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Surprise, surprise: LA area, IE again top country for smog pollution By City News Service
County supervisors propose spending changes for homelessness, housing By Joe Taglieri
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he Los Angeles-Long Beach area retained its dubious distinction as the nation’s smoggiest region, with ozone pollution getting worse over the past year, according to an annual report by the American Lung Association. The region has been ranked the worst area for ozone pollution in 26 of the past 27 years of the association’s “State of the Air” report. But the Southland isn’t alone in its misery. According to the latest report released Tuesday, nearly half of all American children live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution. “Clean air is not something we can take for granted. It takes work,” Harold Wimmer, president/ CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. “For decades, people in the U.S. have breathed cleaner air thanks to the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, that progress is now at risk due to extreme heat and wildfires, fueled by climate change, and policy changes that are making the problem worse. “Now is the time to strengthen air pollution standards, but EPA is doing the opposite. In the last year, EPA has weakened enforcement and rolled back rules that would have protected kids from power plant and vehicle pollution. Children need clean air to grow and play, and communities need clean air to thrive. Leaders at every level must act to improve and protect America’s air quality.” The report found that 44% of people in the United States live in a county that received a failing grade in at least one of the study’s three measures of air pollution, with 32.9 million people living in counties that earned poor grades in
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A smoggy day in LA. | Photo courtesy of Massimo Catarinella/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
all three categories. People of color are more than twice as likely as white people to live in areas that failed in all three categories. Hispanic people are more than three times as likely as white people to live in such areas. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area ranked the worst in the nation in terms of ozone pollution. Three other California communities placed in the top five in terms of smog, with Visalia placing second behind LA/Long Beach, followed by Bakersfield-Delano; Phoenix/Mesa, Arizona; and Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran placing fifth. “Ground-level ozone pollution, also known as smog, is a powerful respiratory irritant whose effects have been likened to a sunburn of the lungs,” according to the Lung Association. “Inhaling ozone can cause shortness of breath, trigger coughing and asthma attacks, and can cause premature death. Though progress has been made over the years to clean up ozone, that progress is fragile, and more communities are seeing their worst ozone levels in years.”
The Los Angeles-Long Beach region was again ranked the seventh-most polluted region in the country for short-term particle pollution, the same ranking as last year. The region was also seventhworst for year-round particle pollution, an improvement from last year, when the area ranked fifth. The short- term figure represents daily spikes in particle pollution, or soot, while the year-round figure is an annual average. On a countywide level, San Bernardino County was ranked as the nation’s most ozone-polluted place to live, followed by Riverside, Los Angeles, Tulare and Kern counties. Kern County also topped the list as the most polluted county for yearround particle pollution. Los Angeles and Riverside counties all earned failing grades in the report for all three pollution categories, as did Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Merced, San Bernardino, Stanislaus and Tulare counties. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which works to improve air quality in most of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties,
issued a statement saying the Lung Association report does not reflect “significant progress” being made to improve the air. “The region has seen a long-term decline in unhealthy ozone days and harmful pollution levels,” according to the AQMD. “Notably, 2025 recorded some of the lowest ozone levels on record, demonstrating continued improvement in air quality,” the agency reported. “However, a few of the high pollution days captured in this year’s report were driven by largescale wildfires — events that are increasing in frequency and intensity. ... “Progress toward clean air depends on strong partnerships at every level. South Coast AQMD will continue working with communities, businesses, and state and federal agencies to advance solutions that protect public health for all, while delivering critical benefits to sensitive populations, including children, by reducing exposure to harmful emissions and supporting clean air initiatives in communities where families live, learn, and play.”
he San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday proposed amendments on how to spend more than $9 million in federal grants for homelessness, housing and other services for low- and moderate-income residents in unincorporated areas and 13 cities. Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve the proposed 2026-27 Annual Action Plan and an amendment to the 2019-20 Annual Action Plan, which will return to the board for a vote on May 5. Officials said the Annual Action Plan guides spending of $9.36 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support infrastructure, affordable housing and homeless services. The county’s projected 2026-27 allocation includes roughly $6 million in federal Community Development Block Grants, $2.78 million in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds and $562,000 in an Emergency Solutions Grant. “These funds will be strategically utilized to address essential community needs, ranging from Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant infrastructure and street improvements to the construction of new affordable housing units and the strengthening of the regional homeless response system, including street outreach and emergency shelter services,” according to a county statement. HOME program money will be allocated through partnerships with qualified housing developers, See Homelessness Page 28
nonprofit organizations and county departments, Robert Gilliam, the county’s acting director of community development and housing, wrote in a report for the board. “Funds support new construction of affordable rental housing for low and very low-income households within the HOME Consortium and unincorporated areas,” according to the report. “To expand the supply of safe, stable, and affordable housing, (the county) anticipates receiving approximately $2.8 million in HOME funds. Of this total, approximately $2.3 million is being strategically directed to a high-impact affordable rental housing development.” The HOME project will create approximately 106 new affordable housing units, including 22 dedicated units for “transitional-age youth,” or TAY, with the remaining units for low- and very lowincome county residents. The Emergency Solutions Grant program to address unsheltered homelessness funds street outreach, emergency shelters, “rapid rehousing” efforts, homelessness prevention initiatives and the Homeless Management Information System, or HIMS. ESG spending reinforces the county’s regional shelter and homelessness response system in alignment with the 2022 Homeless Strategic Action Plan. “Funding will be deployed to strengthen core system infrastructure, expand evidencebased interventions, and enhance regional coordination to ensure measurable reductions in unsheltered homelessness,” Gilliam reported. Priority ESG spending includes: