, and also temporary limits on evicting tenants that were enacted during the pandemic.

“They’re fearful of what policies might come down later,” said Goldstein, a co-founder of GPI Cos.

On Tuesday, two Los Angeles City Council members introduced a motion to study the effects of establishing a $32.35 per hour minimum wage for construction projects in the city with 10 or more residential units that are under 85 feet in height. The study will also examine adding an additional healthcare credit of $7.65 per hour to builders’ costs.

Of course, the cost of apartments in Los Angeles is also hard on renters. At the current construction price, developers need to charge between $4,000 and $5,000 per month in rent, depending on the apartment size, which suggests the tenant should earn between $120,000 and $150,000 per year.

Developers predict people will have to move farther out and commute times will grow.

Still, some are looking for deals to be ready to build when the environment is better.

“There is a lot less competition and prices have come down substantially” on some types of properties, said Jordan Lang, president of McCourt Partners. “We’re viewing this as a time to buy multiple land sites to be ready for this next cycle.”

In Culver City, McCourt Partners has recently joined with Lincoln Property Co. to take over and redesign a proposed apartment complex on Jefferson Boulevard. Lang hopes to start work on the project next year, pending the return of institutional investors.

“We’re anticipating capital coming back into the market” in six months to three years, he said. “We want to be ready with a project that can put shovels in the ground when that happens.”

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Southern California will see a quiet weather pattern most of this week with mild fall temperatures.

Expect below-average temperatures the next few days with no major changes in the forecast until a small warmup arrives on Thursday for some areas. Thursday is expected to be the warmest day of the week.

Another small cold front moves through on Friday, bringing temperatures back down.

Los Angeles and Orange counties on Wednesday can expect morning clouds and afternoon sunshine, with a high of 76 degrees and a low of 60.

The valleys and Inland Empire on Wednesday will see a high of 81 degrees and a low of 58. The high is expected to climb to 85 by Thursday.

Beaches on Wednesday can expect a high of 72 degrees and a low of 61. Temperatures are expected to drop to the upper-60s on Friday when another small low moves through.

Mountain areas on Wednesday can expect a high of 68 degrees with sunny skies and a chilly night with a low of 35.

Deserts on Wednesday will see a high of 83 degrees and a low of 55. Palm Springs is expected to reach 93 degrees.

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The pawnshop owner is one of two men convicted in a scheme to sell the stolen artwork that quickly went sideways.

LOS ANGELES, CA — A pawnshop owner pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying to investigators about his connection to stolen Andy Warhol art.

Glenn Bednarsh, 58, formerly of Beverly Hills, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.

Bednarsh knowingly bought a stolen Warhol print depicting Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin in February 2021 for $6,000. Bednarsh asked co-conspirator Brian Alec Light to help him sell the stolen trial proof. Light then contacted the Beverly Hills office of an auction house based in Dallas about selling the art, according to federal prosecutors.

Light, 58, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods and is awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors don't believe Light nor Bednarsh stole the Warhol print — a trial proof depicting Lenin and was print number 44 of 46 total by Warhol — in early 2022 from a home in Los Angeles County.

But Light played a role in trying to sell the ill-gotten print worth about $170,000, according to prosecutors.

Authorities have not publicly identified any suspects in the theft.

After being burglarized, the victim informed law enforcement of its theft as well as the original gallery in West Hollywood that sold him the artwork, according to investigators.

"Days after the theft, the thief brought the artwork to a pawnshop, which purchased it. The pawnshop’s owner contacted Light for help selling the artwork, which Light knew was stolen," prosecutors allege. "Light contacted an auction house to sell the print within weeks of its theft. Light told the pawnshop owner to drop off the Warhol at the auction house in Beverly Hills so that it could be transported to Dallas for inspection and sale, which the pawnshop owner did."

The art was slated for auction in Dallas a few months later.

"An employee of the auction house in Dallas reached out to the gallery in West Hollywood for its opinion of the piece," the justice department said in a written statement. "The gallery immediately recognized the piece as the stolen piece of art. As a result, the gallery notified the auction house of its stolen nature and notified the FBI."

Later in March 2021, when FBI agents began inquiring about the stolen Warhol art, Light lied to them by saying he bought it at a Culver City garage sale for $18,000 and provided a fake receipt, he admitted.

According to Bednarsh's plea agreement, he admitted having lied to FBI agents by telling them Light asked him to store the Warhol for him and that he agreed to do so out of friendship and not for financial gain.

As part of his plea agreement, Light forfeited the stolen artwork retrieved by law enforcement.

Bednarsh is due back in court for sentencing on Jan. 6.

City News Service contributed to this report.

More from Los Angeles

The DOJ sued the LA County Sheriff's Department, accusing the agency of denying people their right to carry concealed handguns.

LOS ANGELES, CA — The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Tuesday, alleging the agency "systematically" denies law-abiding Californians their constitutional right to carry concealed handguns in public for self-defense.

The lawsuit filed by the DOJ's civil rights division contends eligible citizens face "unreasonable delays" in concealed carry permitting decisions by the sheriff's department.

After receiving notice of the division's probe of the allegations, the sheriff's department provided data and documents revealing only two approvals from more than 8,000 applications, and that the agency scheduled interviews to approve licenses as much as two years after receiving completed permit requests, according to the DOJ.

The lawsuit, lodged in Los Angeles federal court, also names Sheriff Robert Luna as a defendant.

The sheriff's department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The department has said previously that according to policy, it does not comment on pending litigation.

"The Second Amendment is not a second-class right," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's civil rights division said in a statement. "This lawsuit seeks to stop Los Angeles County's egregious pattern and practice of delaying law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to bear arms."

Shortly after Dhillon was sworn in to lead the division, numerous complaints alleged inexplicable delays well beyond California statutory requirements and in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment right of law-abiding citizens, according to the DOJ.

"Citizens living in high-crime areas cannot afford to wait to protect themselves with firearms while Los Angeles County dithers," Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said in a statement. "The right to bear arms is among the founding principles of our nation. It can and must be upheld."

City News Service

Responding to the Trump administration‘s hampering of federal regulators, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a bill greatly expanding California’s power over workplace disputes and union elections.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 288, gives the state authority to step in and oversee union elections, charges of workplace retaliation and other disputes between private employers and workers in the event the National Labor Relations Board fails to respond.

As Newsom signed the worker rights bill, his office drew a sharp contrast with the gridlock in Washington, D.C., where a government shutdown looms.

“With the federal government not only asleep at the wheel, but driving into incoming traffic, it is more important than ever that states stand up to protect workers,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is a proud labor state — and we will continue standing up for the workers that keep our state running and our economy booming.”

The NLRB, which is tasked with safeguarding the right of private employees to unionize or organize in other ways to improve their working conditions, has been functionally paralyzed since it lost quorum in January, when Trump fired one of its board members.

The Trump administration has also proposed sweeping cuts to the agency’s staff and canceled leases for regional offices in many states, while Amazon, SpaceX and other companies have lodged challenges to the 90-year-old federal agency’s constitutionality in court.

With this law in place, workers unable to get a timely response at the federal level can petition the California Public Employment Relations Board to enforce their rights.

The law creates a Public Employee Relations Board Enforcement Fund, financed by civil penalties paid by employers cited for labor violations, to help pay for the added responsibilities for the state labor board.

“This is the most significant labor law reform in nearly a century,” said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions. “California workers will no longer be forced to rely on a failing federal agency when they join together to unionize.”

The state’s labor board can choose to take on a case when the NLRB “has expressly or impliedly ceded jurisdiction,” according to language in the law. That includes when charges filed with the agency or an election certification have languished with a regional director for more than six months — or when the federal board doesn’t have a quorum of members or is hampered in other ways.

The law could draw legal challenges over whether it infringes on federal law.

It was opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce, which warned that it improperly attempts to give California’s labor board authority even as the federal agency’s regional offices are continuing to process elections as well as charges filed by workers and employers.

The chamber argued that “courts have repeatedly held that states are prohibited from regulating this space.”

Catherine Fisk, a professor at UC Berkeley Law, counters, however, that in the first few decades of the NLRB’s functioning, state labor agencies had much more leeway to enforce federal labor rights.

She said the law “simply proposes going back to the system that existed for three decades.”

The bill’s author, Assemblymember Tina S. McKinnor (D-Hawthorne), said it will ensure California workers can continue to unionize and bargain.

“The current President is attempting to take a wrecking ball to public and private sector employees’ fundamental right to join a union,” McKinnor said in a statement. “This is unacceptable and frankly, un-American. California will not sit idly as its workers are systematically denied the right to organize.”