The Brief

Los Angeles County residents living in unstable housing conditions were almost twice as likely as their securely housed counterparts to open their doors to friends and family members who were displaced during January’s wildfires.

That’s according to results released Thursday from the LABarometer survey, a project of the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research.

During February and March, the researchers put a series of fire-related questions to a panel of 1,360 county households. The respondents represented a diverse cross-section of L.A. County in terms of race, income, geography and housing stability, researchers said.

Among the respondents who said they personally knew someone who lost a home in the fires, those identified as “unstably housed” were more likely to say they let an evacuee stay with them (16%) than those who had stable housing (9%).

Kyla Thomas, a USC sociologist and director of LABarometer, called that finding ”striking.”

“If you think about people who are in housing-insecure situations, those households are more likely to be overcrowded already,” Thomas said. “What you're seeing is the most vulnerable residents taking on additional housing burdens to support those more severely impacted.”

Some evacuees are still living in unstable homes

The researchers found that across the survey’s questions, responses from people who said they were stably housed often differed significantly from the responses of unstably housed people, defined as those who said they worried about losing their housing “often” or “very often.”

Some of those doubled-up living arrangements were only temporary, according to the survey. But it found that unstably housed respondents were more likely to still be housing evacuees (6%) months after the fires were put out compared with stably housed respondents (2%).

The survey also found unstably housed respondents were more likely to say they lost income or savings because of the fires (14%) than stably housed respondents (5%).

Thomas said the responses point toward increased struggles for people who were already more likely to have missed past rent payments and be spending a high percentage of their income on housing.

Will post-fire eviction protections keep people housed? 

State and local eviction protections were put in place for renters affected by the fires.

Shortly after the fires broke out, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order providing temporary safeguards against eviction to tenants who took in roommates not authorized under a lease, if those new occupants were displaced by the fires.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors also gave tenants a legal defense against eviction if they can’t pay rent on time because of financial impacts of the wildfires. Landlords could still file an eviction, but the county protection would allow tenants who notified their landlords about post-fire hardships to fight it in court.

Thomas said it will take time to know whether those protections have succeeded at stabilizing Angelenos in an already expensive housing market turbocharged by the fires.

LABarometer has been running since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent similar shockwaves through L.A.’s rental housing market.

“We saw during COVID that those eviction protections made a big difference, but then once they were lifted, we started to see an uptick in evictions,” Thomas said.

She added that future LABarometer surveys will continue to examine the effects of the fires.

“People are maybe protected now,” Thomas said. “But when those protections go away, is that when they finally experience the full impact the wildfires have had on them?”

Breezy conditions will linger today for L.A. County mountains, but otherwise, expect a mild weather day. Come Sunday, temperatures will rise significantly continuing into next week.

Temperatures in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley will range from 67 to 73 degrees.

In Orange County, inland and coastal areas will stay in the 64- to 70-degree range.

For the L.A. County coast, expect highs from 64 to 72 degrees. For the valley communities, highs there will range from 68 to 74 degrees. In the Antelope Valley, highs will range from 60 to 65 degrees, but foothill communities will still see daytime highs in the upper 50s to around low 60s.

Beach hazards

High surf has come and gone, but now look out for high tides that could lead to pooling of water around walkways, parking lots or other low-lying areas near the ocean. These conditions will last until Saturday morning.

Eleven months after the January fires, childcare providers — especially those who operated businesses out of their homes — still are struggling to open up their doors.

“There were no state or federal funds provided to support families or providers connected to childcare,” said Cristina Alvarado, executive director of the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles, at a recent legislative hearing. “Sadly, we will experience another disaster, another fire, another loss.”

The California Department of Social Services said as of this summer, 50 of 280 impacted childcare facilities remained closed. They stopped tracking the data in August.

Providers told lawmakers in October that they needed more support to survive in an already fragile childcare industry. Preschools have been closing in L.A. County. There also are not enough childcare providers, and those who are in business are chronically underpaid. A recent study out of Stanford found that most childcare workers struggle to afford basic needs.

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At least 280 childcare spaces were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. LAist reporter Libby Rainey and early childhood senior reporter Elly Yu followed two women who ran childcare businesses out of their homes until the Eaton Fire destroyed them. In this episode of Imperfect Paradise, they look at how these two childcare providers are rebuilding their lives and businesses, the catch-22 they found themselves in around government assistance, and the state of the child care industry at large.

Altadena childcare providers' struggle to rebuild raises questions about government disaster response

At least 280 childcare spaces were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. LAist reporter Libby Rainey and early childhood senior reporter Elly Yu followed two women who ran childcare businesses out of their homes until the Eaton Fire destroyed them. In this episode of Imperfect Paradise, they look at how these two childcare providers are rebuilding their lives and businesses, the catch-22 they found themselves in around government assistance, and the state of the child care industry at large.

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This means those childcare providers and the system as a whole are particularly vulnerable when a disaster strikes, like January's fires.

“ I lost my only source of income without a place to operate. I cannot work. I still had to pay my rent and my mortgage payment, as well as our living expenses such as food,” said Francisca Gunawardena, who lost her house and childcare business in the Eaton Fire. Nearly a year later, she still hasn't been able to re-open.

What was available for providers? 

Unlike during COVID, childcare providers didn’t receive dedicated relief money to recover from the fires. That left them to piece together federal support, state unemployment and private grants.

Providers who took care of children from low-income families and received state subsidies did receive payments from the state for 30 days after the fire. But that didn't get them very far. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office then directed childcare workers to an unemployment phone line.

Providers who looked for help from FEMA and other agencies sometimes found a bureaucratic maze. Felisa Wright, a childcare provider who lost her home and business in the Eaton Fire, spent months trying to get the agency's support. She encountered a series of catch-22s. She was rejected when applying for a small business loan because she didn't make enough money. But to start making money again, she needed to reopen her childcare center.

In a statement, the agency said, “FEMA makes every effort to ensure that everyone eligible for assistance receives the help they need to recover,” and its program for assisting individuals has provided over $150 million to about 35,000 households.

The office of state Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who co-chairs the select committee on childcare costs, said this fall that the committee will look at identifying legislation to help the childcare industry in times of natural disasters.

Providers say some kind of relief is necessary.

Hear the stories of two providers — Francisca Gunawardena and Felisa Wright — who both lost their homes and what their journeys reveal about recovery overall after the L.A. fires on the latest episode of Imperfect Paradise.

Payments from Southern California Edison — the utility whose equipment is believed to have started the Eaton Fire — could help some families rebuild their destroyed homes. But those payments also could land homeowners with a huge tax bill.

To address this problem, California Sen. Alex Padilla has introduced a bill that would make existing tax exemptions permanent for wildfire survivors.

Congress passed exemptions one year ago, but they’re set to expire at the end of 2025. Unless Congress approves new exemptions, homeowners who accept wildfire compensation next year could have their payouts taxed.

“When a fire survivor is wading through the ashes of their former home and thinking about how to rebuild their life, the last thing they should have to worry about is how they’re going to afford to pay taxes on any settlement they receive,” Padilla said Friday in a written statement.

Bill has bipartisan support 

The bill — co-sponsored by Republicans Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Tim Sheehy of Montana, along with Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon — would extend the existing protections under a bill passed in 2024. Padilla introduced that bill to refund federal income tax payments on wildfire payouts from the Butte, North Bay and Camp fires.

As fire-ravaged communities approach the one-year anniversary of a disaster that destroyed more than 13,000 homes, homeowners in and around Altadena are facing tough choices on whether to join the compensation program set up by SoCal Edison.

Taking a payout could be a faster route to obtaining funds to aid with rebuilding. But recipients will forfeit their right to sue SoCal Edison for potentially greater compensation.

The compensation program has faced criticism from some survivors who say the utility is lowballing families in need of faster payouts.

What about the Palisades? And state taxes?

Palisades Fire survivors have not been offered compensation funds because that fire began with an alleged arson, not from any utility equipment malfunctioning.

California lawmakers already have passed a law exempting wildfire settlement payouts from state income tax until 2030.

The bill, as currently written, would apply to any federally declared disaster stemming from a wildfire that happened after the start of 2015. Payouts eligible for tax exemption would include any compensation for losses, expenses or damages not already covered by insurance.

A group of employees at the Los Angeles region’s homelessness authority says hundreds of frontline workers will face layoffs as L.A. County transitions funding away from the agency.

Staffers from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, wrote an open letter to the county Board of Supervisors this week, demanding that no county-funded workers be displaced.

Its members say the transition would hit workers and unhoused clients harder than county officials have acknowledged.

“ A lot of the workers are in this because we care and we want to help our fellow neighbors and don't want to see see all kinds of people homeless on the street,” Jacqueline Beltran, a LAHSA employee who signed the letter, told LAist.

County officials said they are committed to “clearing pathways to employment” for county-funded LAHSA workers within the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

“We are continuing to explore all available options,” new department director Sarah Mahin said in a statement.

Mahin said funding and staffing will be finalized in the FY 2026-2027 Measure A spending plan for the fiscal year that ends in 2027. The county released a draft of that plan last month. 

County authorities have said they would fully integrate the services performed by LAHSA into the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing by next July.

The transition

In April, the county Board of Supervisors voted to pull more than $300 million from LAHSA and create a new county homelessness department to administer the funds.

That motion also directed county agencies to consult with Service Employees International Union 721, which represents county-funded LAHSA employees, to try to keep them employed — or prioritize them for transition into the new department’s workforce.

But the LAHSA Workers Coalition said that’s not happening.

The group demands in its letter that the county halt all staffing reductions at LAHSA and argues the county has a legal obligation to protect the workers. The group is made up of employees represented by SEIU 721, but the union’s leaders did not cosign the letter.

The union did not immediately respond to LAist’s questions about it Thursday.

In February, an L.A. County report said the agency had 900 staff positions and nearly 200 vacancies. More than half of the positions were funded by L.A. County, according to the report.

LAHSA reported last month that it employed 686 people.

Demands

Last year, county voters approved the Measure A sales tax to fund homeless services and affordable housing. The ordinance says that contracts funded with Measure A revenue "must not result in displacement of public employees.”

In the letter, the coalition argues the county is out of compliance with that requirement and is urging the board to discuss the matter at its next meeting.

Mahin said Measure A does not prevent the county from restructuring programs but instead “protects public employees from being displaced by outside service providers funded through Measure A.”

The county is facing a deficit of more than $300 million in funding for homeless services, Mahin said, adding that it must make “difficult but necessary decisions about how we invest our limited resources.”

The workers coalition is demanding that existing LAHSA employees be transferred directly to the new department, instead of having to reapply.

They’re also asking the board for a full public disclosure of staffing cuts related to the transition.

In addition to the Board of Supervisors, the coalition sent the letter to several other county and state oversight entities, including the county office of the inspector general, the civil grand jury, the state auditor and the attorney general.