While thousands of families search for stability after losing their homes in the past week’s historic Los Angeles fires, many are suddenly confronting another crisis: the region’s long-standing shortage of affordable rental housing.
Now, that shortage has become much worse.
“Every time I call somebody about a listing, I break into tears,” said Tina Poppy.
Her Altadena house, purchased in 2019, was destroyed in the Eaton Fire. Poppy said her family had just finished extensively renovating it into their dream home.
Poppy said she, her husband, two kids and three dogs are temporarily staying at a home offered by a member of a local moms group on Facebook. But the family’s search for longer-term housing is turning up listings with fewer bedrooms, worse amenities and asking rents far in excess of her family’s previous mortgage payment.
LA fire victims are suddenly thrust into an unforgiving rental housing market
“There’s not much available for rent, and what is available is just disappearing immediately, and there’s a lot of price gouging,” Poppy said. “It’s so hard to believe that I’m fighting tooth and nail to get this house that I don’t want.”
‘Astronomical’ rent increases
Displaced families have been contacting LAist with multiple examples of rental listings that show huge jumps in asking rents in the wake of the fires.
LAist reported on one listing for a four-bedroom home in Bel Air that went up Saturday morning for $29,500 per month — a nearly 86% increase from the property’s…
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