Compton scuttles CHIRLA’s lease renewal request as 15th bus of migrants roll into DTLA

LOS ANGELES – The 15th bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.

“One bus with migrants on board from Texas arrived around 9:35 a.m today at Union Station,” Zach Seidl, deputy mayor of Communications for Mayor Karen Bass, said in a statement.

“This is the fifteenth bus that has arrived. The city has continued to work with city departments, the county and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith partners, to execute a plan set in place earlier this year. As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan,” Seidl said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says there’s no coordination between Texas and her office to get a heads up that they are en route, so 2UrbanGirls did.

Heads up @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA according to @NewsNation 4,000 migrants arrived in Texas today. How many you think will arrive in #DTLA? https://t.co/WkAgLwCAzd

— 2UrbanGirls (@2UrbanGirls) September 20, 2023

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights confirmed the arrival of the bus with 45 asylum seekers from Texas. On board, there were 13 families, including 23 children from Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

CHIRLA is a member of the L.A. Welcomes Collective, a network of nonprofit, faith groups and city and county services that respond to the arrival of migrant buses.

“There is no crisis of compassion in Los Angeles. There is plenty of sympathy and kindness in the largest, most diverse state in the U.S. Our limited resources will support those who need us and they in turn make our communities safe, vital and strong,” CHIRLA said in a statement.

CHIRLA currently operates an office in the city of Compton at the former CareerLink site. On the Sept. 19 city council agenda was an item to renew the lease agreement for CHIRLA which also included the agency’s request to acquire additional space.

According to the council agenda, the current lease agreement expired on January 31, 2021, and they have been month-to-month since then.

One by one residents spoke during public comment about the agreement and voiced their opposition and support to the request.

“I want to speak on behalf of CHIRLA I think they do a lot of great things for the community and its a great resource to have and they do a lot of things here and are doing an event with [Councilman] Spicer and I hope you grant their lease,” said Mrs. Villanueva, who represented her block club.

“On item #4 I am saying no because this is for Candace and if you look at the video she presented she wants to lease that building for money coming up for 2050 because there are too many other members of this community being left behind,” said “Missy”.

“The building on the agenda has nothing to do with my organization,” said Candace Leos, founder of Compton Advocates, who residents allege are involved with CHIRLA. “I have never petitioned the City for a building and since 2019 i have brought an incredible number of resources to the City.”

Leos founded Compton Advocates as a way to get residents more involved in local government by hosting workshops that explain the budget process and she invites elected members of the city government to speak to those interested in obtaining information.

Representatives from both CHIRLA and Compton Advocates were members of the Advisory Board to the Compton Pledge program which provided a guaranteed income of $800 per month to community members who applied for the program.

According to publicly available documents on GuideStar, Compton Advocates is supported by private donations, not government resources, and operates in Compton independently of CHIRLA.

Once the lease agreement came before the council to vote on, staff pulled the item without discussion or a reason why.

As the number of migrants coming into Los Angeles shows no signs of slowing down, it is crucial that CHIRLA have consistent locations to provide services in partnership with Los Angeles.

Compton Mayor Emma Sharif supported Bass for mayor but stopped short of “locking arms” with her to address the growing homeless population.

Requests for comment from the City on why the contract was pulled went unanswered, for now.