Category: Public Policy
Source: https://luskin.ucla.edu/news/public-policy
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:18
Category: Public Policy
Archive for category: Public Policy
Former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler brought a message of resiliency and resolve to more than 400 scholars, students, community leaders, and elected officials who came together at UCLA last week to take on California’s most entrenched problems.
“Too many Californians, too many Angelenos, are not OK,” Butler told the crowd gathered for the eighth annual
UCLA Luskin Summit
on April 15. But she added, “The people in this room, the communities that you serve, have already proven that change is possible. …
“I keep returning to this one thing that sustains me: It’s that hope is not a joyful feeling. Hope, UCLA, is hard work.”
Butler, who served as a labor leader, political advisor and UC regent before joining the U.S. Senate in 2023 to complete the term of the late Dianne Feinstein, delivered the keynote address following a morning centered on strengthening resilience and equity at the local level.
Sharing Research and Solutions
Researchers from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs teamed up with difference-makers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to share the latest advances in four areas of concern:
California’s housing strategy, including the state’s new zoning rules aimed at making shelter more affordable
Environmental health and justice, including the impact of extreme heat as L.A. hosts a series of mega-events, and the toll plastic pollution takes on vulnerable communities
Transportation security, including new strategies for elevating security, trust, and comfort among public transit riders
Socioeconomic vulnerability, including strategies to bridge intergenerational inequities, and regulatory tools that can be used to promote more inclusive growth
Launched in 2019, the UCLA Luskin Summit provides a bridge between academia, policymakers, and civil society, with the goal of finding evidence-based solutions to California’s most pressing concerns. This year’s gathering highlighted recent research from the
UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
,
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
,
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
, and departments of
Public Policy
,
Social Welfare
, and
Urban Planning
.
Master of Urban Planning student O’Philia Le said she chose to attend the summit to learn how UCLA Luskin research is put into practice in the world.
“A key takeaway for me was that large-scale racial justice and global environmental impacts really start with local solutions. However, those solutions don’t just happen on their own,” she said.
“They require political pressure, community engagement, and an intentional push to actually move forward. As an aspiring planner, I believe that this is key to the work that we do.”
From left, ABC7’s Josh Haskell, Miguel Santana of the California Community Foundation, and Zev Yaroslavsky of UCLA Luskin’s Los Angeles Initiative review results from the 2026 Quality of Life Index. Photo by Michael Troxell
Quality of Life Index Reveals Growing Strain
The summit also hosted the release of this year’s
UCLA Quality of Life Index
(QLI), a project of the Luskin School’s Los Angeles Initiative, directed by
Zev Yaroslavsky
. The survey found that Los Angeles County residents’ satisfaction with their lives has hit the lowest level in the QLI’s 11-year history.
“We’ve been through a lot in the last five years: COVID; punishing increases in the cost of living; last year’s catastrophic fires, the worst natural disaster in the history of this city; tariffs; and this year the destabilizing implementation of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps, which started right here in our own back yard,” he said. “All of these have taken their toll on virtually every aspect of our lives in every part of our region.”
Cost of living continues to be the single biggest driver of residents’ quality of life, though its rating declined from 2025, according to the survey. Among the 1,400 Los Angeles County residents polled in March, housing affordability remained the dominant concern, while rising costs for utilities, groceries, and taxes were cited more frequently than in prior years.
Ratings fell across nearly every category compared with last year, with six areas reaching their lowest levels since the survey began in 2016: education, transportation and traffic, jobs and the economy, public safety, neighborhood conditions, and relations among different races, ethnicities, and religions.
A Call to Action for the Next Generation
In her remarks, Butler also addressed the sobering results of the QLI.
“Every year the Quality of Life Index holds up a mirror to Los Angeles County,” she said. “And every year, it asks us to be brave enough to look in that mirror.”
She stressed, however, that “alongside every data point of strain, there’s a counter story, one that doesn’t get enough attention — the story that happens when people organize, when coalitions hold, when accountability is real.”
To the service-minded students in the room, she issued a call to action, echoing the summit’s theme of empowering local communities. Some of them would go to Washington and some to Sacramento, where they are desperately needed, she said.
“But some of you — hear me — need to go to places that don’t make headlines. To neighborhoods where the data actually lives, to communities where the stakes are immediate, not to study them but to be accountable to them. …
“The communities most impacted by vulnerability are also most engaged in building solutions. … Survival demands participation.”
UCLA Luskin professor Veronica Herrera introduces a session on plastic pollution before a standing-room-only audience. Photo by Mary Braswell
View more photos from the 2026 UCLA Luskin Summit on Flickr.
Since November 2025, MPP student Andrea Escobar has traveled across California attending gubernatorial forums in her role as a Senior Fellow at Unseen, engaging directly with candidates on issues including health access, environmental justice, and housing affordability. Drawing from these experiences, Escobar co-authored a
CalMatters op-ed
that reflects her perspective as a Gen Z Latina seeking clarity on who is prepared to lead the state.
Andrea Escobar
In the piece, Escobar offers a grounded and urgent critique of the current gubernatorial race, arguing that candidates are failing to meet the moment for Generation Z. She emphasizes the widening gap between the promise of the “California Dream” and the reality facing students today. She highlights the financial strain of higher education and cost of living, noting, “As a full-time student, I have to balance two jobs to afford tuition and rent in Los Angeles.”
Escobar’s critique centers on candidates’ lack of bold, actionable plans particularly around economic mobility, affordable housing, and education funding. She points out that young voters and Latino communities are often discussed in abstract terms rather than addressed through concrete policy proposals. This disconnect, she argues, risks alienating a generation already disengaged from the political process. As she puts it, “Without a clear plan to address the issues we care about, like college access and affordability, these candidates remain disconnected from mobilizing young voters like us.”
Read the full op-ed in CalMatters.
On the eve of Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election, a new report from the UCLA Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) examines whether Viktor Orbán’s 16-year “illiberal democracy” experiment is a model for Europe’s future or a cautionary tale.
Using BGI data, researchers found that
Hungary
‘s democratic accountability has fallen sharply since 2010, state capacity has mildly deteriorated, and public goods provision has improved only modestly thanks to EU transfers.
Crucially, Orbán’s Fidesz party now trails the center-right Tisza Party by nearly 10 points —raising the prospect of a democratic reset echoing Poland’s 2023 election. The report outlines three post-election scenarios: continued illiberalism, cosmetic reform, or genuine democratic renewal.
The Berggruen Governance Index is a collaborative project between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Hertie School, and the
Berggruen Institute
,
Read the full report.
California remains one of the nation’s most expensive states to live in, with communities like San José, San Francisco, and Orange County demanding six-figure incomes for comfortable living.
A recent
SmartAsset
study shows that a single adult in San José needs nearly $160,000 annually, while a family of four requires over $400,000, far outpacing local median incomes. Los Angeles ranks 16th, where single adults need $120,307 and families over $280,000. Housing costs are the primary driver of this gap, compounded by rising grocery and gas prices and stagnant wages.
The study underscores the broader housing affordability crisis in California, highlighting how daily necessities continue to climb while wages lag behind.
“It’s a problem that we created very slowly over a long period of time,” said
Paavo Monkkonen
, UCLA professor of urban planning and public policy, in a
Los Angeles Times
article.
Over the past several years, Latino voters — men under 40, in particular — have shifted right, but evidence from elections during President Donald Trump’s second term suggest an abrupt correction is underway.
The recent shift to the left could have a significant effect on the politics of 2026, potentially putting control of Congress in the hands of Latino voters.
In a
commentary in The Conversation
, UCLA Luskin professor of public policy
Gary M. Segura
and faculty director
Matt A. Barreto
of the
UCLA Voting Rights Project
explore these dynamics, tapping into their expertise as political scientists and pollsters who study Hispanic voting trends.
Many Latinos are quite upset with Trump’s actions on the economy and immigration, polls show. Segura and Barreto also note that some Latinos question whether Democrats who have received their support in the past have delivered on policies that would improve the lives of their families.
“Latino voters need to believe that politicians truly care about their concerns and will work to implement a plan to create equal opportunities for the nation’s largest minority group to achieve the American dream,” Segura and Barreto write. “We believe the candidates able to make that pitch convincingly will be the most successful.”
A contingent of UCLA Luskin faculty, students, staff, and alumni traveled to Sacramento in mid-February to bring new research and policy insights to decision-makers who are grappling with the state’s most pressing issues.
The two-day
California Policy Briefing
highlighted scholarship from two of the School’s research centers: The
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
focused on how the state can oversee equitable implementation of a new statewide upzoning law. And the
UCLA Voting Rights Project
examined legislative strategies to strengthen fairness, inclusivity, and trust in the electoral process.
Xavier Becerra, former U.S. congressman, California attorney general, and U.S. secretary of health and human services, addressed the gathering. UCLA Luskin graduate and undergraduate students in attendance also met with UCLA alumni now serving in the the state Assembly and received a private tour of the Capitol. The UCLA Luskin community also reconnected at an alumni reception.
First-year MPP student Andrea Escobar shared her reflections on the experience:
***
For the last four years, I have worked in Sacramento as a staffer in the Governor’s Office
. I used to walk past the Capitol on my way to work every day but truly never paid it much attention. During UCLA Luskin’s 2026 California Policy Briefing, I returned as a Master of Public Policy student with the goal of bridging my professional experience in state government with the analytical tools I am currently developing at Luskin.
Andrea Escobar
This trip not only allowed me to return to a city I care deeply about, but also gave me the opportunity to see the policymaking process from a new vantage point — one that is no longer as staff supporting the work behind the scenes, but as a policy advocate and researcher engaging directly with legislators and other policy professionals.
The first day of our Sacramento trip was spent exploring the Capitol and meeting with Assemblymembers Mike Fong and Josh Hoover, both UCLA alums. Although both were delayed due to a floor session, we had the opportunity to hear from Assemblymember Fong’s chief of staff, who shared insights into her career path in the Legislature and the experiences that shaped her work. What resonated most with me was her reminder that there is no single “correct” path into public service — each journey, whether rooted in direct legislative work in Sacramento or community and stakeholder engagement in Los Angeles, brings valuable perspective.
This reinforced that policy leadership is strengthened by diverse experiences and grounded understanding of the communities we serve. These experiences are shaping me into a more thoughtful policy researcher and professional who prioritizes lived experience as an essential component of effective policymaking.
Our Capitol tour included access to both the Senate and Assembly floors. As someone who aspires to write policy, standing in those chambers brought into focus the weight and significance of this work. It was a powerful reminder that policymaking is not abstract — it directly shapes people’s lives and opportunities. With that comes a responsibility to advance policies that improve the human condition and create a more just and equitable future. These moments reaffirmed my commitment to pursuing policy work that leaves a lasting, positive impact for future generations.
Our final day in Sacramento focused on two policy briefings: one on SB 79, California’s new statewide upzoning law, and another on protecting equitable access to the ballot. These sessions highlighted the complex ecosystem involved in implementing major policy reforms, bringing together stakeholders, local governments, state agencies, elected officials, and legal scholars. The conversations underscored how policymaking does not end with passage; it requires coordination, legal interpretation, and sustained collaboration to translate legislation into meaningful impact. Together, the briefings illustrated the layered and collaborative nature of turning policy into practice.
Being back in the Capitol as a student sharpened my understanding of how research, narrative, and coalition-building intersect to shape policy outcomes. It reinforced why I came to UCLA: to strengthen my capacity as a policy analyst and advocate who can translate lived experience and community priorities into actionable, evidence-based proposals. Returning to Sacramento in this new role felt both full circle and forward-looking. It affirmed my commitment to advancing equitable and just policies in California.
View photos from the 2026 California Policy Briefing on Flickr.
The keynote and panel discussion “
Reexamining the “Nation of Immigrants”: The Politics of ICE Enforcement”
was held on Thursday, February 5, as part of the Luskin Lecture Series, bringing together leading voices in law, research and immigration rights advocacy to assess the changing landscape of immigration enforcement in California. Featured speakers included Attorney General of California Rob Bonta; Ahilan Arulanantham, professor from practice and faculty co-director of the
Center for Immigration Law and Policy
, Paul Ong, research professor and director of the
Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
, and Angelica Salas
,
executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
In his keynote address, Bonta characterized the current moment as a critical juncture for immigrant communities in the state. He pointed to mounting reports of increased militarization on the streets and described a climate of fear taking hold in neighborhoods. Framing the issue as both a legal and moral imperative, Bonta underscored the importance of protecting the rights of all residents in California, regardless of immigration status, stating that “nobody should be living in fear.”
With President and CEO of California Community Foundation Miguel A. Santana serving as moderator, the panel discussion shifted to strategy, structural accountability and the broader implications of federal enforcement practices.
Salas highlighted California’s ongoing legal challenges to federal immigration actions and called for sustained oversight of detention facilities, urging state leaders to “double down on accountability.”
Ong widened the lens, situating California’s response within national trends, he argued that rigorous data collection and impact analysis are essential to demonstrating how state-level protections can mitigate harm to immigrant communities. By quantifying outcomes, he suggested, California could offer an evidence-based model for other states grappling with similar tensions.
Emphasizing allegations of misconduct by federal immigration officers in Southern California, Arulanantham called on state officials to consider criminal accountability where appropriate.
Following the panel discussion, the forum opened to audience questions that reflected the heightened anxieties around federal immigration enforcement in California.
Many questions centered around how the state of California would protect its residents from the threat of ICE, especially on school campuses and in the anticipation of the upcoming Olympics.
The panelists responded by framing community preparedness as a critical line of defense, stressing the importance of people knowing their rights. Attorney General Bonta closed on a note that “we shouldn’t feel hopeless, because we’re not helpless.”
The UCLA Activists-in-Residence program welcomed its ninth cohort to campus for a five-month residency that provides time to reflect and recharge, envision new projects, and connect with UCLA faculty, students, and staff.
Four activists are participating in this year’s program, which supports artists, community organizers, and movement leaders as they undertake power-shifting scholarship and pedagogy focused on social change. The
UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
will host three activists — José Gama Vargas, Chelsea Kirk, and Chris Tyler — and the
UCLA Asian American Studies Center
will host Set Hernandez.
José Gama Vargas
, a steward of the vast ancestral territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation, is exploring what it means to unite gardeners as they stand in solidarity with the land, with each other and with the land’s original caretakers.
Set Hernandez
is a queer and undocumented filmmaker, writer, and community organizer with roots in the Philippines. Since 2010, they have organized around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to health care access.
Chelsea Kirk
is a tenant organizer, researcher, and policy advocate whose work is oriented toward building a better world without predatory landlords. She earned her UCLA Luskin Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2025.
Chris Tyler
, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union and communications manager at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, works for housing and economic justice, organizing neighbors, fighting evictions, and coordinating educational programs.
Learn more about the UCLA Activists-in-Residence program and this year’s cohort
One year after the January 2025 wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena, recovery across Los Angeles remains slow, uneven, and deeply inequitable. More than 16,000 structures were destroyed, yet rebuilding has largely favored wealthier homeowners and developers, while many displaced residents remain underinsured or priced out altogether. As rebuilding drags on, outside investors are reshaping fire-impacted neighborhoods like Altadena, raising concerns about displacement and the long-term erosion of racial and economic diversity.
These findings reflect reporting by
The Guardian
, which examined the region’s prolonged recovery and the systemic failures exposed by the fires. Climate change–driven extremes—including record winds and prolonged drought—turned the blazes into fast-moving urban infernos, underscoring the limits of existing infrastructure and emergency planning.
Megan Mullin
, professor of public policy and faculty director of the
UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
chairs a commission advising on resilient rebuilding. “The challenge we face long term is how much are we willing to do and how much are we willing to pay to protect ourselves from fire?” she said.
New data underscore the stakes. In the first nine months after the Eaton fire, outside investors purchased roughly two-thirds of the 241 lots sold in Altadena, according to recent research from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.
Researchers say the full scope of the disaster is still coming into focus. “As we dig into it all, we are also seeing the massive gaps,” said
Edith de Guzman
, a UCLA climate researcher studying wildfire resilience. “There are so many dimensions we need to consider as we think about what resilience actually looks like. Now that we’re approaching the one-year mark, we’re only just beginning to understand the magnitude.”
by Peaches Chung
For Samantha “Sam” James, fire recovery and equitable rebuilding isn’t just a policy debate; it’s the reality of the community she and her family have called home for six generations.
The Eaton Fire destroyed homes across her entire extended family, including part of her own childhood home. James, a first-year master’s candidate in public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, channeled her grief into action, transforming her family’s loss into a blueprint for community-driven advocacy.
It started with one simple text message to a group chat.
“I said I was going to Costco to buy hygiene supplies and asked if anyone wanted to help distribute them,” she said. That small idea turned into a full-scale supply distribution event on her cousin’s front lawn. This sparked a group effort that laid the foundation for the Altadena Recovery Team, which the founders describe as a collective of four Black women who were born and raised in the Altadena and Pasadena area, and now work to restore the spirit of their community.
“We were devastated and feeling helpless,” she said. “Being able to have a place to channel that energy that was productive, and help channel that rage, it was truly healing.”
James co-founded ART, which centers the financial, physical and mental well-being of fire survivors through distribution drives, healing spaces and on-the-ground support. As ART’s CEO, she drives grant and fundraising strategies and ensures the organization’s programs are trauma-informed and community led. Policy conversations with partners at the state level — on issues ranging from rebuilding and long-term displacement support to mental health access — are grounded in her own experience as a community member impacted by the Eaton Fire. Her commitment makes one thing clear: When communities drive their own recovery, healing is possible.
After graduating from UCLA in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, James came back in 2025 to UCLA’s MPP program with a clear purpose. After completing the highly competitive
California Senate Fellowship,
where she worked in state Sen. Josh Becker’s office on criminal justice reform, James went on to serve as a community engagement manager for Rising Communities, a nonprofit that works to eliminate disparities in health and social welfare in South Los Angeles. There, she trained the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on inclusive, trauma-informed community engagement practices and worked on reform initiatives grounded in equity and justice.
“Everything I had learned was on the job,” she said. “I wanted the research background, the theoretical understanding that the MPP offered. Being back on campus has been incredible. I graduated during the pandemic, so returning now and sharing space with my cohort has been deeply meaningful.”
At UCLA, James is also a graduate student researcher with the Black Policy Project in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Her research focuses on whether landlords are following the law and giving formerly incarcerated tenants a fair and lawful screening process. She also serves as the first-year representative for the Public Policy Leadership Association, strengthening student advocacy and community within the program.
She had no idea that a bill she helped draft in Becker’s office would one day directly affect her own family. James helped advance SB 1008,
the Keep Families Connected Act,
which made phone calls free for incarcerated people and their families. At the time, California’s prison telecom industry was worth $1.4 billion, and more than one in three families were being pushed into debt just to stay connected with incarcerated loved ones.
Years later, now with a family member experiencing incarceration, her own family is benefiting from the policy she helped pass. Seeing that impact up close reinforced her belief in community-centered policy and fueled her decision to pursue her master’s at the Luskin School.
“It was incredible to have that full-circle moment,” she says. “It showed me what’s possible when we push against the systems that keep people down in the incarceration space. It confirmed that criminal justice policy is where I want to be. After Luskin, I want to keep driving that change forward, especially as California continues to lead the way.”
James’ story recently reached a broader audience through
TEDxAltadena,
where she delivered a message about the unprecedented tragedies that have shaped Gen Z, and the powerful way her generation has transformed that collective rage into action.
“We’ve experienced tragedy after tragedy — 9/11, mass shootings, climate disasters, the pandemic, a mental-health crisis,” she said. “But we’re channeling that frustration into resilience and action.”
Her talk also spotlighted the origins of the Altadena Recovery Team, founded by James, Savannah Bradley, Allison Moore and Makai Ward. Together, they coordinated donations, distributed supplies, started yoga and meditation programs and pushed policy reforms, including support for
mortgage relief legislation
that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September. They also raised nearly $400,000 through crowdfunding and grants. James framed ART as both a recovery model and a preview of what future climate disasters will demand: localized leadership, shared power, culturally competent support and policy-informed advocacy that ensures longtime residents aren’t pushed out of the neighborhoods they helped build.
“What we know is that climate disasters are only going to intensify,” she said. “We want ART to become a resource for other communities — offering mentorship, seed funding and a roadmap so they can lead their own recovery.”
James’ advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world mirrors the ethos she lives by today.
“Breathe. Take space for yourself. You can only show up for others if you’re showing up for yourself,” she said. “Then get involved. Being on the ground with my community has been profoundly healing. Being in community rarely makes things worse — it almost always makes things better.”
Rooted in her love and care for her community, she is turning her rage, as she puts it, “straight into power.” And she’s just getting started.
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Archive for category: Public Policy
Former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler brought a message of resiliency and resolve to more than 400 scholars, students, community leaders, and elected officials who came together at UCLA last week to take on California’s most entrenched problems.
“Too many Californians, too many Angelenos, are not OK,” Butler told the crowd gathered for the eighth annual
UCLA Luskin Summit
on April 15. But she added, “The people in this room, the communities that you serve, have already proven that change is possible. …
“I keep returning to this one thing that sustains me: It’s that hope is not a joyful feeling. Hope, UCLA, is hard work.”
Butler, who served as a labor leader, political advisor and UC regent before joining the U.S. Senate in 2023 to complete the term of the late Dianne Feinstein, delivered the keynote address following a morning centered on strengthening resilience and equity at the local level.
Sharing Research and Solutions
Researchers from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs teamed up with difference-makers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to share the latest advances in four areas of concern:
California’s housing strategy, including the state’s new zoning rules aimed at making shelter more affordable
Environmental health and justice, including the impact of extreme heat as L.A. hosts a series of mega-events, and the toll plastic pollution takes on vulnerable communities
Transportation security, including new strategies for elevating security, trust, and comfort among public transit riders
Socioeconomic vulnerability, including strategies to bridge intergenerational inequities, and regulatory tools that can be used to promote more inclusive growth
Launched in 2019, the UCLA Luskin Summit provides a bridge between academia, policymakers, and civil society, with the goal of finding evidence-based solutions to California’s most pressing concerns. This year’s gathering highlighted recent research from the
UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
,
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
,
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
, and departments of
Public Policy
,
Social Welfare
, and
Urban Planning
.
Master of Urban Planning student O’Philia Le said she chose to attend the summit to learn how UCLA Luskin research is put into practice in the world.
“A key takeaway for me was that large-scale racial justice and global environmental impacts really start with local solutions. However, those solutions don’t just happen on their own,” she said.
“They require political pressure, community engagement, and an intentional push to actually move forward. As an aspiring planner, I believe that this is key to the work that we do.”
From left, ABC7’s Josh Haskell, Miguel Santana of the California Community Foundation, and Zev Yaroslavsky of UCLA Luskin’s Los Angeles Initiative review results from the 2026 Quality of Life Index. Photo by Michael Troxell
Quality of Life Index Reveals Growing Strain
The summit also hosted the release of this year’s
UCLA Quality of Life Index
(QLI), a project of the Luskin School’s Los Angeles Initiative, directed by
Zev Yaroslavsky
. The survey found that Los Angeles County residents’ satisfaction with their lives has hit the lowest level in the QLI’s 11-year history.
“We’ve been through a lot in the last five years: COVID; punishing increases in the cost of living; last year’s catastrophic fires, the worst natural disaster in the history of this city; tariffs; and this year the destabilizing implementation of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps, which started right here in our own back yard,” he said. “All of these have taken their toll on virtually every aspect of our lives in every part of our region.”
Cost of living continues to be the single biggest driver of residents’ quality of life, though its rating declined from 2025, according to the survey. Among the 1,400 Los Angeles County residents polled in March, housing affordability remained the dominant concern, while rising costs for utilities, groceries, and taxes were cited more frequently than in prior years.
Ratings fell across nearly every category compared with last year, with six areas reaching their lowest levels since the survey began in 2016: education, transportation and traffic, jobs and the economy, public safety, neighborhood conditions, and relations among different races, ethnicities, and religions.
A Call to Action for the Next Generation
In her remarks, Butler also addressed the sobering results of the QLI.
“Every year the Quality of Life Index holds up a mirror to Los Angeles County,” she said. “And every year, it asks us to be brave enough to look in that mirror.”
She stressed, however, that “alongside every data point of strain, there’s a counter story, one that doesn’t get enough attention — the story that happens when people organize, when coalitions hold, when accountability is real.”
To the service-minded students in the room, she issued a call to action, echoing the summit’s theme of empowering local communities. Some of them would go to Washington and some to Sacramento, where they are desperately needed, she said.
“But some of you — hear me — need to go to places that don’t make headlines. To neighborhoods where the data actually lives, to communities where the stakes are immediate, not to study them but to be accountable to them. …
“The communities most impacted by vulnerability are also most engaged in building solutions. … Survival demands participation.”
UCLA Luskin professor Veronica Herrera introduces a session on plastic pollution before a standing-room-only audience. Photo by Mary Braswell
View more photos from the 2026 UCLA Luskin Summit on Flickr.
Since November 2025, MPP student Andrea Escobar has traveled across California attending gubernatorial forums in her role as a Senior Fellow at Unseen, engaging directly with candidates on issues including health access, environmental justice, and housing affordability. Drawing from these experiences, Escobar co-authored a
CalMatters op-ed
that reflects her perspective as a Gen Z Latina seeking clarity on who is prepared to lead the state.
Andrea Escobar
In the piece, Escobar offers a grounded and urgent critique of the current gubernatorial race, arguing that candidates are failing to meet the moment for Generation Z. She emphasizes the widening gap between the promise of the “California Dream” and the reality facing students today. She highlights the financial strain of higher education and cost of living, noting, “As a full-time student, I have to balance two jobs to afford tuition and rent in Los Angeles.”
Escobar’s critique centers on candidates’ lack of bold, actionable plans particularly around economic mobility, affordable housing, and education funding. She points out that young voters and Latino communities are often discussed in abstract terms rather than addressed through concrete policy proposals. This disconnect, she argues, risks alienating a generation already disengaged from the political process. As she puts it, “Without a clear plan to address the issues we care about, like college access and affordability, these candidates remain disconnected from mobilizing young voters like us.”
Read the full op-ed in CalMatters.
On the eve of Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election, a new report from the UCLA Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) examines whether Viktor Orbán’s 16-year “illiberal democracy” experiment is a model for Europe’s future or a cautionary tale.
Using BGI data, researchers found that
Hungary
‘s democratic accountability has fallen sharply since 2010, state capacity has mildly deteriorated, and public goods provision has improved only modestly thanks to EU transfers.
Crucially, Orbán’s Fidesz party now trails the center-right Tisza Party by nearly 10 points —raising the prospect of a democratic reset echoing Poland’s 2023 election. The report outlines three post-election scenarios: continued illiberalism, cosmetic reform, or genuine democratic renewal.
The Berggruen Governance Index is a collaborative project between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Hertie School, and the
Berggruen Institute
,
Read the full report.
California remains one of the nation’s most expensive states to live in, with communities like San José, San Francisco, and Orange County demanding six-figure incomes for comfortable living.
A recent
SmartAsset
study shows that a single adult in San José needs nearly $160,000 annually, while a family of four requires over $400,000, far outpacing local median incomes. Los Angeles ranks 16th, where single adults need $120,307 and families over $280,000. Housing costs are the primary driver of this gap, compounded by rising grocery and gas prices and stagnant wages.
The study underscores the broader housing affordability crisis in California, highlighting how daily necessities continue to climb while wages lag behind.
“It’s a problem that we created very slowly over a long period of time,” said
Paavo Monkkonen
, UCLA professor of urban planning and public policy, in a
Los Angeles Times
article.
Over the past several years, Latino voters — men under 40, in particular — have shifted right, but evidence from elections during President Donald Trump’s second term suggest an abrupt correction is underway.
The recent shift to the left could have a significant effect on the politics of 2026, potentially putting control of Congress in the hands of Latino voters.
In a
commentary in The Conversation
, UCLA Luskin professor of public policy
Gary M. Segura
and faculty director
Matt A. Barreto
of the
UCLA Voting Rights Project
explore these dynamics, tapping into their expertise as political scientists and pollsters who study Hispanic voting trends.
Many Latinos are quite upset with Trump’s actions on the economy and immigration, polls show. Segura and Barreto also note that some Latinos question whether Democrats who have received their support in the past have delivered on policies that would improve the lives of their families.
“Latino voters need to believe that politicians truly care about their concerns and will work to implement a plan to create equal opportunities for the nation’s largest minority group to achieve the American dream,” Segura and Barreto write. “We believe the candidates able to make that pitch convincingly will be the most successful.”
A contingent of UCLA Luskin faculty, students, staff, and alumni traveled to Sacramento in mid-February to bring new research and policy insights to decision-makers who are grappling with the state’s most pressing issues.
The two-day
California Policy Briefing
highlighted scholarship from two of the School’s research centers: The
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
focused on how the state can oversee equitable implementation of a new statewide upzoning law. And the
UCLA Voting Rights Project
examined legislative strategies to strengthen fairness, inclusivity, and trust in the electoral process.
Xavier Becerra, former U.S. congressman, California attorney general, and U.S. secretary of health and human services, addressed the gathering. UCLA Luskin graduate and undergraduate students in attendance also met with UCLA alumni now serving in the the state Assembly and received a private tour of the Capitol. The UCLA Luskin community also reconnected at an alumni reception.
First-year MPP student Andrea Escobar shared her reflections on the experience:
***
For the last four years, I have worked in Sacramento as a staffer in the Governor’s Office
. I used to walk past the Capitol on my way to work every day but truly never paid it much attention. During UCLA Luskin’s 2026 California Policy Briefing, I returned as a Master of Public Policy student with the goal of bridging my professional experience in state government with the analytical tools I am currently developing at Luskin.
Andrea Escobar
This trip not only allowed me to return to a city I care deeply about, but also gave me the opportunity to see the policymaking process from a new vantage point — one that is no longer as staff supporting the work behind the scenes, but as a policy advocate and researcher engaging directly with legislators and other policy professionals.
The first day of our Sacramento trip was spent exploring the Capitol and meeting with Assemblymembers Mike Fong and Josh Hoover, both UCLA alums. Although both were delayed due to a floor session, we had the opportunity to hear from Assemblymember Fong’s chief of staff, who shared insights into her career path in the Legislature and the experiences that shaped her work. What resonated most with me was her reminder that there is no single “correct” path into public service — each journey, whether rooted in direct legislative work in Sacramento or community and stakeholder engagement in Los Angeles, brings valuable perspective.
This reinforced that policy leadership is strengthened by diverse experiences and grounded understanding of the communities we serve. These experiences are shaping me into a more thoughtful policy researcher and professional who prioritizes lived experience as an essential component of effective policymaking.
Our Capitol tour included access to both the Senate and Assembly floors. As someone who aspires to write policy, standing in those chambers brought into focus the weight and significance of this work. It was a powerful reminder that policymaking is not abstract — it directly shapes people’s lives and opportunities. With that comes a responsibility to advance policies that improve the human condition and create a more just and equitable future. These moments reaffirmed my commitment to pursuing policy work that leaves a lasting, positive impact for future generations.
Our final day in Sacramento focused on two policy briefings: one on SB 79, California’s new statewide upzoning law, and another on protecting equitable access to the ballot. These sessions highlighted the complex ecosystem involved in implementing major policy reforms, bringing together stakeholders, local governments, state agencies, elected officials, and legal scholars. The conversations underscored how policymaking does not end with passage; it requires coordination, legal interpretation, and sustained collaboration to translate legislation into meaningful impact. Together, the briefings illustrated the layered and collaborative nature of turning policy into practice.
Being back in the Capitol as a student sharpened my understanding of how research, narrative, and coalition-building intersect to shape policy outcomes. It reinforced why I came to UCLA: to strengthen my capacity as a policy analyst and advocate who can translate lived experience and community priorities into actionable, evidence-based proposals. Returning to Sacramento in this new role felt both full circle and forward-looking. It affirmed my commitment to advancing equitable and just policies in California.
View photos from the 2026 California Policy Briefing on Flickr.
The keynote and panel discussion “
Reexamining the “Nation of Immigrants”: The Politics of ICE Enforcement”
was held on Thursday, February 5, as part of the Luskin Lecture Series, bringing together leading voices in law, research and immigration rights advocacy to assess the changing landscape of immigration enforcement in California. Featured speakers included Attorney General of California Rob Bonta; Ahilan Arulanantham, professor from practice and faculty co-director of the
Center for Immigration Law and Policy
, Paul Ong, research professor and director of the
Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
, and Angelica Salas
,
executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
In his keynote address, Bonta characterized the current moment as a critical juncture for immigrant communities in the state. He pointed to mounting reports of increased militarization on the streets and described a climate of fear taking hold in neighborhoods. Framing the issue as both a legal and moral imperative, Bonta underscored the importance of protecting the rights of all residents in California, regardless of immigration status, stating that “nobody should be living in fear.”
With President and CEO of California Community Foundation Miguel A. Santana serving as moderator, the panel discussion shifted to strategy, structural accountability and the broader implications of federal enforcement practices.
Salas highlighted California’s ongoing legal challenges to federal immigration actions and called for sustained oversight of detention facilities, urging state leaders to “double down on accountability.”
Ong widened the lens, situating California’s response within national trends, he argued that rigorous data collection and impact analysis are essential to demonstrating how state-level protections can mitigate harm to immigrant communities. By quantifying outcomes, he suggested, California could offer an evidence-based model for other states grappling with similar tensions.
Emphasizing allegations of misconduct by federal immigration officers in Southern California, Arulanantham called on state officials to consider criminal accountability where appropriate.
Following the panel discussion, the forum opened to audience questions that reflected the heightened anxieties around federal immigration enforcement in California.
Many questions centered around how the state of California would protect its residents from the threat of ICE, especially on school campuses and in the anticipation of the upcoming Olympics.
The panelists responded by framing community preparedness as a critical line of defense, stressing the importance of people knowing their rights. Attorney General Bonta closed on a note that “we shouldn’t feel hopeless, because we’re not helpless.”
The UCLA Activists-in-Residence program welcomed its ninth cohort to campus for a five-month residency that provides time to reflect and recharge, envision new projects, and connect with UCLA faculty, students, and staff.
Four activists are participating in this year’s program, which supports artists, community organizers, and movement leaders as they undertake power-shifting scholarship and pedagogy focused on social change. The
UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
will host three activists — José Gama Vargas, Chelsea Kirk, and Chris Tyler — and the
UCLA Asian American Studies Center
will host Set Hernandez.
José Gama Vargas
, a steward of the vast ancestral territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation, is exploring what it means to unite gardeners as they stand in solidarity with the land, with each other and with the land’s original caretakers.
Set Hernandez
is a queer and undocumented filmmaker, writer, and community organizer with roots in the Philippines. Since 2010, they have organized around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to health care access.
Chelsea Kirk
is a tenant organizer, researcher, and policy advocate whose work is oriented toward building a better world without predatory landlords. She earned her UCLA Luskin Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2025.
Chris Tyler
, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union and communications manager at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, works for housing and economic justice, organizing neighbors, fighting evictions, and coordinating educational programs.
Learn more about the UCLA Activists-in-Residence program and this year’s cohort
One year after the January 2025 wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena, recovery across Los Angeles remains slow, uneven, and deeply inequitable. More than 16,000 structures were destroyed, yet rebuilding has largely favored wealthier homeowners and developers, while many displaced residents remain underinsured or priced out altogether. As rebuilding drags on, outside investors are reshaping fire-impacted neighborhoods like Altadena, raising concerns about displacement and the long-term erosion of racial and economic diversity.
These findings reflect reporting by
The Guardian
, which examined the region’s prolonged recovery and the systemic failures exposed by the fires. Climate change–driven extremes—including record winds and prolonged drought—turned the blazes into fast-moving urban infernos, underscoring the limits of existing infrastructure and emergency planning.
Megan Mullin
, professor of public policy and faculty director of the
UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
chairs a commission advising on resilient rebuilding. “The challenge we face long term is how much are we willing to do and how much are we willing to pay to protect ourselves from fire?” she said.
New data underscore the stakes. In the first nine months after the Eaton fire, outside investors purchased roughly two-thirds of the 241 lots sold in Altadena, according to recent research from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.
Researchers say the full scope of the disaster is still coming into focus. “As we dig into it all, we are also seeing the massive gaps,” said
Edith de Guzman
, a UCLA climate researcher studying wildfire resilience. “There are so many dimensions we need to consider as we think about what resilience actually looks like. Now that we’re approaching the one-year mark, we’re only just beginning to understand the magnitude.”
by Peaches Chung
For Samantha “Sam” James, fire recovery and equitable rebuilding isn’t just a policy debate; it’s the reality of the community she and her family have called home for six generations.
The Eaton Fire destroyed homes across her entire extended family, including part of her own childhood home. James, a first-year master’s candidate in public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, channeled her grief into action, transforming her family’s loss into a blueprint for community-driven advocacy.
It started with one simple text message to a group chat.
“I said I was going to Costco to buy hygiene supplies and asked if anyone wanted to help distribute them,” she said. That small idea turned into a full-scale supply distribution event on her cousin’s front lawn. This sparked a group effort that laid the foundation for the Altadena Recovery Team, which the founders describe as a collective of four Black women who were born and raised in the Altadena and Pasadena area, and now work to restore the spirit of their community.
“We were devastated and feeling helpless,” she said. “Being able to have a place to channel that energy that was productive, and help channel that rage, it was truly healing.”
James co-founded ART, which centers the financial, physical and mental well-being of fire survivors through distribution drives, healing spaces and on-the-ground support. As ART’s CEO, she drives grant and fundraising strategies and ensures the organization’s programs are trauma-informed and community led. Policy conversations with partners at the state level — on issues ranging from rebuilding and long-term displacement support to mental health access — are grounded in her own experience as a community member impacted by the Eaton Fire. Her commitment makes one thing clear: When communities drive their own recovery, healing is possible.
After graduating from UCLA in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, James came back in 2025 to UCLA’s MPP program with a clear purpose. After completing the highly competitive
California Senate Fellowship,
where she worked in state Sen. Josh Becker’s office on criminal justice reform, James went on to serve as a community engagement manager for Rising Communities, a nonprofit that works to eliminate disparities in health and social welfare in South Los Angeles. There, she trained the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on inclusive, trauma-informed community engagement practices and worked on reform initiatives grounded in equity and justice.
“Everything I had learned was on the job,” she said. “I wanted the research background, the theoretical understanding that the MPP offered. Being back on campus has been incredible. I graduated during the pandemic, so returning now and sharing space with my cohort has been deeply meaningful.”
At UCLA, James is also a graduate student researcher with the Black Policy Project in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Her research focuses on whether landlords are following the law and giving formerly incarcerated tenants a fair and lawful screening process. She also serves as the first-year representative for the Public Policy Leadership Association, strengthening student advocacy and community within the program.
She had no idea that a bill she helped draft in Becker’s office would one day directly affect her own family. James helped advance SB 1008,
the Keep Families Connected Act,
which made phone calls free for incarcerated people and their families. At the time, California’s prison telecom industry was worth $1.4 billion, and more than one in three families were being pushed into debt just to stay connected with incarcerated loved ones.
Years later, now with a family member experiencing incarceration, her own family is benefiting from the policy she helped pass. Seeing that impact up close reinforced her belief in community-centered policy and fueled her decision to pursue her master’s at the Luskin School.
“It was incredible to have that full-circle moment,” she says. “It showed me what’s possible when we push against the systems that keep people down in the incarceration space. It confirmed that criminal justice policy is where I want to be. After Luskin, I want to keep driving that change forward, especially as California continues to lead the way.”
James’ story recently reached a broader audience through
TEDxAltadena,
where she delivered a message about the unprecedented tragedies that have shaped Gen Z, and the powerful way her generation has transformed that collective rage into action.
“We’ve experienced tragedy after tragedy — 9/11, mass shootings, climate disasters, the pandemic, a mental-health crisis,” she said. “But we’re channeling that frustration into resilience and action.”
Her talk also spotlighted the origins of the Altadena Recovery Team, founded by James, Savannah Bradley, Allison Moore and Makai Ward. Together, they coordinated donations, distributed supplies, started yoga and meditation programs and pushed policy reforms, including support for
mortgage relief legislation
that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September. They also raised nearly $400,000 through crowdfunding and grants. James framed ART as both a recovery model and a preview of what future climate disasters will demand: localized leadership, shared power, culturally competent support and policy-informed advocacy that ensures longtime residents aren’t pushed out of the neighborhoods they helped build.
“What we know is that climate disasters are only going to intensify,” she said. “We want ART to become a resource for other communities — offering mentorship, seed funding and a roadmap so they can lead their own recovery.”
James’ advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world mirrors the ethos she lives by today.
“Breathe. Take space for yourself. You can only show up for others if you’re showing up for yourself,” she said. “Then get involved. Being on the ground with my community has been profoundly healing. Being in community rarely makes things worse — it almost always makes things better.”
Rooted in her love and care for her community, she is turning her rage, as she puts it, “straight into power.” And she’s just getting started.
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