Federal agencies must do more to house struggling victims from January’s Eaton fire, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and advocacy groups said Tuesday.
Chu hosted a roundtable at the Altadena Library with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and other agencies, where a dozen organizations assisting fire survivors pleaded for more assistance.
Even with the availability of federal vouchers and other housing aid, thousands of people remain bouncing between hotel rooms, living out of their cars or in other unstable housing situations, advocates said.
“Survivors of the Eaton fire are slipping through the cracks,” Chu said at a news conference after the event.
Chu is urging FEMA to authorize a housing program called Direct Lease in which the agency directly rents apartments for disaster survivors who cannot find somewhere to live on their own. The Times reported this month that FEMA hasn’t implemented Direct Lease in Los Angeles even though it’s commonly made available after natural disasters nationwide, including the 2023 wildfires in Maui.
Nearly 13,000 homes were destroyed in January’s wildfires with more than half the losses in Altadena and surrounding areas.
FEMA and Office of Emergency Services officials have said their data show thousands of rental units available across L.A. County, making the program unnecessary.
“We know from anecdotal evidence that that cannot be true,” Chu said. “It is far from the truth.”
Fire survivors have faced numerous barriers to finding permanent housing while they decide on rebuilding their homes, advocates said. Landlords’ income requirements are too high. Potential tenants’ credit scores are too low. Some landlords aren’t accepting the vouchers FEMA is providing survivors. And the agency is including apartments in the Antelope Valley and other areas far from Altadena in its assessment of L.A.’s rental market.
By not taking these factors into account, FEMA officials are ignoring needs on the ground, advocates said.
“There is a huge gap between availability and vacancy and accessibility,” said Jasmin Shupper, president of Greenline Housing Foundation, a local nonprofit.
The push for additional housing aid comes amid widespread cuts to FEMA and resistance from the Trump administration for disaster spending nationwide. On Tuesday, the president threatened to strip federal funds from California if the state continued to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.
Chu and FEMA officials said that the agency already has provided $135 million in assistance, including $40 million for help with housing.
She said that money for Direct Lease was available through the existing federal disaster allocation following January’s wildfires. She noted that she supported the state’s request to Trump and Congress for $40 billion for long-term recovery efforts.
A FEMA spokesperson said the agency continues to believe the Direct Lease program isn’t needed in L.A. FEMA has provided nearly 3,300 individual and families with grants for rental assistance after the fires, and more than three-quarters of those who initially contacted the agency for help with housing have found long-term solutions, the spokesperson said.
“FEMA is coordinating closely with CalOES on program implementation and if conditions change, will act quickly to support survivor needs,” the spokesperson said. “We are continuing to monitor the market, and survivor needs closely to assess any gaps in assistance.”
After Times reporting this month, Newsom administration officials said they were reevaluating an earlier decision not to advocate for Direct Lease.
“We continue to monitor housing needs and are prepared to take further action if conditions change,” Office of Emergency Services spokesperson Anita Gore said.
