The Brief

This story is part of The Disaster Economy, a Grist series exploring the often chaotic, lucrative world of disaster response and recovery. It was produced by Grist and co-published with LAist. It is published with support from the CO2 Foundation.

Last January, a series of massive wildfires broke out across the Los Angeles area, fueled by high winds and dry temperatures. The fires raged for weeks, incinerating entire neighborhoods in the wealthy Pacific Palisades and in middle-class Altadena. They killed at least 30 people and destroyed at least 10,000 homes.

As the embers cooled, thousands of displaced Angelenos scrambled to find new housing in a rental market that was already among the nation’s toughest. They scoured Zillow and Airbnb for units they could afford on short notice. What they found were sky-high prices gouged by property owners and real estate agents rushing to capitalize on the surge in demand.

Dawn Smith and her family had rented in Altadena for nine years. After their home burned in the Eaton Fire, she combed through online listings for a similar alternative. But options were $10,000 a month or more, triple what she had been paying before the fire.

Eventually, she found a smaller place in Sherman Oaks, more than an hour away, for a still-astonishing $7,800. Her renter’s insurance would cover the difference for a few months, but not for the whole term of the lease. Now, as her insurance comes close to expiring, she and her husband are trying to figure out where to go next.

“The prices were insane,” she told Grist, “but because we had to find somewhere, we rented.”

Controversies over price-gouging play out all over the country in the wake of natural disasters as victims scramble for essential goods. Officials in New Jersey went after price-gouging gas stations after Hurricane Sandy; officials in North Carolina went after scam contractors after Hurricane Florence; and Florida prosecutors said they received more than 100 complaints after last year’s Hurricane Milton.

Most states have laws that prohibit such behavior, but they are difficult to enforce in the chaos of disaster, and some economists contend that they can backfire and cause shortages or hoarding.

But housing is a special case. Overpaying for water or gasoline might be difficult, but overpaying for a rental apartment is a long-term commitment that can lead to bankruptcy or eviction down the road. Concerns about price-gouging of rental apartments have appeared after numerous recent wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise and the 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder. But prosecutors and public officials have largely failed to deter or punish this illegal behavior.

Two days after wildfires broke out in Los Angeles last January, tech founder Edward Kushins and real estate agent Willie Baronet-Israel hiked the price of a home they were renting out in the waterfront city of Hermosa Beach by 36 percent, likely an increase of more than $1,000. The city is about 15 miles from the Palisades burn zone.

A month later, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the two, citing a state law that makes it a crime to raise prices for food and shelter during an emergency by more than 10%. If found guilty, Kushins and Baronet-Israel would face fines of up to $10,000 and as much as a year in prison.

But the Hermosa Beach listing was just one of thousands that were spiking in price. According to a Washington Post analysis of listings data from the firm RentCast, the average rent in the L.A. area rose by 20% in the two weeks after the fire — double the maximum allowable increase under California law. The home-rental company Airbnb also allowed users to raise prices above legal limits on more than 2,000 properties, despite its assurances that it would block such behavior, according to prosecutors.

The burnt remnants of an apartment building in Altadena, California, following the Eaton Fire in January. Many fire victims struggled to find housing as rents skyrocketed.

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Keith Birmingham

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This lack of enforcement is common after disasters. But this time, it triggered an unprecedented campaign for stricter regulation of housing prices — and one that got results.

“The minimal enforcement that has happened has totally sent a signal,” said Chelsea Kirk, a tenant advocate who organized against price-gouging after the L.A. wildfires. “Landlords expect that enforcement does not exist.”

Three dozen states and the District of Columbia have laws that prohibit merchants from price-gouging during an emergency, but unlike California, which prohibits hikes of more than 10%, many of these laws are vague, prohibiting “excessive” or “unconscionable” increases without specifying what that means or what goods are covered.

“The laws are all over the place,” said Teresa Murray, the lead consumer advocate at the Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit that focuses on consumer protection. Furthermore, enforcement of these laws is minimal — the government can’t be everywhere all at once after a hurricane or flood, and most disaster victims aren’t aware of their rights and don’t track or call out violators.

The stakes are even higher when it comes to housing, which is already in shortage across the country. Around half the nation’s tenants are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Wildfires and hurricanes often destroy thousands of homes in quick succession, exacerbating supply crunch in local housing stock.

Research from across the country shows that landlords often hike prices after major fires and floods. Asking prices for rental apartments increased by 25% after the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, for instance, and by 44% in Lahaina following the 2023 Maui wildfires in Hawaiʻi. The increases even hit existing renters: More than a quarter of renters in Boulder said they saw hikes of more than 10% after the 2021 Marshall Fire, and a study of multiple flood events found that inexpensive apartments see hikes of 5% on average after a flood. These hikes hit low-income households hardest, forcing them to relocate or cut down on other expenses.

This same dynamic was on display in Los Angeles earlier this year following the Palisades and Eaton fires. One of the people who tested this market was Blanca, a woman who lived in an apartment building in Altadena, and who declined to give her last name because of her immigration status. The Eaton Fire destroyed her business and caused significant damage to the apartment complex where she and her husband lived. Even though their unit was intact, the building lacked water, gas, and electricity.

An aerial view of burned properties in Altadena, taken in July. Many of the homes destroyed in the January fires have not been rebuilt.

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Allen J. Schaben

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Blanca and her husband looked for other apartments, but all the available units they found were far too expensive, some thousands of dollars above what they had paid in Altadena for the same amount of space. They couldn’t afford anything like what landlords were asking, so after a few weeks, they moved back to their unit in the damaged complex and lived there paying rent in unsafe conditions for months.

“The place has not even been inspected, and many people have returned since February,” said Blanca in Spanish. “But there was nowhere else to go.”

In the first days after the fire, California attorney general Bonta trumpeted the state’s price-gouging ban several times — not only could landlords not raise prices by more than 10%, they also couldn’t list new units for more than 160% of typical market value. But property owners seemed either not to know about the law, or not to care.

Bonta, the attorney general, has sent more than 750 warning letters since the fire to property owners who may have price gouged, but has initiated only four lawsuits, and so far not obtained a conviction. The city attorney of Los Angeles has filed a few of its own lawsuits, including against Airbnb, but the district attorney for much larger Los Angeles County has not filed a single price-gouging case. Legal nonprofits say they can’t pick up the slack because they need a named victim in order to sue a landlord, and most disaster victims don’t have the knowledge or resources to pursue litigation.

“We have been a little bit disappointed, I will say,” said Rodney Leggett, the director of litigation at the Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles, which has sued a few property owners over the post-fire price gouging, including the company that owns the historic Villa Carlotta apartments in Hollywood. “We have gotten complaints of people seeing price gouging, [but] we have gotten relatively few … people saying, ‘I am actively being price gouged.’ I think a big part of that is it's really hard for people to track, and to know, the sort of price changes that have occurred.”

But the epidemic of price-gouging in L.A. after the fires has also triggered new progress on the difficult issue of enforcement. As Zillow flooded with overpriced homes, a group of tenant advocates began an unprecedented crowdsourcing campaign to track and shame price-gougers. Kirk, a policy advocate at the progressive nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, was seeing numerous instances of price hikes, but she knew that Bonta’s office and local prosecutors lacked the capacity to track and sue every landlord who was posting high-priced units.

Kirk partnered with Lauren Harper, a data analyst and fellow tenant advocate, and together they took enforcement into their own hands. Forming a new organization called The Rent Brigade, they created a spreadsheet that scraped Zillow for apartment listings that violated the price-gouging laws, and also encouraged fire victims and volunteers to submit proof of gouging. In the first few weeks after the fire, volunteers submitted more than 1,500 examples.

Mike Nemeth, the head of communications for the California Apartment Association, the state’s biggest landlord lobby, told Grist that most landlords tried their best to comply with the law.

“The California Apartment Association takes seriously the legal and ethical obligations of rental housing providers during declared emergencies,” he said. “Most housing providers want to do the right thing, and our role is to help them navigate complex rules when it matters most.”

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Zoe Myers

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Thanks in part to the Rent Brigade’s pressure, local officials in Los Angeles are now trying to step up enforcement. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted in July to create a new system for penalizing price spike activity. Instead of waiting for a prosecutor or a legal nonprofit to file a court complaint against a landlord, the local government could slap the landlord with an administrative fine, the same way it would punish a restaurant with cockroaches in its kitchen or a driver who parked near a fire hydrant. The fines could reach up to $1000 per violation per day, with an additional $500 per day for failing to cooperate with county investigations.

Jamie Court, president of the advocacy firm Consumer Watchdog, says this kind of ordinance could be a model for how to enforce price-gouging laws.

“This is desperately needed as a deterrent and to let people know that price gouging is not up to prosecutorial discretion,” he told Grist. “People need to know every violation could result in a fine, not just the few prosecutors choose to prosecute.”

Los Angeles County’s price-gouging will lapse at the end of August when the fire emergency ended, so the new rules will only apply the next time California declares an emergency for a fire, flood, or other calamity. But during the last months of the ban, Kirk and other advocates noticed something unexpected — and concerning. The rush of new housing demand from the fire had ended, but many landlords were still listing new units well above fair market rate.

The L.A. housing supply, Kirk and Harper concluded, was so limited that price gouging had become a normal part of the market. Even in the absence of a major shock like the fire, landlords were still asking for exorbitant rents, and tenants were still paying them. The emergency declaration was only going to last for an arbitrary period of a few months, but the overall housing picture was as bad as ever.

“When the fire started, we were seeing a lot of these units coming online for absurd prices from people who don't usually rent, maybe knowing that people coming from the Palisades would be able to afford those kinds of things,” said Harper. “But the further that we get from the fires…I think it's reflective of just high rents.”

Despite the state’s redistricting efforts, California’s District 40 will likely be represented by a Republican congressperson. As of Thursday morning, Ken Calvert is about 15 percentage points ahead of Young Kim and both appear to make the November ballot in the race to represent the newly redrawn region.

Last year, California voters allowed the state to use new congressional maps for this year’s elections in response to the congressional redistricting in Texas powered by Republicans. Kim represented the old version of District 40.

California’s 40th District was originally made up mostly of Orange County cities. In the new maps, the district covers more communities in the Inland Empire, including Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Menifee.

What do the early results say about the region?

Mike Moodian, a Chapman University lecturer and public policy analyst, said District 40 was always an uphill battle for Democrats because of registration numbers.

“The powers that be that drew those lines basically figured that … they would concede that more or less to a Republican, so that they could allow for comfortable margins. They could allow Democrats to pick up some seats elsewhere in the state,” Moodian told the LAist.

Moodian said Calvert’s significant lead ahead of Kim could be because more than half the District is Calvert’s old district.

The 40th was redrawn as a “Republican voter sink,” Christian Grose, USC professor of political science, told the LAist.

“I think it's the only Republican district remaining in all Southern California,” Grose said. “So, in some ways, it's not that surprising that two long-term impressive incumbents are fighting each other in the general.”

The person who comes in first in the primaries typically advances, but not always, Grose added.

“Kim will presumably try to get some of the Democratic and independent voters who didn't vote for either one of them,” Grose said. She might be better positioned for that.”

Is this a loss for Democrats?

Not quite, Moodian said. The two Republicans will now have to spend a significant amount of money to beat each other in November, he added.

“Obviously, local Democrats and Democrats in District 40 are certainly not excited about the fact that two Republicans have advanced, but to me this is what the statewide Democrats had in mind when they redrew the lines,” Moodian said. “This allows them to attempt to pick up more seats, and at the same time basically eliminate one Republican congressmember by having these two face off against each other.”

What do the candidates say?

In a statement, Calvert said Tuesday night’s early results show "that voters want an effective and consistent conservative who has been with President Trump from Day One.”

Chris Pack, spokesperson for Young Kim, said in a statement, “Despite being outspent 10 to 1, we are confident that Congresswoman Kim will be advancing to the November election and that she’ll put an end to Ken Calvert’s 30-plus years of failing to deliver for the people of Southern California."

What’s next?

The two top candidates will likely face off in the November election. It could take days for results to finalize in California. Keep up to date with the Primary Election results here.

Los Angeles is in the midst of a pizza renaissance. Pizzaiolos across the city are slicing up unique takes on pies that pull from multiple influences — local, global, and everything in between, just like Los Angeles itself.

It's like that playlist you make for your friends — a little jazz, rock, hip-hop, country and pop. That's L.A.-style pizza. Because the region isn't beholden to any specific pizza standards, chefs can use all the best parts of what makes a great pie.

Which means I’m fully prepared to say that L.A. is currently making pizza better than any other city across the globe. Fighting talk, I know, but this is a hill I'm willing to die on.

With soccer fans from around the world descending on L.A. this summer, as well as passionate locals cheering on their favorite squad, there's a chance that many will work up an appetite. From the Eastside to Long Beach, the city is ready with inventive takes on crust and toppings, served up fresh to satisfy all your melty, cheesy cravings.

Westwood

Danny Boy's Famous Original

A spread of slices at Danny Boy's Famous Original in Westwood, including pepperoni, white with mushrooms, sausage, and cheese.

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Chef Daniel Holzman has been told he's doing it wrong. His New York-style pizza at Danny Boy's Famous Original — with locations in DTLA, Westwood, and Woodland Hills — relies on a four- to five-day fermentation, well beyond what's customary for the style. But the proof is in the slice: buttery, flaky, soft and chewy, with a crust that develops a complex structure most pizza makers never bother to chase. Don't sleep on the sausage and mozzarella slice, made with freshly ground in-house meat, you can taste with every bite.

Silver Lake / Los Feliz

Hot Tongue Pizza

The best of both worlds : a cheese slice with arrabbiata sauce and a vegan slice made with spicy crushed tomatoes, cashew mozzarella, red pepper, white onion, almond parmesan and fresh basil.

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You'll find the quasi-vegan pizzeria called Hot Tongue Pizza in Silver Lake. I use the term quasi because they started as vegan only and then added meat options later. Each slice costs around $6, but Hot Tongue also offers a great combo lunch option: two slices and a canned soda for $10.

If you're an omnivore like yours truly, you can go both ways. Get one vegan slice, such as their Arrabbiata with cashew mozzarella, spicy tomato sauce, roasted red peppers, white onion, basil and almond parmesan. It's saucy, sweet, and filled with fresh flavors. Then get their cheese slice, with grated parmesan cheese and mozzarella. The vast, sizable slices hit the spot with their chewy, sweet crust. If you're dining in, douse your pizza slices with Zab's Hot Sauce for a bit more sweet heat.

LaSorted's

A slice of pepperoni pizza amongst slices of burrata and cheese and Adriana from La Sorted's Pizza.

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Tommy Brockert was an L.A. event photographer when his then-girlfriend, now wife, gave him an Ooni pizza oven. That led him to enroll in a one-day pizza-making class, where he was hooked and began stumbling down the rabbit hole of crafting his own naturally leavened sourdough pizza crusts. When his income dried up at the start of the pandemic, he had the crazy idea of selling his homemade pizzas off the front porch of his home in Echo Park. It was so successful that he now runs his own pizza shop, LaSorted's, in Silver Lake, just down the road from where he used to sell his porch pizzas — with a second sit-down location in Chinatown.

A good place to start is the Mamba, prepared as a regular cheese slice or with pepperoni. Its name comes from the late Laker great Kobe Bryant, who once said he ate a pepperoni pizza before scoring 81 points in a single game in 2006. The Upside Down Mamba is perhaps the most texturally interesting pie on the menu — their cheese pizza flipped, with a three-cheese blend serving as its base, then topped thoroughly with tomato sauce, sprinkled with flaky sea salt, and Sicilian oregano. Think about how a producer takes a snippet of a song and creates a new song based on it. Brockert accomplishes something similar with his pizza — it's both specifically Los Angeles and distinctly his own.

Old Gold Tomato Pies

A tray of slices at Old Gold Tomato Pies in Los Feliz, including the Crab Rangoon slice, the Godson with burrata, and the Moral High Ground vegan option.

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Old Gold Tomato Pies feels like the older punk sibling who got really into the Grateful Dead — adorned with the kind of hippie-meets-hardcore energy that jives perfectly with its Los Feliz surroundings. The classic slice shop vibe is immediately welcoming, and the menu rewards the adventurous. The Crab Rangoon slice is the one to try. Premium lump crab from Indonesia — no imitation stuff here — tastes fresh and pairs well with a cream cheese topping for a rich dairy element. The party doesn't stop there: sweet chili sauce mingles with crispy wonton skins and fresh scallions in a combination that might sound like too much. But the Sicilian crust — light and airy on the inside, crispy on the outside — ties it all together and makes any apprehension about your choice go right out the window.

Mid-City 

Apollonia's Pizza

Some of the best pizza you can find in L.A., and it's sold by the slice at Apollonia's Pizzeria on Wilshire Boulevard.

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Justin De Leon, owner and head pizza maker at Apollonia's Pizza, grew up on pizza. His first job was working at a pizza restaurant when he was 13. The modest menu might make you wonder if this is really some of the best pizza in Los Angeles. But you'll quickly understand why after your first bite — or encountering the long lines outside his standing-room-only, cash-only pizzeria off Wilshire Boulevard.

De Leon has been a lifelong student who has broken down pizza into its fundamental elements. If you ask what defines his pizza craft, he'll say his job is to "simplify it." Start with a traditional slice of De Leon's cheese pie. "I was looking for something thin, light, and crispy," De Leon said. Well, he found it. Next, try the square slice — notice the crispy, frico cheese crust that rises along the sides, giving it a 3-D effect. De Leon describes L.A.-style pizza as a mixture of various styles. In his own words, "To me, L.A. pizza is a mix of everything." Now with a second location on Crenshaw.

Northeast LA

Bub and Grandma's Pizza

Bub and Grandma’s Pizza in Northeast Los Angeles offers East Coast–style slices on sourdough crust with fresh toppings.

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Gab Chabrán

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The newest kid on the block on York Boulevard in Highland Park, Bub and Grandma's offers East Coast-style pizza on a sourdough crust that's thin, but don't let that fool you — it's airy and chewy with light char marks throughout. The pepperoni slice is the one to get, with perfectly cupped edges that create a level of synergy with the crust's char you won't soon forget. The meatball onion slice is a close second, with perfectly seasoned meat working harmoniously with caramelized white onions. Does this pizza have any business being this good? Either way, we're all better for it.

Wallflour Pizza

The $10 lunch special at Wallflour Pizza in Eagle Rock comes with a drink and and house salad.

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Brandon and Carolina Conaway started selling pizzas out of their backyard in Highland Park during the pandemic under the name Quarantine Pizza Co., drawing from their diverse backgrounds — Brandon is Asian and white, Carolina is Latina — to create inventive, sourdough-forward pies that developed a cult following on the pop-up circuit. Now brick-and-mortar for about a year on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock, Wallflour is the next chapter. The naturally leavened, Neapolitan-inspired pies are the main event, but don't overlook the $10 lunch special — available daily from noon to 4 p.m. — which includes a focaccia square slice pepperoni and cheese options, a side of house salad, and a soda or sparkling water. And keep an eye on their seasonal specials, check their Instagram for before you go.

Secret Pizza

What happens when an East Coast transplant starts making pizza on the Eastside of L.A.? You get Secret Pizza, Sean Lango's New Jersey-style pizza, with a variety of options available daily.

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New Jersey-style pizza might be a product of the Garden State, but it's one of my favorite East Coast-style pies, New York or otherwise. Secret Pizza was founded by Sean Lango, who began cooking pizza out of his Hollywood apartment before opening his pizzeria in the foothills of Montecito Heights. He calls his pizza New Jersey-style because he's from there and wanted to protect himself from the wrath of purist New Yorkers, who weren't happy with outsiders laying claim to their turf. What makes his pizza so memorable? Its simplicity. The thin crust gives way to a stellar crispy underside, providing an excellent texture, topped off by a tangy sauce. Sure, you could add different toppings, but Lango's pie — crushed tomatoes, a small amount of mozzarella, topped with aged pecorino — is perfect as it is. Sometimes, when you rely on a good, uncomplicated formula, good things happen.

DTLA

Pizzeria Bianco

The red sauce and green sauce slices at Pizzeria Bianco are both bursting with flavor and textures.

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Chris Bianco's temple of pizza cookery, Pizzeria Bianco at The Row near downtown is always worth seeking out. Plus, you can't beat free two-hour parking. Grab either their red or green slice: the red slice showcases their all-killer, no-filler approach with only house cheese blend and tomato sauce. The green contains caciocavallo, a soft Italian cheese, parmesan, and spinach cream sauce. Both slices come in a signature pizza crust that's well-cooked with a tight pull on each bite.

Long Beach

Milana's New York Pizzeria

The Sheepshead Bay slice from Long Beach's Milana's always hits.

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Gab Chabrán

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I could not make a pizza list without mentioning one of my favorites in my hometown of Long Beach, Milana's The New York-style pie joint specializes in a series of East Coast-style pies, but the standout for me is the Sheepshead Bay, made with house-made meatballs topped with pillow-soft dollops of ricotta and sprinkled with bits of basil. This exceptionally piled slice features a great combination of flavors — the soft creaminess of the cheese, with just a hint of sharpness that perfectly cuts through the fattiness of the sliced meatballs, and both soft and crispy elements that defy categorization and drive the whole thing home.