Homelessness is up in Merced County, the latest numbers in an annual survey of sheltered and unsheltered residents show. What the 2026 Point-In-Time Count report, published last Friday, doesn’t explicitly show is that shelter capacity is also up – and in urgent demand. “One of the biggest things that I can say is we are […]
Author Archives: Alma Villegas
Alma Villegas is a bilingual journalist from Los Angeles, covering English and Spanish community news stories across California.
Villegas' work has been published on Golden Gate Xpress, El Tecolote, CALÓ News and the Merced Sun-Star. In 2017, they launched the project Sur Central Times, a bilingual community news blog about South Central Los Angeles.
Villegas studied journalism at San Francisco State University and believes that community news empowers marginalized communities. Their work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.
As a transplant to Merced, Villegas is committed to accurately and fairly representing the voices of Central Valley residents by reporting on the agencies that govern them, the issues that impact them and the stories that celebrate them.
Send Alma Villegas your news tips and story ideas at avillegas@cvlocaljournalism.org.
