Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Workforce Relief topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State, county and city officials detail relief, workforce grants and business assistance after LA fires
Summary
EDD, Los Angeles County and Los Angeles City officials summarized unemployment and disaster job assistance, new workforce grants (NDWG and Additional Assistance), and local relief funds for workers and small businesses affected by the Jan. 7 fires.
State and local workforce officials described steps under way to help displaced workers and small businesses following the Jan. 7 Los Angeles wildfires, including unemployment and disaster‑assistance benefits, federally funded temporary jobs and new local relief funds.
Immediate benefits and claims Employment Development Department Director Nancy Ferris told the committees that EDD has processed more than 7,000 regular unemployment insurance claims and over 4,500 federal disaster unemployment assistance (DUA) claims since the fires. The governor waived the one‑week waiting period for UI and FEMA extended the DUA application deadline from March 10 to March 31, Ferris said.
Temporary jobs and workforce grants Ferris and county and city workforce officials described two federally funded grants: a National Dislocated Worker Grant (NDWG) to provide temporary, subsidized jobs for cleanup, humanitarian assistance and related tasks, and an Additional Assistance (AA) grant that can be used for transitional work and wraparound services. The grants use WIOA funding and will be administered through the city and county, offering training, supportive services and temporary employment. County officials said the NDWG and AA programs aim to support more than 1,000 impacted workers with training and 300 with temporary subsidized employment beginning in April.
Local relief funds and small-business support Los Angeles County said it helped stand up the LA Region Small Business and Worker Relief Fund, which provides $2,000 cash grants to workers and up to $25,000 grants to qualifying small businesses. County staff reported more than 6,000 worker applications with initial awards scheduled to begin the week of the hearing and additional disbursements planned by early April. The county and city said they are also operating pop-up business resource centers, multilingual outreach and in‑person technical assistance at disaster recovery centers.
Longer-term employment and retraining Germaine Hampton of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation summarized preliminary economic-impact estimates and highlighted sectors likely to need workforce support, including retail, health care, construction and hospitality. County and city officials said they will use jobs‑first and workforce development partnerships to pair temporary employment opportunities with apprenticeships and upskilling to create longer‑term career pathways.
Ending Officials said immediate relief and grants are already in place but emphasized that rebuilding and retraining will be a multiyear effort, and they committed to continuing coordination among state, city and county partners.
