By Rich McKay and Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) – Thousands of Angelenos who lost their homes in some of the most destructive wildfires in California history find themselves in fierce competition with one another for an affordable place to live in Los Angeles’ post-disaster housing market.
The fires have killed at least 27 people as of Friday and destroyed more than 10,000 structures in the residential enclaves of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. In the wake of the fires, rents have surged and uncertainty over insurance settlements has left some of the displaced in limbo.
In interviews this week, Angelenos described the anguish of exile from beloved neighborhoods and the daunting task of figuring out what comes next for themselves and their families. Here are some of their stories:
‘TOTALLY CRAZY’ RENTAL MARKET
John Adolph, a 48-year-old video producer, and his wife, two small children and two dogs have been staying with friends since they fled their Altadena home a week ago. Their ranch-style home of six years near the Angeles National Forest was totally destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
“We thank God we’re safe, but we don’t know what’s next,” he said. “We both are lucky, our jobs are still here. I know people who have lost their livelihoods and have to start totally over. We’re still employed.”
Adolph and his wife, Christine, are lifelong Angelenos, and have no plans to move from the area permanently “unless it’s done kicking and screaming,” he said.
For now, the family was content to stay with friends, but knows it’s a lot to ask long term. They were already looking at rental apartments.
“We have two kids and older dogs, we can’t just bounce from hotel rooms to Airbnbs,” he said. “We need something stable for the kids.”
When they went to view a rental, there were already six families lined up ahead of them.
“It’s totally crazy,” Adolph said. “It’s going in insane mode.”
Even though his home was insured, he worries that surging construction costs and new insurance rates might price them out of their own neighborhood.
“So it’s up in the air if we can actually rebuild,” he said. He has no idea how long the county will take to clear the debris before they can even start. “We’d really love to stay, but who knows, we don’t know.”
‘MUSICAL CHAIRS’
On the GoFundMe page set up by Kate Alexandria, she includes a photograph of the fire consuming her rental apartment in Altadena and says her credit cards are maxed out. People had donated more than $3,000 as of Friday.
Alexandria, a 27-year-old grant writer, moved to Los Angeles three years ago from Grass Valley, a small city north of Sacramento, after becoming unnerved by nearby devastating wildfires.
She was renting what she described as an illegally converted apartment in Altadena above garages filled with fuel, paint and other fire accelerants. For a time, she split the $2,000 monthly rent, a bargain in Los Angeles, with a roommate.
After the fire, the landlord refunded January’s rent, but she still has not got back her $2,000 security deposit, which she says she sorely needs.
Alexandria says she takes about 40 different medicines to control the painful symptoms of a disability, but most of the drugs were destroyed by the fire. Replacing the prescriptions will cost hundreds of dollars.
Her cat is staying at a friend’s house in nearby Pasadena that’s under renovation, while she crashes at the home of a friend’s mother in Van Nuys, about 20 miles west of Altadena, until Saturday, when the mother returns from a trip. Most days she shuttles between the two places.
“It’s going to be musical chairs for a bit,” she said. FEMA has approved her for an initial payment of $770, not much in a city as expensive as Los Angeles. She is trying to get approved for a disaster credit from Airbnb.org, which would get her at least a few days in a rental.
California bans hiking prices by more than 10% in a declared disaster, yet rents have surged all the same. As Alexandria browsed apartment listings, places that were listed at $2,000 a month in January were now going for more than $3,000, she said.
She is dismayed at what she called the “ghoulishness” of landlords, but dreams of returning to her beloved neighborhood.
“It’s just the weirdest and most wonderful place in Los Angeles,” she said.
‘FEELS LIKE A GHOST TOWN’
“I feel like where you live is part of your identity,” said Deisy Suarez-Giles, who lost the four-bedroom Altadena home she bought in 2021 and the garden of citrus and avocado trees she planted on the property. “I feel like part of who we are is gone.”
She and her husband, Keith Giles, have secured a hotel room in downtown Los Angeles near their spa business at about $170 a night, a sort of employee discount because the hotel uses their masseurs.
On Friday, they shifted to a free rental apartment donated by Airbnb for 10 days. After that, they do not know where they will end up.
The couple sent their two young sons to relatives in Florida, until some stability can be restored.
She and her husband still have to pay the mortgage every month on their destroyed home, on which they still owe $850,000. Mortgage payments are more difficult now because they had partly relied on the rent paid by a tenant living in a studio at the back of the house. And their spa business is suddenly slow.
“We’ve been struggling and now with the fire it just feels like a ghost town,” she said. “Nobody’s mindset right now is ‘spa’.”
She is waiting to hear from the insurer on how much of their expenses over the next 12 months it will reimburse. Before beginning their rental search in earnest, they need to know their budget.
They have put some feelers out, but a new Christmas puppy for the boys is proving an easy reason for landlords to dismiss them: “No pets.”
‘FORTUNATE AND BLESSED’
Kathleen McRoskey closed the deal to buy her two-story, four-bedroom home on the day of the 1994 earthquakes, and left it last week just before it was consumed by the Palisades Fire.
She and her husband, Mike, both grew up within a few miles of the Palisades and met in first grade. They have resolved to stay in the neighborhood where they raised their four children.
The family is now staying at her husband’s sister’s house near University of California, Los Angeles.
“It’s invaluable to be with family and to be within miles of where we lost our home,” McRoskey said. “On the other hand, we’re putting a burden on her.”
Navigating the Los Angeles market has been a jolt. A tip from her husband’s friend who works in real estate about an unlisted rental house in Santa Barbara led to an early-morning viewing of the property that she said felt like a “drug deal.”
They know they have a relatively generous budget because, a few months ago, her husband decided to increase their fire insurance coverage after helping an elderly woman who struggled to file claims after losing a home in the 2018 fire in Malibu.
“We are extremely fortunate and blessed,” she said.
They hope to move up the coast to Santa Barbara in February, when they will start to think about the years-long process of building a new home on their Palisades property.
“We never dreamed of rebuilding in our 70s,” she said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Diane Craft)
