Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn announced Friday evening she has transferred $5 million in discretionary funds from her office to the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, urging municipal officials to provide financial assistance to individual residents impacted by destructive land movement.
“I am urging the city to cut red tape, take the funding I am providing, and get it directly to the residents who need it as soon as possible,” Hahn said in a statement. “I am talking to people every day who are not only losing their homes but their entire life savings. This is a crisis, and we need to meet this moment.”
In a letter sent to RPV Mayor John Cruikshank and members of the City Council, Hahn wrote that many residents impacted by the landslide “are at the end of their rope.”
“We still need to fight for more state and federal resources,” she wrote. “But in the meantime, our residents are getting more desperate every day, and they need this help now.”
News of the funding came hours after Cruikshank met with former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Trump National Golf Club. The mayor said he wanted to raise awareness of the landslide issue on a larger scale, hoping to generate more assistance from state and federal leaders.
At a news conference, Trump praised the mayor “for the great job he’s doing” and also hailed the work of public safety and emergency personnel working to assist residents.