Justin Strawther, a former student of the Long Beach Job Corps Center, had been struggling to find housing and a job after exiting the foster care system at 21.

He reached the age of 24 with no luck and decided to take a train to Los Angeles from the San Francisco Bay Area with his brother for a fresh start.

Strawther was looking for a job that provided housing and came across Job Corps, he said. The Long Beach Job Corps program, which is now in jeopardy, provides education, vocational training, job placement and wraparound support services to hundreds of at-risk youth in the community. Long Beach is one of seven Job Corps centers in California.

Being accepted into the program helped Strawther get stable mentally, physically and financially, he said. After going through the program, he now has his certification as a clinical medical assistant, patient care technician and in CPR.

Once he finished his trade, the Long Beach Job Corps Center offered to let Strawther stay at the center while attending college. That’s when he started taking classes at Long Beach City College and has been attending since the fall semester, he said. The Job Corps, Strawther said, has given him an opportunity to thrive and has put a roof over his head.

Strawther’s story is one of hundreds from students nationwide who have benefited from the longtime federal program, which is at risk of shutting down.

The Department of Labor, in a May 29 announcement, said that all Job Corps centers would be “paused” by June 30. The department said the decision aligned with President Donald Trump’s budget priorities and the administration’s “commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers.”

Since then, on Wednesday, a U.S. judge temporarily stopped the Trump administration from moving ahead with the effort to eliminate Job Corps by issuing a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed by a trade group representing contractors that operate Job Corps centers.

The lawsuit accuses the U.S. Department of Labor of violating federal law and its own regulations by abruptly shuttering the program.

But the federal government’s decision has already caused immediate impacts on hundreds of students across the country, including those in Long Beach, officials said.

“It was a bad week,” Strawther said in an interview on Thursday. “Basically, we had to leave and then on (that) Friday, I was ready to go to work and I couldn’t even leave campus because if I left, I couldn’t come back.”

Nearly 300 students at Long Beach Job Corps had to be sent home; others, such as Strawther, had to look for alternative housing, according to Luis Ramirez, director of the Long Beach center. Stawther and three other students were able to find housing at the April Parker Foundation’s First Future facility, and others were offered help and housing by the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

“A lot of damage has been done already,” Ramirez said in an interview on Wednesday, “because a lot of students when home and we’re not positive that every single student will want to return.”

Job Corps was created by Congress in 1964 and allows 16- to 24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain high school diplomas or an equivalent, vocational certificates and licenses, and on-the-job training.

The Labor Department cited multiple reasons for ending the program, including not being cost-effective, having a low graduation rate and not placing participants in stable jobs. The department also said there had been thousands of instances of violence, drug use and security breaches at Job Corps centers.

In 2024, the program operated at a $140 million deficit, the department said in a news release. The deficit is projected to reach $213 million in 2025.

In recent years, Job Corps has seen an average graduation rate of 38.5% and 14,913 “serious incident reports,” according to a 2025 Job Corps Transparent Report, including 372 reports of sexual misconduct and assaults, 1,764 reports of acts of violence, 1,167 reports of safety or security breaches, 2,702 reports of drug use and 1,808 reported hospital visits.

“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the news release. “However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.”

The Long Beach center’s director said that the transparency report was sent out with some skewed data that made the 99 centers across the nation look “really bad.”

“We had been hearing about this potential shutdown,” Ramirez said. “We knew that the Department of Government Efficiency was at the Department of Labor and they were already looking into our program. We knew that we were certainly being targeted.”

In March, the center was at full capacity with 300 students. That same month, there was a background check freeze from the federal government, which caused a pause in enrollment since one is required to enter the centers, Ramirez said. There were 257 students, as of May 29.

In preparation for the shutdown, the Long Beach Job Corps held a resource fair for the 33 students who still remained on campus, Ramirez said, and also provided information from community partners and organizations to share with others who had found alternative housing or were back home.

“It’s heartbreaking all the work that we put in for these young people, and some of them in the middle of their training, some of them almost done with their training, some of them almost done with their high school diplomas, and then they just had to leave,” Ramirez said. “It was certainly heartbreaking and tragic, but my team did the best they could, and we supported them in the best way we could.”

The center also has 140 employees who would have lost their jobs if the center were to remain closed.

“I feel like it’s very messed up because there are actually people that are trying to get their lives together,” Strawther said. “There are people like me who have a plan that are trying to execute it, and there’s stuff like this that puts a block in the road.

“It’s definitely affected a lot of people in so many ways,” he added. “It was just too fast. When you think of something shutting down, it usually takes a couple of months or over time, but no, this was instant. It was shocking for a lot of us.”

For Long Beach, the loss of a resource like the Job Corps center would be “devastating,” Ramirez said, as the center serves more than 500 students a year. It would also have a deep economic impact because of the job placements they create, he added.

“It would just be a major loss for the youth of Long Beach and the youth of the L.A., Long Beach and Orange County area that come here for this type of training that’s free of cost to them,” Ramirez said. “The foundation of this program is that it’s a means to fight generational poverty. We’re trying to set these young people up, not just for themselves, but for future generations, and to lose a system like this would be devastating.”

This story is a microcosm for what’s happening across the country, Ramirez said. All centers are dealing with the same issues, even locally with the Los Angeles center, the San Diego center and the Inland Empire center, which is in San Bernardino.

Many former students from the Job Corps in the area took to social media to share their feelings on the closure of centers. Los Angeles resident Denise Rubio, a former Job Corps student, shared a post on Facebook detailing her feelings on this loss.

“Please continue to support Job Corps so that students can finish their education and build a better future for themselves,” she wrote. “This program changes lives.”

During the pandemic, Rubio found out about the Los Angeles Job Corps and applied before being placed on a waitlist. In March 2021, she was accepted and began her educational journey in August of that year. She said she was offered free education, housing and meals, all of which made her eager to continue learning.

“During my time at Job Corps, I met so many amazing staff members who helped me along the way,” she said. “I am incredibly grateful for the support I received from all the staff.”

Rubio completed the office administration program in 2023 and left the program in February 2024.

“I am a graduate and I’m deeply appreciative of everyone who helped me along the way,” Rubio said.

The Long Beach Job Corps — and other centers — has also received the support of elected officials, such as Reps. Robert Garcia and Nanette Barragán, Ramirez said.

“As mayor of Long Beach for eight years and now as a member of Congress, I’ve seen firsthand how Job Corps has helped young people across our community and country,” Garcia said in a written statement. “For decades, Job Corps has been a lifeline for students and young workers, especially those from underserved communities. It offers training, support and opportunity to help folks build a future. We should be expanding this program, not dismantling it, which is why we’re going to fight back against the decision and make it clear to the Trump Administration that this action is illegal and unethical.”

Mayor Rex Richardson echoed those sentiments and traveled to Sacramento this week to advocate for the program. He also asked the community for support.

“There are 30 staff and dozens of students who may lose the only source of housing that they have,” Richardson said in a social media post. “We can’t let that happen. I’m calling on our workforce teams and bringing together our city departments to help ensure a safety net for these students. Our community is strong, and we need to make sure that they don’t end up on the street because of shortsighted decisions in Washington.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove also took to social media to urge reinstatement of the program in Los Angeles, calling it a “lifeline” for low-income people.

“Job Corps is more than just a way to gain valuable work skills at no cost,” she wrote. “It’s a lifeline, providing 60k low-income American youth with career training and housing.”

She said closing the center in Los Angeles will be “devastating.”

“120 students will become homeless yet again,” Kamlager-Dove wrote.

With the temporary restraining order in place, the government cannot terminate Job Corps contractors or stop work at Job Corps centers until a further ruling in the case. The Labor Department must appear at a court hearing on June 17.

Those at the Long Beach center said they are thrilled to bring students back, but until the background check freeze is lifted, no new students can join the program. Ramirez urged the federal government to do everything possible to lift the freeze so Job Corps can continue the work it provides for so many youth.

“I hope that they (federal government) take a deeper look into the statistics,” Strawther said. “Job Corps is very good at helping a lot of people who are looking for help, and I hope that they understand and realize that it’s a very big change shutting down the centers.”