Measure H funding is boosting outreach to the homeless. Over the next decade, millions of dollars are expected to flow into outreach programs countywide, thanks to the voter-approved sales tax to combat homelessness. This video photo gallery shows some of the frontline work now taking place. As outreach workers from LA Family Housing fanned out recently in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, they provided medical care, cold drinks, rides to shelters and, most of all, a human connection to those in need. Through repeated contacts and trust-building, they aim to link people to needed services and ultimately, a home of their own. For more information about L.A. County's Homeless Initiative, visit homeless.lacounty.gov.

When the sun goes down, the L.A. County Fair gets cooler—in more ways than one. From the glittering lights of the midway to the pulsing music of the late summer soundtrack, those who dare to fair at night get a totally new experience. Get a sense of the nighttime fun in our video photo gallery, then go to www.lacf.com to plan your own fair adventure, now through September 24.

Moving across multiple fronts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to intensify its support for immigrants in the face of federal efforts to roll back protections on vulnerable populations, including young “dreamers” studying and working under the DACA program.

The Board of Supervisors, acting on a motion by Supervisors Hilda L. Solis and Sheila Kuehl, voted unanimously to make immigration one of the County’s key priorities. It joins other major issues such as homelessness, child protection, healthcare, justice reform and environmental oversight at the top of the action list for the local government serving the nation’s most populous county.

“As the rhetoric and negative action directed toward immigrants increases at the federal level, the County must become increasingly attentive to the crisis impacting more than one million of our residents,” the motion said. Identifying immigration as a priority will make sure the County’s cross-departmental focus on legislation, litigation, resources and services “remains concentrated and consistent.”

Following a motion by Board Chair Mark Ridley-Thomas, the board voted in closed session to authorize County Counsel to file a friend of the court brief supporting the state of California’s lawsuit challenging federal government actions to rescind DACA. That vote was 4-0, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstaining.

In public session, the board also approved a motion by Supervisor Solis and Supervisor Janice Hahn to impose a one-year restriction on most official County travel to nine states that threatened legal action to permanently end DACA, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Supervisor Barger voted against the motion, with Supervisor Ridley-Thomas abstaining.

Supervisors unanimously directed the County’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to continue its outreach and support for DACA recipients, and to work with the County Counsel to explore immigration relief and residency options for County employees in the DACA program, which the Trump Administration said it will terminate in six months.

The economic and human stakes are high, the motion said.

“Ending DACA and admonishing recipients from the labor force could cost the United States $460.3 billion in GDP and decrease Social Security and Medicare contributions by $24.6 billion over the next decade,” according to the motion. “Every state in the U.S. will feel the economic harms from ending DACA. Los Angeles County, a virtual state in its own right, is especially susceptible to these economic harms and the human costs associated with them…Action by Congress in the next six months is critical to the future of this nation’s DACA recipients and the people of Los Angeles County.”

For additional information on the County’s immigration resources, please visit OIA.lacounty.gov.

L.A. County’s surf and sand are famous worldwide, but taking the plunge can be difficult for people with mobility issues.

Now a fleet of chubby-tire beach wheelchairs has rolled into action. Patients at the county’s Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center recently had a blast giving the beach wheelchairs a test drive. Splash along with them in our video photo gallery.

Find out how to use one free of charge at a variety of locations, from Dockweiler to Zuma. Information is here and a map is here.

Edgar Quintero was on the fence about graduation attire, leaning toward a simple black dress that wouldn’t make a big deal of her gender-bending status.

But her godmother thought that was too low-key for an A-student graduating near the top of her high-school class. “She told me ‘You ought to really stand out,” said Edgar, 17.

So Edgar showed up for the ceremony earlier this month in a shimmery red frock with a thigh-high slit. But the dress was more than a fashion statement.

It was the culmination of a brave and often bewildering journey—and a testament to the power of open minds and unconditional love.

Edgar’s journey moved onto an even bigger stage when she joined other high-achieving, college-bound foster youth for a gala celebration at Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 27.

That kind of acclaim would have been hard to imagine eight years ago, when Edgar and two older sisters landed in the Los Angeles County foster care system, after police raided their home and arrested their parents for selling drugs. The children spent weeks shuttling among relatives, until their godmother, Nelida Reynoso, offered to become their foster mom.

Back then Edgar was a little boy who liked playing dress-up with his mother’s silky scarves. “My dad would complain: ‘Tell him to take it off!’ ” Edgar recalled.  “My mom would say, ‘Leave him alone. He’s having fun.’ ”

Edgar’s mother died in 2010, while she was in the process of trying to regain custody of her children. That sent Edgar into a tailspin. But his sisters were a comfort and his godmother a steadying influence as Edgar wrestled privately with confusing feelings about gender identity.

“I knew back then that the way I presented myself physically was not the way I wanted to be,” Edgar said. “Even if it looked normal to everyone else, it didn’t feel normal to me.”

By high school Edgar had come out to family and friends as gay. It would take another year to figure out that if a label was required, it might be “transgender” and Edgar’s preferred pronoun would be “she.”

That wasn’t a result of some grand epiphany. It was more like a step toward a destination that Edgar is still mapping out.

“You feel like you know yourself, but sometimes you don’t,” she acknowledged, shrugging broad shoulders and running a manicured hand through her dark mop of curls. “That part of me wanting to transition was always there, but I didn’t know how to address it. I didn’t even know what a ‘trans’ person was.”

She took her cues from a legendary source—drag queen supermodel RuPaul, whose Emmy-winning reality show had kept young Edgar enthralled. The show’s signature line became Edgar’s guiding light: If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else.

Today Edgar isn’t hung up on nomenclature. “I’m non-binary, non-conforming … I don’t know what to call it. That’s just how it is.”

She wears jeans more than dresses and has no plans to change her name. It doesn’t bother Edgar that her family still calls her “he’.” “They don’t mean any disrespect. That’s just what they’re used to,” she said.

Still, coming out was scary. Edgar worried that friends and family might shun her—until her godmother cleared the air with a promise of unconditional love. “She was the first person who didn’t ask how or why, just accepted it straightaway,” Edgar said.

Support from Edgar’s principal, teachers and classmates at Aspire Ollin University Preparatory Academy helped make her transition drama-free, and even improved her academic performance.

Edgar discovered a talent for writing when a teacher encouraged her to chronicle the experience. She became an activist with Students Against Gender Oppression, with help from a transgender teacher. She worked with principal Jennifer Garcia to make the Huntington Park campus a nurturing place for nonconforming students.

This month, Edgar graduated with a 3.95 GPA and Achievement Awards in English, creative writing and art. She will attend UC Davis this fall, with help from a scholarship provided through the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

The department hosted the Disney Hall celebration for Edgar and 174 other foster youth who graduated with honors from local high schools and are receiving scholarships for college.

Many endured neglect or abuse and cycled through multiple foster homes, like one young woman headed for UCLA who moved among seven different placements while tending her little brother and surviving on ramen noodles and frozen burritos. She also is graduating with a 3.95 GPA.

“I am really inspired by these students,” said Brandon Nichols, acting director of DCFS. “They are setting high goals for themselves...and are already looking for ways to improve our world through careers in child welfare, immigration, racial discrimination, and LGBTQ equality.”

The odds are stacked against children in foster care. Less than 60% graduate from high school and only a tiny fraction go on to college. The trauma of family disruption and the chaos of frequent moves can make learning hard.

But success stories abound, too, because those challenges can also be a driving force. “I used to be ashamed of all the things I’d gone through,” Edgar said. “But I didn’t let those problems define me. Now I’m kind of proud of all I’ve overcome.”

Audience cheers the Board's unanimous vote to fund a broad range of measures to combat and prevent homelessness.

Los Angeles County Supervisors today unanimously approved a spending package to deploy more than $1 billion in Measure H funds into local communities over the next three years—a key milestone in the county’s ambitious commitment to combatting homelessness.

The Board’s action came after an unprecedented, collaborative planning process in which 50 diverse public/private stakeholders came together to develop a series of recommendations for the use of funding authorized by Measure H—the 10-year, ¼-cent sales tax passed by 69.34% of voters in March, 2017.

The landmark funding plan commits nearly $259 million to combat homelessness in the next fiscal year beginning July 1, and tentatively earmarks more than $1 billion to the effort over the next three fiscal years.

“This is a signal day in the County of L.A,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Board chairman and leading proponent of Measure H, said during a well-attended public meeting leading up to the vote. “The community stepped up and now we have an obligation to step up.”

He said the plan approved by the Board is well thought-out, but also flexible and geared toward getting results.

Following testimony by more than 100 speakers, other supervisors highlighted the collaborative process leading to this point.

“All of us come at this from different prisms. But I think at the end of the day, we developed a beautiful rainbow and the light shines. And today that light is shining on the County of Los Angeles,” said Supervisor Hilda L. Solis.

“This is an unprecedented commitment in the County,” added Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. “It’s about partnership with those who are homeless in finding the solutions for them.”

Supervisor Janice Hahn said that more essential collaboration lies ahead. “We all have to work together,” Hahn said. “Every city, every unincorporated area, every neighborhood really needs to step up and say, ‘This is our moment.’ ”

“There are many out there who are one paycheck away from being homeless,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger added. “We have an obligation to work together to end homelessness.”

In its first five years, Measure H aims to help 45,000 families and individuals escape homelessness and to enable 30,000 others to stay housed. The expanded funding comes as the latest Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count found a 23% increase in homelessness in L.A. County over the past year—underscoring the urgency of the crisis and need for action.

The funding approved by the Board of Supervisors targets 21 interconnected strategies specifically funded by Measure H. Among the key elements are programs to significantly increase outreach, crisis/bridge housing, permanent housing, and homelessness prevention.

In addition, the Board approved motions to track progress toward Measure H goals and analyze the latest Homeless Count data; use Homeless Count data in funding distribution; create a women’s crisis housing program; give partner cities more flexibility in using Measure H dollars;  and assist homeless college students. Other motions were approved that would explore childcare for homeless families and resources for transition-age youth.

To ensure effectiveness and public accountability, Measure H efforts will be assessed annually by an independent evaluator, and spending will be reviewed each year by an independent auditor. Measure H will work in tandem with Proposition HHH, the bond measure approved by voters in the city of Los Angeles to fund construction of housing for the homeless.

Los Angeles County’s groundbreaking Homeless Initiative was created by the Board of Supervisors in August, 2015. The strategies funded by Measure H were part of a broader action plan approved by the Board last year. Under the direction of the County’s Chief Executive Office, the initiative works across boundaries and involves multiple County departments and partners including service providers, faith organizations, local governments and business groups.

For more information on the County’s Homeless Initiative, go to http://homeless.lacounty.gov/.

A series of videos produced by the County to document the homeless crisis and highlight solutions is at https://vimeo.com/channels/lachomeless