California put nearly $369 million in federal wildfire-recovery money into low-income apartments without requiring that any of them go to people who lost homes in the fires.
Story Snapshot
- The state housing department sent $368.7 million to developers of low-income apartments, with no rule to house fire survivors.
- Of $222.4 million set aside for burned-out homeowners, only $38 million was spent by the end of 2023, rebuilding 110 homes.
- The money came from a federal grant after the 2018 Camp and Woolsey fires.
- The state says new apartments “replace” homes lost to the fires.
Where The Fire Money Went
After the deadly 2018 fires, Washington sent California $1,017,399,000 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD. The money came through a program called Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR, which pays for rebuilding costs that insurance and other aid do not cover. The California Department of Housing and Community Development, the state agency known as HCD, decides how it is spent.
HCD defends its choice to fund new apartments. Its reasoning is that new rental units replace the homes the fires destroyed. HCD spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson said renters who lose their homes “generally choose to move to another existing rental housing unit.” HCD would not say whether it ever considered giving fire survivors first place in line.
What The Investigation Found
An investigation published Sunday, October 18, laid out how the money was split. Developers of low-income housing received $368.7 million, and they were not required to house a single wildfire survivor. HCD could not say how many survivors, if any, live in the apartments it paid for.
According to the report, state rules place fire survivors in the same group as Section 8 renters, people who get federal help paying rent, and label them “least likely to apply.” Survivors are reached only through advertising. The state says fair-housing laws, which ban unfair treatment of renters, keep it from giving preference based on where someone used to live.
The costs were high. In one funding round, $146.9 million went to 14 developments from Santa Cruz to Covina. Together those projects cost $632 million, or about $754,000 per apartment. In a July 2024 round for the Woolsey Fire area, the state offered $26.7 million and only one developer applied. That was National CORE, a nonprofit housing builder based in Rancho Cucamonga. Its 81-unit plan in Agoura Hills scored 90 points, two points above the 88-point minimum, and it received $26.1 million.
Fire Victims Left Waiting
Homeowners saw far less. Of the $222.4 million set aside to help them rebuild, state records show $38 million had been spent by the end of 2023, enough to rebuild 110 homes. The Camp Fire alone destroyed about 14,000 homes, and the two fires together killed 103 people.
Mickey Schechter, 62, lost his home in the Woolsey Fire. Nearly eight years later, he lives in a 350-square-foot guesthouse that survived the blaze. Insurance paid $450,000 on his $750,000 home, and he figures a rebuild would cost $2 million. The county charged him about $178,000 for debris cleanup, the work of hauling away burned remains so a lot can be rebuilt. He says he never got state help, because rebuilding aid was limited to low- and moderate-income owners and his insurance payout counted against him.
“That’s our money. We’re the ones that suffer for it,” Schechter said.
Who Made The Call
Local cities and counties say HCD, not them, made the funding decisions. Gavin Newsom became governor in January 2019, a few weeks after the fires, and the state has run the program under his administration since then.
For families like Schechter’s, the result is plain. Federal money meant for fire recovery built new apartments across the state, while many people who lost their own homes are still trying to rebuild.
