{"id":305847,"date":"2026-05-08T11:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/305847\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:22:19","slug":"nearly-half-of-l-a-fire-survivors-face-crisis-as-temporary-housing-funds-dry-up-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/305847\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly half of L.A. fire survivors face crisis as temporary housing funds dry up, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Facing dwindling \u2014 or already dried up \u2014 insurance payouts and increasingly expensive rebuilding estimates, Los Angeles County\u2019s fire survivors appear to be headed for the most urgent and existential financial crisis yet in their recovery, according to a survey taken 15 months after the January 2025 firestorms. <\/p>\n

The report<\/a> released Thursday by the Department of Angels<\/a>, a fire recovery nonprofit launched after much of Altadena and Pacific Palisades were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires, marks the organization\u2019s fifth quarterly survey of about 2,100 fire survivors. <\/p>\n

It noted some marginal progress in the overall recovery but also found \u201clarge and widening gaps between the recovery paths of different survivors,\u201d particularly when accounting for respondents\u2019 income levels and race and ethnicity.<\/p>\n

The highest percentage yet of fire survivors \u2014 nearly half, according to the report \u2014 said they had either run out of temporary housing insurance payments or expected to soon, signaling \u201can impending end of coverage for many more survivors before they are able to return home.\u201d <\/p>\n

About 40% of respondents said they would be able to afford temporary housing only for a few months, if that, without those insurance payments. <\/p>\n

And the findings were even more urgent for lower-income households: Among those earning $50,000 or less, almost 80% said they didn\u2019t think they could afford housing for three months once coverage ended. <\/p>\n

\u201cLong-term finances are the most urgent issue for survivors, even as they face a diverse array of other pressing challenges,\u201d the report found. About 2 in 3 fire survivors are still displaced. <\/p>\n

On top of temporary housing costs and concerns, 1 in 5 reported significant financial hardships as a result of the fires, while 1 in 10 said they\u2019d been forced to cut back on food or were falling behind on rent, mortgage or utility payments. <\/p>\n

Nearly half of all survivors have depleted a significant portion of their savings, and about 4 in 10 said they\u2019d taken on debt, the report said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the most dire financial impacts are disproportionately being experienced by people of color: 22% of Latinos and 18% of African Americans have cut back on food, compared to 7% of white survivors,\u201d the report found. \u201cLatinos and African Americans are also more likely to have fallen behind on rent\/or mortgage, fallen behind on utility bills, missed work or school, relied on food assistance, and experienced homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond families\u2019 immediate needs, insurance shortfalls are also bringing concerns for residents hoping to rebuild. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

New home construction is underway in Pacific Palisades on Feb. 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

(Caroline Brehman \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cHomeowners estimate that in order to rebuild their homes, they would need more than $600,000 on average above what insurance is expected to provide,\u201d the report found. Total-loss homeowners in Altadena estimate they will be short about $550,000 even after insurance payments, while in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, residents estimate the gap will be around $1.19 million and $1.73 million, respectively. <\/p>\n

Fewer than half of homeowners with major damage said they would rebuild no matter what. About a quarter said that they would like to rebuild but that it hinged on \u201cfinancing or a pathway to make it affordable.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone has enough\u201d insurance money, said Isabella Mendoza, an Altadena fire survivor who has volunteered with several fire recovery groups. Most recently, she\u2019s worked with the Altadena Land Initiatives<\/a>, a nonprofit that works to provide interest-free loans to fire survivors. She said that the group had been inundated with requests for help, but that as the true cost of rebuilding becomes clear, the group realizes it can help only so many people. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to decide you want to come home and do the finances of it all, then realizing it\u2019s not financially feasible,\u201d Mendoza said. She said the exhaustion she sees on people\u2019s faces has become normalized. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you need a break, but you don\u2019t get a break from recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a similar gap for renters too: On average, these residents estimated they would need about $250,000 in addition to insurance payouts to pay for lost belongings and temporary housing.<\/p>\n

Still, the report found that a majority of fire survivors remained hopeful or confident they would recover, though that confidence is strongly correlated with income. Higher-income groups were more likely to feel confident about recovery, while lower-income fire victims expressed the most uncertainty.<\/p>\n

And though the majority of fire survivors remain displaced in temporary housing, the report did find that there\u2019s been some improvement for survivors with standing, but damaged, homes. Only about 40% of those residents remained displaced as of April, down from about 55% in December.<\/p>\n

Survivors also saw progress in soil testing, with almost half of total-loss homes reporting they had completed soil tests, up from about a third in December. (Though, it\u2019s worth noting, many of the new tests came back positive for dangerous contaminants.)<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Construction along Laurel Drive on April 30, 2026, in Altadena. <\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing and complicated challenges, leaders with the Department of Angels said they hoped the report\u2019s findings \u201cmay serve as a practical tool for aligning efforts, directing resources, and ensuring that recovery remains within reach for every family.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is \u201ca fragile moment for survivors,\u201d Department of Angels co-founders Evan Spiegel and Miguel Santana wrote in the report. \u201cAs gaps in family budgets widen, confidence is wavering, raising important questions about who will recover and under what conditions. … The decisions made in this moment will shape the pace and the outcomes of recovery.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing dwindling \u2014 or already dried up \u2014 insurance payouts and increasingly expensive rebuilding estimates, Los Angeles County\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1426,6246,128753,1431,22314,477,1073,285,128752,48,52,51,47,50,49,3906,4495,3729,288,128754,128755],"class_list":["post-305847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angels","tag-department","tag-different-survivor","tag-family","tag-gap","tag-half","tag-home","tag-homeowner","tag-l-a-fire-survivor","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-month","tag-recovery","tag-report","tag-resident","tag-temporary-housing-fund","tag-temporary-housing-insurance-payment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}