Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, fighting for her political life as polls show her approval rating swimming toward the Titanic, released her proposed $14.85 billion budget on Monday.
The mayor’s budget optimistically assumes “strong revenue growth.” It also assumes property owners will vote to approve a 120% increase in the assessment for streetlights, and that in November, voters will say yes to a one-half percent increase in the city’s sales tax rate that the firefighters’ union is trying to get on the ballot by collecting signatures.
You might think a city budget of $14.85 billion could be prioritized to pay for basic local government services like working streetlights and an adequately equipped and staffed fire department.
What’s in the proposed budget ahead of those? “Sustaining CIRCLE, UMCR, and GRYD services and citywide coverage for civilian crisis response,” according to the news release from the mayor’s office.
What are these, what do they cost, and who gets the money?
The programs are creatures of the murky “NGO” world, non-governmental organizations that live on tax dollars. They breathe in chaos on the city’s streets and breathe out lucrative contracts and high salaries.
CIRCLE, which began in 2022, stands for Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement, a round-the-clock unarmed response program. Calls to 911 about homeless individuals are diverted to the CIRCLE program, which dispatches mental health professionals or “peers with lived experience” to provide assistance and connect people to services, if they’re willing.
For this service, the city pays a nonprofit called Urban Alchemy. Echoing the alchemist’s art of turning lead into gold, the city controller reports that in 2025 and 2026 to date, Los Angeles taxpayers paid Urban Alchemy $13.81 million, of which $10.66 million went to the CIRCLE program.
According to a 2025 auditors’ report, “Urban Alchemy hires individuals who were formerly incarcerated and harnesses their skills and energy to transform people and places through respect and compassion. The Organization provides services and engagement that heal communities challenged by the intersection of extreme poverty, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness.”
Is the CIRCLE program healing communities or monetizing public chaos?
Another program the mayor has prioritized over streetlights and the fire department is UMCR, Unarmed Model of Crisis Response. Calls to 911 for non-violent social service needs are routed to “community-based providers,” which dispatch trained professionals and outreach specialists. Three nonprofit organizations – Exodus Recovery, Penny Lane Centers and Alcott Center for Mental Health Services – have contracts with the city to handle these calls. Together, these three organizations were paid $8.05 million by the city in 2025 and $8.77 million so far in 2026 for the UMCR program.
A report from the City Administrator’s Office evaluated the first year of UMCR, through March 11, 2025. Half the calls were for “disturbances,” 20% for “prowler/trespass,” 8% for “indications of mental illness” and 7% for “indecent exposure.” The average response time was 28 minutes. The average “time on scene” was 25 minutes. Acceptance of services is voluntary.
In one example of a program success highlighted in the CAO report, a response team was called to the apartment of a woman acting “erratically.” The response is described with phrases such as “they gently asked” and “patiently advocated.” Inside the apartment, the responders found “two gas stovetops turned on without flames.”
Take your time.
Thankfully the responders called the fire department for support. But why does the mayor prioritize the LAFD’s budget below the UMCR program?
Also ranking higher than the fire department in budget priorities is the GRYD program, Gang Reduction and Youth Development. In the current budget year, $39 million went out to a long list of non-governmental organizations for, according to the city’s budget summary, “preventing crime before it happens.”
The GRYD program is overseen by the mayor’s office. She reports that it’s a success.
Non-governmental organizations are being paid big money to solve problems, but if the problems are ever solved, the money will stop. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer notes that Urban Alchemy has spent nonprofit dollars providing “first-class or charter travel to key employees or officers.”
Some of your city tax dollars paid for peanuts on those flights. But you’re expected to pay more for streetlights and the fire department.
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