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

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, are not guaranteed—it’s likely that many displaced by the fires won’t have a place to go.