Matthew Milner (left) and Rupert Mayer work to install solar panels in Milner's backyard in the Bay Area. A movement is growing to bring small, portable, affordable solar to a balcony or backyard near you. But before you see them everywhere, advocates must break through significant barriers.
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Topline:
Plug-in solar, also known as balcony solar, is emerging as an affordable and flexible alternative to traditional rooftop systems in California. With electricity costs rising and solar incentives shrinking, more residents, including renters, are turning to this new approach to generate power at home.
A new option: Plug-in solar units offer flexibility for people without rooftops, allowing installations on balconies, in backyards, or out of windows, opening up solar power to a wider range of households.
Rules and pushback: As demand grows, utility PG&E requires customers to register plug-in solar systems, a process advocates say is overly burdensome. They argue that time-consuming and costly requirements, designed for rooftop solar, shouldn’t apply to these simpler, more accessible systems.
Read on ... for more about how this technology is being used in other countries.
On a sunny, early summer morning, Matthew Milner waited in his driveway in the Berkeley hills. It was his solar install day, and he was excited. He greeted the installers and walked them around to the back of his house. But instead of pointing to his roof, he pointed to his wooden backyard fence. That is where these solar panels would go, tilted, with their bottom edge on the ground, and top leaning against the fence’s wooden planks.
The installation wrapped up in two hours, demanded minimal paperwork, and damaged Milner’s wallet only marginally, as far as solar installations go. By noon, he plugged in an electrical cord that snaked from the panels into an outlet on the outside of his house. Immediately, solar power coursed toward his electrical panel and then flowed back through his home.
With that, he was offsetting his home’s energy use.
Milner is one of the solar-curious, who are testing the waters by purchasing a small, portable, plug-in display.
“We’d wanted to get rooftop solar, but it’s so expensive,” said Milner, a scientist. The price of rooftop solar in California ranges widely and can cost tens of thousands of dollars. “This allows us to dip our toe in a little bit without having a huge financial cost and see how it works for us.”
Plug-in solar, also called balcony solar, is a new take on an old technology. For years, panels that turn sunshine into electricity have been bolted onto rooftops and limited to people who own homes, have well-maintained roofs in prime positions, and a decent amount of cash or good credit.
Rupert Mayer walks Matthew Milner through using an app that monitors the power produced by the newly installed solar panels at Milner’s home.
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But plug-and-play solar can hang from an apartment balcony, out a window, or be tented in the backyard — the smaller, more affordable displays offer an attractive alternative for renters and people with no roof at all. They may even appeal to Californians who would have bought rooftop solar but are hesitant after state regulators reduced how much someone can earn by selling excess power back to the grid.
For a long time, the economics of rooftop solar penciled out, said Bernadette del Chiaro, senior vice president for California at Environmental Working Group, who headed California’s trade association for rooftop solar for years. “I think it’s very different now for a consumer.”
Now, del Chiaro said, consumers are more likely to say: “‘I’m just going to install my own system, hang it on my own balcony and PG&E never needs to know.’”
Californians, struggling with soaring electricity bills, are eager to adopt the technology.
Advocates believe the state’s market has massive potential. They’re motivated by two examples: Utah, which recently passed legislation allowing the technology to take off once additional safety measures are implemented, and Germany, where millions of solar panels dot balconies across the country.
But there are clear hurdles, and fuzzy ones too. Utility PG&E said its customers must register the technology before they plug it in. But small solar advocates argue the registration process should be faster for these systems than it is for rooftop solar. It’s time-consuming, costly, and exactly the type of bureaucracy they’re trying to cut out.
A nonprofit called Bright Saver installed Milner’s system — it’s one of the many start-ups championing the small arrays. The organization is hoping to create a movement and plays an umbrella role for companies, policymakers and safety certification organizations.
Bright Saver’s first product is two solar panels and accessories, which can power about a fifth of the average Californian’s energy needs: covering lights and small electronics, maybe even an efficient refrigerator. It can produce 800 watts and costs $2,100, but the founders think the costs will drop in the coming years.
Rupert Mayer tests the newly installed solar panels at Matthew Milner's home.
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The organization estimates it will take Milner, who purchased his system at a discounted rate of $1,700, four to five years to make back the upfront investment in the panels through bill savings. That’s about three times faster than how long it takes to recoup the investment from rooftop solar.
Milner was motivated to try out solar because, as a father of two young kids, he wants to take action on climate change. And like most Californians, his energy bills are high, about $75 to $80 per month.
“It fixes our energy cost a little bit, because rates keep rising,” Milner said.
As easy as buying an IKEA-style table
Pranav Myana, 21-year-old founder of Zoltux, an energy company based in San Francisco, is working on his own version of this technology: a shippable set of two lightweight panels, just millimeters thick, together about the size of a medium dining room table top. Myana said you can assemble it in five minutes.
He calls it an “instant solar pod” and is pricing it at $1,199, which he estimates will pay for itself in three to four years. The company is taking pre-orders now and plans to ship the product in early fall.
Myana was inspired to build Zoltux after visiting his family’s homeland in India, a town called Sircilla, where the main industry is weaving with electric looms. When power became expensive and inconsistent, mounting debts led to many suicides that, Myana said, included some of his family members.
Rupert Mayer installs power inverters on the solar panels at Matthew Milner’s home.
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“It showed me just how fundamental energy was to everything we do,” he said.
Some companies like Bright Saver employ staff to install their panels, but a goal is to cut out professionals altogether. That’s because roughly half the price of getting solar is in labor and “soft costs” like permitting.
The dream is for plug-in solar to be purchased off the shelf and set up by the customer, IKEA-style.
Already, plug-in solar companies are working to add a small battery to their setups to gather extra power, store it and deploy it when the sun goes down.
But plug-in solar has risks, like most appliances. Without safety measures or proper equipment, wires could overheat and ignite a fire, or the systems could send power back to the grid when there’s a power outage, endangering a line worker sent out to make repairs.
Start-ups address these by plugging into a dedicated circuit, using a “smart plug” that can shut the solar panels off if there’s excessive current on the system, or a sensor to shut it off when the larger grid goes down.
Why isn’t plug-in solar already everywhere?
For one thing, there’s no safety standard for a complete plug-in solar system. Safety standards are typically shown by a “UL” stamp, or similar marking, on the back of products, indicating they’ve met requirements set by Underwriters Laboratories, an independent testing organization.
These exist for individual parts of the system only, which some companies assemble and view as sufficiently safe. UL said they are working on a safety standard for a full system.
Rupert Mayer installs power inverters on the solar panels at Matthew Milner’s home.
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Plug-in solar does not fit easily into layers of national, state and local electric code and operates in a regulatory gray area in California, where utilities want customers to register the product as they would a rooftop system.
“There’s these big gaps where it’s certainly not that you can’t do this, but it’s also not clear that you can absolutely do this,” without registering the system, said Kevin Chou, a co-founder of Bright Saver.
To stay within California rules and skirt filling out an interconnection agreement with utilities, Bright Saver’s technology prevents excess power from feeding back into the grid.
PG&E representatives said registration costs roughly $100 to $800 and shouldn’t take much time at all: just an hour if you have all your documents ready to go, with a standard approval time of three days.
Spokesperson Paul Doherty said the utility “supports new technology to make interconnecting [distributed energy resources like plug-in solar] to the utility grid as easy as possible,” but added that “it is essential” for customers to apply for an interconnection agreement, citing safety and reliability.
“They tell you you should, but they do not provide a practical means for it,” said Rupert Mayer, another Bright Saver co-founder. In Germany, customers register their name, address, system size and meter number, he added. It allows a utility to plan its electric load for a neighborhood.
“That is legitimate for the power company to want to know. But if you require someone who plugs in a single solar panel to go through the whole very bureaucratic interconnection process that they would need to go with rooftop solar,” Mayer said, as is the current case in California, “you basically make it prohibitive and put up an unnecessary hurdle.”
As his organization has grown more aware of PG&E’s interpretation of state rules, Mayer said Bright Saver has paused installations like Milner’s, at least in California, and is focused on education instead.
A breakthrough in Utah, inspired by Germany
One way to cut through the gray areas surrounding rooftop solar is to allow it, very clearly, in writing.
Ward wrote legislation to allow balcony solar after reading an article about its ubiquity abroad.
“I’m interested in anything that helps move towards more abundant energy,” said Ward, a Republican. “Anything that moves towards more clean power, with how that relates to the climate, is important to me.”
He championed legislation allowing people to plug in small solar arrays without a permit or utility fee, so long as they comply with the national electric code and third-party product safety standards. Products with certified components are already on the market.
Matthew Milner in his backyard.
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The bill passed Utah’s state legislature with unanimous, bipartisan support in March. It was quickly signed into law by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox.
“It has turned out to be pretty important, right? A lot of people were watching,” Ward said.
Christian Ofenheusle is one of the architects of Germany’s plug-in solar movement. When he started in 2017, he estimated there were around 40,000 plug-in solar installations. He struggled with many of the problems facing plug-in solar in the U.S. now.
But movement leaders have made the process of getting plug-in solar straightforward through concerted effort. The product is even on sale at IKEA. Now, there are one million documented, and several million more running without formally registering with the government, Ofenheusle said.
Collectively, those panels generate the same amount of electricity as a small power plant that did not have to be built.
But even if there is widespread adoption of this technology, in terms of overall power needs, “balcony solar is a small, small piece” of overall demand, cautioned Dan Kammen, an energy professor at UC Berkeley.
Still, Kammen said plug-in solar matters, in part because “every bit helps.” And also, because panels hanging off your balcony are a talking point.
“A lot of what we do is not just signaling to others, but it’s signaling to ourselves,” he said. And it’s a way to take tangible action.
“The more you learn about solar panels for your home purchases, the more that you can translate that into the business world. And that education is invaluable,” Kammen said.
The Inner City Youth Orchestra performs at the Skirball Center to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In this edition:
MLK Day celebrations, a nature-inspired photography show in Venice, bring your book to the park, make chopsticks in East L.A. and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
An afternoon of poetry, music and art honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. await you at the Blu’ Arts gallery in Long Beach.
What better time to start woodworking than just ahead of the Lunar New Year with this chopstick-making workshop at Allied Woodshop in East L.A., led by Ali Chen?
This whole week has been summer in January, so keep the sunny vibes going and bring your book, a blanket and a donation for Project Angel Food to the L.A. Historic Park for the first Park Pages, a new monthly group read and hang. The Fleuria indie book truck will be there, along with plenty of fellow sun-loving bookworms.
The sounds of theInner City Youth Orchestra of L.A. will fill the Skirball Centerto honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at this free concert. The group is the largest Black-majority orchestra in the nation, with more than 100 musicians and choir singers total.
The big news in L.A. food-land this week is the $1500 price tag for Copenhagen restaurant Noma’s upcoming residency here in L.A. In this economy? I think I’d rather fly to Copenhagen. Nonetheless, if you’re lucky (and flush!) enough to snag a reservation, please report back.
While that did not make any of our staffers' resolution lists, Senior Marketing Manager Patricia Tumang has some food goals of her own, including getting a coffee at Quat LA, trying some dipping ramen for lunch at Tsuke Artisan Noodle in Pasadena and getting a basturma sandwich at III Mass Bakery & Deli in Glendale (new). Much more reasonable (and probably just as tasty!).
On the music calendar this weekend, our friends at Licorice Pizza recommend new-school SoCal punks Together Pangea at the Teragram on Friday, old-school SoCal punks Black Flag at the Roxy, or Beastie Boys associate Mix Master Mike at the Venice West. Saturday, there’s the big iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show at the Forum with Green Day, Cage The Elephant, Good Charlotte, Sublime, Twenty One Pilots, Gigi Perez, Myles Smith and Almost Monday. Nikka Costa is at the Venice West, or head to Riverside to see legendary teen idol Shaun Cassidy at the Fox Performing Arts Center. Plus, a treat on both Saturday and Sunday: Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra will be playing the Troubadour, with a 4 p.m. matinee on Saturday for those of us who like to be in bed early!
Through Sunday, February 8 Arcane Space 324 Sunset Ave., Venice COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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The small gallery Arcane Space in Venice punches above its weight, with top-tier shows and a winding venue that lets out to a very cool, neighborhoody patio in the back. Choreographer and artist Morleigh Steinberg owns and operates the gallery, which has hosted inspiring new artists and group shows lately, but this time she’s showing her own work. Steinberg’s mesmerizing nature photos are printed on silver mylar substrate and show her adopted Ireland (she’s married to U2 guitarist The Edge) in a new — and possibly even more emerald — light that you can imagine.
I’m Not a Comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce
Sunday, January 18, 2 p.m. La Mirada Theatre 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada COST: FROM $19.80; MORE INFO
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Freedom of speech is in the news daily, and no one championed the right to say what you want in a more direct way than comedian Lenny Bruce. Directed by Tony Award-winning actor Joe Mantegna, this one-man show (written by and starring Ronnie Marmo) combines Bruce’s classic comedy bits with biographical insight.
DTLB Live
Saturday, January 17, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Promenade N. between Broadway and 3rd Street, Long Beach COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Usher in the new year with the Big Butter Jazz Band as the Downtown Long Beach Alliance kicks off the first DTLB Live!, a new recurring monthly event series bringing live music, crafts and family-friendly activities to the Promenade every third Saturday of each month. There will also be live swing dancers, a maker’s market with local vendors, food, drink and much more.
NFL Playoffs & Mimosas
Saturday, January 17, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Chulita 533 Rose Ave., Venice COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Watch the playoffs, drink a mimosa, soak up some sun on the patio — what could be better? There will also be tunes from DJ El Cizzle, and bottomless mimosas are $35.
Park Pages
Sunday, January 18, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. L.A. Historic Park 1245 N. Spring Street, Downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
This whole week has been summer in January, so keep the sunny vibes going and bring your book, a blanket and a donation for Project Angel Food to the L.A. Historic Park for the first Park Pages, a new monthly group read and hang. The Fleuria indie book truck will be there, along with plenty of fellow sun-loving bookworms.
About Last Night
Saturday, January 17, 8 p.m. Three Clubs 1123 Vine Street, Hollywood COST: $23.10; MORE INFO
If you thought your dates were bad, just wait until you hear the unhinged horror stories of some of your fellow single Angelenos at About Last Night. The regular storytelling showcase features locals getting up on stage and sharing their funniest, most outrageous dating stories.
Chopstick-Making Workshop
Saturday, January 17, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Allied Woodshop 4160 Whiteside Street, East L.A. COST: $160, MORE INFO
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More than one of our LAist staffers had “go to a woodworking workshop” on their 2026 L.A. resolutions list. What better time to start than just ahead of the Lunar New Year with this chopstick-making workshop at Allied Woodshop in East L.A., led by Ali Chen?
Greatest Story Ever Told with Guillermo del Toro
Academy Museum 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile COST: $5; MORE INFO
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This is for my fellow film nerds and our reason d’etre for living in L.A. The Academy Museum (for only $5!) hosts this screening of a 4K restoration of 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told, plus a lecture from Guillermo del Toro talking about George Stevens’ career on the film’s 60th anniversary.
MLK Celebration: Dream @ Blu’
Sunday, January 18, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Blu' Arts & Wellness Gallery 580 Pine Ave., Long Beach COST: FREE, DONATIONS WELCOME; MORE INFO
An afternoon of poetry, music and art honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. awaits you at the Blu’ Arts gallery in Long Beach. The day features acoustic jazz and spoken word poetry curated and hosted by Tommy Domino, an author, poet and teacher. Plus, enjoy the gallery’s work by current artists-in-residence, Shelton Gillis, Mohammed Mubarak and Wan Jean the Artist.
MLK Day Concert
Saturday, January 17, 7:30 p.m. Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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The sounds of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of L.A. will fill the Skirball Center to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at this free concert. The group is the largest Black-majority orchestra in the nation, with more than 100 musicians and choir singers total.
Jam Session Friday, January 16, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. SteepLA 970 N. Broadway, Ste. 112, Chinatown COST: FREE; MORE INFO
One of my favorite discoveries of 2025 was the charming SteepLA, a teahouse in a Chinatown plaza that also houses restaurants and art galleries. They are launching jazz jam sessions, starting with one on Friday in their courtyard. Tea cocktails and their after-dark menu will be available.
For homeowners, the battle to collect insurance money after the Eaton and Palisades fires has exacerbated a grueling recovery that's far from over. Some fire survivors have had to scramble for other sources of funding to try to rebuild. Others have gone into debt while bouncing between rental housing, as they wrangled with State Farm and other insurers over coverage.
Why now: State Farm is California's top home insurer, and many customers around Los Angeles started to get checks in November after L.A. County announced it was investigating complaints about how the company had handled claims from last January's wildfires, says Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
The background: The insurance industry says it has been dealing with years of rising disaster costs that have forced companies to raise premiums and to limit coverage in some high-risk areas. And the cost of disasters is increasing in part because climate change fuels more-intense storms, floods and wildfires that damage and destroy property.
Read on ... to learn what fire survivors are dealing with and about how this issue is cropping up in other states.
Nine months had passed since a wildfire destroyed Mark Johnson's southern California home, and he was still waiting for State Farm to pay his claim. Desperate for a resolution, Johnson asked the insurer in October to negotiate a settlement so his family could rebuild.
"I was on the verge of leaving money on the table," Johnson recalls, "just to get some kind of assurance of what we could move forward with."
Then, just before Thanksgiving, a State Farm representative told him the money was on its way.
"Needless to say, it was a huge relief," Johnson says, fighting back tears.
Johnson isn't alone. State Farm is California's top home insurer, and many customers around Los Angeles started to get checks in November after L.A. County announced it was investigating complaints about how the company had handled claims from last January's wildfires, says Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
For homeowners, the battle to collect insurance money after the Eaton and Palisades fires has exacerbated a grueling recovery that's far from over. As Johnson's case with State Farm languished, he had to scramble for other sources of funding to try to rebuild. Other fire survivors have gone into debt while bouncing between rental housing, as they wrangled with State Farm and other insurers over coverage.
The struggle Los Angeles residents have faced with insurers mirrors what's happening in communities around the United States. Years of rising premiums, due in part to threats from climate change, have added to the frustration with insurance companies.
"This is a national issue," Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat, told reporters recently. He added, "the first commandment of the insurance industry is to pay as little, as late as possible."
Asked about its handling of insurance claims, State Farm sent NPR a statement from its website that says the company takes every claim seriously and tries to provide customers with appropriate coverage.
"The rebuilding process [in Los Angeles] is underway, but frustration with the pace is understandable," David Sampson, chief executive of American Property Casualty Insurance Association, an industry group, said in a statement to NPR. "Insurers have paid tens of billions of dollars to policyholders impacted by the fires, and that process continues."
Insurers face 'staggering' costs from LA fires
The Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures around Los Angeles. They rank as the most expensive blazes ever globally, with $40 billion of insured losses, according to Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of reinsurance company Swiss Re.
Soon after the fires were extinguished, homeowners started to complain about how insurance companies were responding to the disaster.
"The price tag is so staggering for the insurers here that they are bringing strategies to try to limit the pain" they experience financially, says Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a national consumer advocate. "But it's nothing new under the sun what we're seeing."
In November, the Los Angeles County counsel opened an investigation of State Farm following reports from residents that the company delayed, underpaid and denied valid insurance claims. The county counsel's office declined to comment on the state of the investigation.
State Farm said in a statement on its website that the investigation is a distraction from its efforts to help fire victims recover.
Chen of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network says State Farm's alleged behavior was devastating for its customers.
"Around February or March, I realized that whether a family was recovering or not depended largely on which insurance company they were with, which was shocking," Chen says. "These are all people who have been paying [their] insurance premiums faithfully for 20 or 30 years, but only some of them were getting the benefits."
The Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures around Los Angeles.
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The fight for insurance money has been especially hard for homeowners whose houses survived the fires but were contaminated with lead and other toxins from the smoke, according to survivors and consumer advocates.
"With total loss, it's a very clear-cut, 'OK, we either rebuild or we sell. And if we rebuild, it's this. And if we sell, it's that.' And we do not have any paths to take," says Krista Copelan, whose Altadena home suffered smoke damage and lead contamination in the fires. "It's 100% trying to figure it out, fighting every step of the way, having no clear-cut answers."
Until about Thanksgiving, Andrew Wessels says State Farm resisted replacing his family's personal belongings, like clothes and bedding, that had been contaminated with lead, insisting the items could be cleaned instead. As the one-year anniversary of the fires approached, Wessels still didn't know how much State Farm would pay to remediate lead contamination in his Altadena house. To get rid of all the toxic ash, Wessels says floorboards need to be pulled up and walls torn down.
"We're here almost a year later, and we haven't taken one step forward," Wessels said in December.
As they've waited, Wessels, his wife and two young children have moved a dozen times, and the family has taken on tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
A lot of families are in similar situations. In Altadena, 65% of residents are still in temporary housing, according to a report this month from Department of Angels, a nonprofit that was set up to help victims of last year's fires. In Pacific Palisades, the number is even higher, with nearly three-quarters of residents still displaced.
As the recovery has dragged on, the toll on residents has grown, according to the Department of Angels report. Around half of respondents said they have depleted much or all of their savings. And about the same share said they worry about their mental health.
"I think everyone has been overwhelmed and drained for, literally, the past 11 months," Copelan, a State Farm customer, said in December.
'They're trying to make it difficult'
More than a thousand miles east, in Oklahoma, State Farm faces separate allegations that it has shortchanged policyholders. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, recently accused the insurer of running a scheme to deny and minimize payments for roof damage from hail and wind.
"Oklahomans are paying rising homeowners insurance premiums yet receiving less protection in return, as State Farm simultaneously pursues additional rate increases while allegedly escalating its claims denials and underpayments practices," Drummond wrote in a December court filing.
Drummond's complaint is part of a growing wave of frustration with insurers nationwide as rising premiums strain household budgets.
In Texas, Democratic state Rep. Mihaela Plesa recently told reporters that homeowners who are struggling to pay for insurance in her district near Dallas routinely have their claims denied.
"That's not insurance, that's extraction," Plesa said. "That's a system that's designed to pull maximum dollars out of Texas pockets and providing minimum protection when disaster strikes."
And in southwest Florida, Jessica Gatewood, a Realtor, told NPR that home insurance feels like "a scam."
"You pay into it for, like, 30 years, 40 years, and then you have to make a claim, and they don't want to pay you what you actually need," Gatewood says.
The insurance industry says it has been dealing with years of rising disaster costs that have forced companies to raise premiums and to limit coverage in some high-risk areas.
The cost of disasters is increasing in part because climate change fuels more-intense storms, floods and wildfires that damage and destroy property. Additionally, people continue to move to coastal regions vulnerable to hurricanes and to forested areas prone to wildfires. That means more property is in harm's way. Then, when homes get damaged or destroyed, inflation has made it more expensive to rebuild.
Robert Gordon, a senior vice president at American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the industry group, says Florida and other states have also been plagued by cases of what Gordon described as insurance "fraud" related to alleged roof damage from storms, which he says have contributed to rising costs.
Construction workers build a home in the Palisades fire zone on the one-year anniversary of the fires.
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In California, Mark Johnson hopes to move into his rebuilt Altadena home by fall. Reflecting on his ordeal with State Farm, part of him wonders if the insurer was just overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. But he can't shake the feeling that all of the delays he faced were intentional.
"They're just trying to push you away," Johnson says. "They're trying to make it difficult for you so that you won't ask for much, so you'll be happy with whatever you get."
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Monica Bushman
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Published January 15, 2026 5:00 AM
An aerial view of properties cleared of fire debris that burned in the Eaton Fire seen July 7, 2025, in Altadena.
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Topline:
Providing support to the entertainment community is nothing new for the nonprofit Entertainment Community Fund, a sort of safety net for arts and entertainment workers in need. The organization is working to get the word out that financial assistance for entertainment workers impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires is still available. There are mental health resources, too, including support groups.
The context: The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund) provides a wide range of services (many of them free) like classes on things like building “parallel” or “sideline” careers to supplement income.
But over the past couple of years, the fund's western regional director says, "We have seen significant increases in the number of people who are coming to our career center to consider transitioning to other careers. And that is definitely a change.”
Read on ... for more about the help available.
$8.63 million in emergency grants sent to 562 families.
That’s how much financial assistance the Entertainment Community Fund has provided to performing arts and entertainment industry workers since fires broke out in Southern California in January last year. And the organization still is distributing grants, with the knowledge that needs are likely to increase soon.
”We know that the trajectory of the recovery process with homeowners and their insurances is that they will often pay some portion or all of a rent expense while people are displaced from their homes,” says Keith McNutt, the ECF’s Western Regional director. “That usually only lasts nine months to a year, and we're of course coming up on that year.”
Why entertainment workers?
Providing support to the entertainment community is nothing new for the nonprofit Entertainment Community Fund (formerly known as The Actors Fund), a national organization that’s been around since 1882 and is a sort of safety net for arts and entertainment workers in any kind of need or crisis. They also have built some of their own affordable housing.
A significant portion of their work, McNutt says, is making people aware that help is available and also that it’s OK to access it.
“It’s hard for any professional person in their craft to ask for help from anyone,” McNutt says. “But literally, we were created 140 years ago for exactly that reason. Because people work hard in this industry, but the industry doesn't provide regular income, regular benefits, [...] predictability, a standard career ladder.”
On top of the normal unpredictability factors of a career in the performing arts, there’s also the fact that the past five years have been “such a brutal onslaught of crises,” as McNutt describes it, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023 to the January 2025 fires, “that people have not had time to recover.”
What help is available?
The Entertainment Community Fund’s staff of social workers, career counselors and health insurance counselors provides a wide range of services (many of them free), like classes on things like building “parallel” or “sideline” careers to supplement income and support groups (including some specifically designed for people impacted by the 2025 fires).
Some services, like emergency financial assistance, require a more formal application to show that a recipient does in fact work professionally in performing arts or entertainment.
From ‘parallel’ careers to career changes
For a long time, McNutt says, he heard from arts professionals who saw their non-arts-related day jobs (ECF calls them “parallel” or “sideline” jobs) as sort of betrayal of their art, but “ our message has always been, ‘No, no, no [...] that's what helps you stay in your creative craft.’”
Over the past couple of years, though, with hardships compounding and ”profound shifts in the amount of employment, particularly in television and film,” McNutt has seen something different.
“We have seen significant increases in the number of people who are coming to our career center to consider transitioning to other careers," he says. "And that is definitely a change.”
And even for those cases and questions like, “How do you apply for a job that's not in the industry when you've never worked outside the industry?” McNutt says that's "something we can help people with.”
LA landlord asks renters’ star signs. Is it legal?
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.
Published January 15, 2026 5:00 AM
Dave Goldstein stands at the gate to one of his properties, a 1930s Streamline Moderne building in Hancock Park where John F. Kennedy once lived.
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David Wagner/LAist
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Topline:
When it comes to renters, Scorpios are “particular,” Libras are “gold,” and Aquariuses “can't make up their mind.” That’s according to Dave Goldstein, the Los Angeles landlord behind the company Art Deco Apartments.
The approach: For years, Goldstein has asked prospective tenants to tell him their astrological sign as part of the application process. He said he doesn’t care about credit scores, and he loves tenants with pets. He knows his approach to tenant screening is unusual. But when it comes to picking the right renters for his century-old, tastefully appointed buildings, he said it works.
The law: But is asking a tenant about their astrological sign legal? Housing rights attorneys told LAist they’re not aware of any laws or court rulings that explicitly ban landlords from screening tenants based on their birth month. But they said the question is still legally precarious.
Read on… to learn why, according to Goldstein, Leos make great tenants.
When it comes to renters, Scorpios are “particular,” Libras are “gold,” and Aquariuses “can't make up their mind.” That’s according to Dave Goldstein, the Los Angeles landlord behind the company Art Deco Apartments.
For years, Goldstein has asked prospective tenants to tell him their astrological sign as part of the application process. He said he doesn’t care about credit scores, and he loves tenants with pets. He knows his approach to tenant screening is unusual. But when it comes to picking the right renters for his century-old, tastefully appointed buildings, he said it works.
“It gives me an idea of their personality,” Goldstein told LAist outside The Mauretania, a well preserved example of 1930s Streamline Moderne architecture in Hancock Park.
“I mean, it's impersonal to just get an application,” he said. “You're going to get buildings that aren't that good. You're going to get impersonal people that don't care about anything.”
The question might be helpful to Goldstein, but some housing rights experts say it could be pushing the boundaries of what’s legal.
Why Leos make good tenants
While he hasn’t blacklisted any particular star sign, Goldstein said in his experience, people with certain signs are easier to deal with as tenants.
“If they say that they're a Leo, I go, ‘Great,’” he said. “‘I can't wait to rent to you. You're your own boss. I don't have to do nothing. You'll change every light bulb. You'll never call us.’”
Goldstein also likes to ask tenants where they grew up and the color of their car. He said people are sometimes surprised by the questions, but they tend to like his approach.
“They just can't believe it, because they're used to just texting a management company,” he said. “They're not used to personal service.”
The Mauretania, a 1930s apartment building with distinctive curved windows looking out on the street, is one of the properties Dave Goldstein owns through Art Deco Apartments.
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David Wagner/LAist
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Housing rights lawyers weigh in
But is asking a tenant about their astrological sign legal? Housing rights attorneys told LAist they’re not aware of any laws or court rulings that explicitly ban landlords from screening tenants based on their birth month. But they said the question is still legally precarious.
“There's not a specific law against it,” said Rodney Leggett, director of litigation at the L.A.-based Housing Rights Center. “But because of the seemingly arbitrary nature of asking somebody about their astrological sign, it could potentially violate the [California Unruh Civil Rights Act].”
The law bans businesses from discriminating against people based on personal characteristics including sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status or sexual orientation.
It does not specifically mention astrology. But lawyers said depending on how businesses treat people with different signs, an argument could be made that they’re being discriminated against for no legitimate business reason based on a personal characteristic they can’t control.
“Astrological signs are not a traditional ‘protected characteristic’ in most anti-discrimination laws,” said Alisa Randell, a managing attorney with the legal aid organization Public Counsel. “But we do have this expansive law in California that is not limited to the categories that are laid out… So I think this is dicey for him.”
Goldstein said he has tenants of all astrological signs, and he plans to keep asking applicants about their birth charts.
“I don't know if it's legal to ask about it or not,” he said. “But it's fun to. And I know they're not going to lie about it.”
