South LA community leaders push back against funding cuts

LOS ANGELES  — In Nickerson Gardens, the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi, a wall covered in names bears silent witness to decades of loss.

Each one, said Donny Joubert, represents a life lost to gang violence — and a community that fought hard to bring peace back to its streets.

Now, Joubert fears that peace is under threat again.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced more than $811 million in cuts to federal grants that help fund violence intervention and survivor support programs nationwide.

In Los Angeles, local leaders said those cuts will slash approximately $16 million from city programs aimed at preventing gun violence.

“It seems like it’s designed for us to struggle,” said Joubert, president of the Watts Gang Task Force and a lifelong resident of the neighborhood. “Our seniors and kids… they could come out and play, walk the streets and not worry about being attacked or bullets flying. That didn’t always happen. But now? The community is safe.”

Joubert, along with community leaders and elected officials, gathered Friday in Watts to protest the cuts. Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson) stood beside a symbolic coffin to underscore what he called the potentially “catastrophic” consequences of defunding intervention work.

“These funds go to the very heart of what creates a safe community,” Gipson said. 

Alisa Blair, executive director of The Reverence Project, a nonprofit focused on trauma-informed care and violence prevention, said the ripple effects are already being felt.

Her organization has laid off several staff members.

“This method works,” Blair said. “Just like we saw decreases in violence when we were funded… we’re going to see increases now that we’re not.”

In a statement, the Department of Justice defended the changes, stating that discretionary funds “not aligned with the administration’s priorities are subject to review and reallocation.”

Officials added they are shifting away from what they called “listening sessions” in favor of more targeted efforts.

But to community members like Joubert, the value of these programs isn’t theoretical — it’s inscribed on the bricks of that wall in Nickerson Gardens.

“Just look at the hard work that these men and women do out here that law enforcement just can’t do,” he said.

In a neighborhood once defined by its violence, residents are now rallying to preserve the peace they’ve built.