The Brief

As the wildfires in Los Angeles tear through hillsides, raze neighborhoods and displace residents, it's too early to know how vast the destruction will be when the last of the flames is put out. Initial estimates predict that the costs will be massive. One leading climate scientist, Daniel Swain of UCLA told KQED that the fires could become some of the costliest in U.S. history; as of Monday afternoon, AccuWeather experts said that total losses could cost somewhere from $250 billion to $275 billion.

Those final, unknown costs and eventual payouts coincide with an inflection point in California's home insurance market, the biggest in the U.S., in the age of climate change. Home insurance rates are increasing across the country, but the Golden State has been hit particularly hard as wildfire seasons have become more devastating, amid hotter temperatures and drought-dried vegetation.
Experts and policymakers agree: Climate change is upending the way that homes are insured in the United States. Across the country, what were once "once-in-a-generation" weather catastrophes occur much more frequently. And as insurance companies contend with the sum total of these disasters, those higher costs are passed on to policyholders.

In many respects, California has a uniquely complicated insurance situation. But it's a problem throughout the country: The effects of climate change are coming for people's home insurance bills.

California faces 'an insurance crisis like we've never seen'

Insurance rates in California have been slowly ticking up for years, though climate change isn't the only driving factor, according to Meredith Fowlie, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley who researches the links between wildfire risk and insurance prices.

Simply put: The costs of doing business are going up, such as increased costs of the construction materials and skilled labor needed to repair and rebuild homes, as well as higher interest rates, she says. That's the case across the country.

In her research, though, it's clear that the worsening wildfire seasons have been a major driving force behind California's market instability. Specifically, the 2017 and 2018 seasons were "particularly devastating, raising concerns about the insurability of catastrophic wildfire risk," according to a study she co-authored, published last June with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
The massive losses incurred from those fires "wiped out more than a quarter century of cumulative profits for the industry twice over," according to Carolyn Kousky, of the Environmental Defense Fund, who researches climate risk and policy. "So that was a bit of a shake-up for people and a recognition that climate impacts are here and are costly and the risk isn't stabilizing — it's continuing to go up."

A person walks along a fire-ravaged street in the Pacific Palisades on Saturday.

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That coincided with the industry investing more heavily in better analytics and modeling of insurance risk, Fowlie says.

"These newer risk-modeling tools are definitely helping insurers come to terms with what wildfire risk looks like in California and how they'd want to price it in order to ensure that they are ready to pay when claims come in," she says.
The results of all this hit consumers hard, according to the NBER study. Premiums rose, especially in areas where fires had hit or that were otherwise deemed high risk by insurers. Insurers paused writing of new policies or told people their plans wouldn't be renewed; and increasing numbers of people had to resort to California's FAIR Plan, a semiprivate insurance plan of last resort, which has considerably higher premiums and less coverage than traditional plans. (The FAIR Plan covers 1 in 5 homes in the Pacific Palisades, CalMatters reported.)
And since home insurance is a prerequisite for getting and having a mortgage, Fowlie says, it's a particularly pressing issue for those who live in those high-risk ZIP codes, many of whom are struggling to afford the higher insurance rates needed for homeownership.

"California has been suffering from an insurance crisis like we've never seen," California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara says.

Insurance markets across the country are feeling similarly pinched

Shawn Murphy removes drywall at a friend's house after flooding from Hurricane Francine in September 2024.

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California's litany of problems — high premiums, less availability of insurers and increasing numbers of people on insurance plans of last resort — echo across the country, the Environmental Defense Fund's Kousky says. Florida and Louisiana are seeing similar levels of market instability, thanks to worsened hurricane seasons as rising temperatures and sea levels make hurricanes more intense and flooding worse.
Take Florida, where 16 insurer carriers have become insolvent since 2017 and 16 others have stopped writing policies, even though Floridians pay the highest premiums on average in the United States. The state-backed insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance, started getting many more policy holders, NPR reported in 2022.
When Hurricane Ian hit the state in September 2022, many worried that the expensive payouts could be the final straw for many insurance companies. And it was, Central Florida Public Media reported, as Ian proved to be the most expensive storm in Florida history: Over 30 insurance carriers left the state.
Hurricanes and wildfires have been making conditions in Florida, Louisiana and California extreme, but there's a similar trend nationwide, Kousky says. Texas and Colorado had to create state-backed insurance programs because of insurance issues with wildfires, she said, and coastal New Jersey has dealt with rising sea levels that make flooding more likely.

Flames explode as wildfires burn near a shopping center near Broomfield, Colo., on Dec. 30, 2021.

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Across the country, household budgets have been absorbing higher home insurance costs, Fowlie says. Adjusted for inflation, she says, premiums have increased 13% on average since 2020 — though that figure doesn't illustrate how lopsided they have gotten in some parts of the country.

It's something that state insurance commissioners across the country have their eyes on, says Lara, who chairs the climate resiliency committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. And he uses what has happened in California's market as an example of what could happen to others.

"What we've been telling people nationally and in our meetings with other insurance commissioners is do not wait until California comes to a theater near you and you're getting insurance companies to either restrict their portfolios in the state or leaving the state," he says.

Firefighters from an Oregon strike team survey damage Sunday at a Sunset Boulevard home leveled by the Palisades Fire.

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The L.A. fires come as insurers are poised to come back to California

In the near future, insurance rates in California are expected to spike — but not necessarily because of the fires. At the end of 2024, the California Department of Insurance passed long-anticipated regulations in an attempt to increase access to insurance.

There are many parts to the new regulations, but chief among them is something that insurance companies had asked from state regulators for years: being able to base rates on forward-looking models of climate risk in the state, without needing to cite historical data. In exchange, the companies committed to writing more policies in high-wildfire-risk areas and factoring in any fire-mitigation efforts into lowering those rates.
"Those were concessions to the insurance industry to create an environment that they feel more comfortable doing business in," says Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit group that advocates for people with insurance policies.\

Like other experts, she expects this to increase rates in the short term as insurers adjust their prices. But it's unclear whether this latest batch of wildfires will upend these efforts to stabilize the market, she says.
Lara, though, is optimistic that the market will improve within a year but acknowledges that "this fire complicates an already complicated situation."

It's a test case of whether policy reform can meet climate challenges

These rules don't just have implications for California — Lara hopes that these new reforms can be a road map for other states that are trying to adjust for climate change's effects on homeownership. "If we're going to have a solvent insurance market in the country, insurance can no longer be an afterthought in the national and global conversations around climate change. Insurance has to be at the forefront."

But if the past few years have demonstrated anything, it's that traditional insurance models have had trouble accounting for the "known unknown" risks that climate change poses, the Environmental Defense Fund's Kousky says, making it difficult to provide coverage affordably.
"I think the big question now, after what we're seeing in the L.A. region, is, you know, how far can regulatory changes go in helping maintain insurability in this environment of really catastrophic wildfire risk?" she says.

What has become clear, though, is that it's a problem that U.S. homeowners are not going to be able to ignore.
"It's the one place where I feel lots of Americans are seeing the costs of climate hit their pocketbooks," she says. "And it's like a kitchen table economics problem now. And yet it's directly related to what we've been doing with the climate. And I think it's maybe one of the first places that lots of people are grappling with that."

Copyright 2025 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.