Los Angeles Has a Housing Crisis. These Fires Will Make It Worse.

The fires sweeping through Los Angeles are going to leave hundreds or perhaps thousands homeless. The speed at which the fires have spread has forced major evacuations across several neighborhoods; the Palisades Fire alone is already believed to have burned over 1,000 homes, schools, and businesses, while the Eaton fire has now passed 10,000 acres, endangering an estimated 13,000 buildings. More than 150,000 people have been told to evacuate and many more are being told to prepare in case. In a county that already has a massive homelessness crisis, that is short on housing, and has recently taken several measures to punish unhoused people, the people left displaced by these blazes—particularly those with fewer resources—face a rough future. 

Climate change is a housing issue. Housing is a climate issue. And these fires are a clear preview of the disasters to come. The fallout of these blazes is going to strain an already struggling effort to help those on the streets. While the 2024 Los Angeles homeless count saw the amount of homelessness stay even, it’s still very high for one of the densest and most populated counties in the country. There’s not enough construction, services are overstretched and underfunded, and the area is      not exactly kind to unhoused people. The more disasters we see like this, the worse the crisis is going to be.

Right now the focus is rightly on safety. The fires show no signs of stopping and people are fleeing. Many are trying to make sure their friends and loved ones got out of evacuation zones safely. Every resource should be spent on getting people to safety and containing the fires. But it’s also worth considering what comes next. Once this is over, hundreds if not thousands of Angelenos are going to be newly homeless. The fires that are burning indiscriminately are destroying neighborhoods that are home to everyone from working class people to wealthy individuals. Money and privilege are not making a difference here. Those displaced are going to find themselves dealing with limited services and city and county governments and officials who favor punitive measures against unhoused Angelenos. What’s happening and will happen to Los Angeles is what’s happening nationwide.

Whether it’s hurricanes like Helene in the southeast or fires on the Pacific Coast, climate change-intensified disasters are exacerbating the rise in homelessness, which saw an 18 percent increase nationwide in 2024. A massive drought has left the area primed for a fire. The intense Santa Ana winds made things worse. And this is January—not even what used to be considered the official fire season.

Once the fires stop, the biggest danger is going to be time. The longer it takes to get help, to get the resources and housing and services to people, the more apathy and resentment will grow. The second-largest city in the country, with its large metropolitan area, is going to have thousands of displaced people to help in a county where more than 75,000 people were unhoused even before the fires per the 2024 point-in-time homeless count. More than two-thirds of those Angelenos are unsheltered. Many of the people forced to flee burning neighborhoods will be joining them. Many are among the most vulnerable too—seniors and people in low-income households among them. Even with major federal and state assistance or large insurance payouts—which, given insurance companies having canceled many policies—it’s likely that many displaced by the fires won’t have a place to go.

Issues including pandemic-related logistics and local pushback have delayed or increased the costs of some projects the county was undertaking prior to the fires for new construction. New housing units are opening and hundreds are in the pipeline, but they aren’t enough to meet demand, nor are they opening fast enough. And they’re now endangered by the fires like any other home. This is a region with not enough permanent housing and not enough shelter beds. People are already getting priced out by rising rents, the fires are going to put even more strain on limited options. 

People who can’t find family or hotels to stay with will face city ordinances that bar them from sleeping in public spaces; they’ll face fines, risk having what few belongings they were able to save being taken from them, and be met with police responses quicker than homeless services. This isn’t an abstract worry, it’s happening now. The City of Los Angeles has focused on trying to push struggling people out of sight, often without providing any housing or services that could actually help unhoused Angelenos. Los Angeles has tried to arrest and punish its way out of the crisis because actually helping people takes time and resources—many in privileged positions have opposed the shifting of resources that truly meeting the homelessness crisis would require.

Similar dynamics have prevailed with regard to the climate crisis. Despite increasingly bad fire years, the city and county did not put extra resources into firefighting this year. It did however boost funding for police even as crime fell. “No, L.A. county and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this kind of widespread disaster,” L.A. County Fire Department head Anthony Marrone said at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

The political sentiment behind these questionable budgeting decisions is another problem. The disdain for unhoused Angelenos in recent years, fueled by conspiracy theories that they are not locals, that they are all addicts or criminals, has led to a reactionary electoral backlash and increased anti-homeless actions. It’s cruel and shortsighted in the face of what’s to come with climate change. Even in the best-case scenario for the current fires, it’s going to take time to rebuild and provide help to those hurt by the blazes. California has some recent examples of how long that recovery can take, such as the fallout of the 2018 fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise. Both the climate crisis and the housing crisis are going to take major resources and time to effectively address and provide assistance to those already experiencing the worst of it and those falling into homelessness. These fires are a preview of what’s to come.. The main question here and in any future disaster is whether those in power want to actually help those displaced, or instead continue to go after the most vulnerable.