Los Angeles wildfire evacuees struggle to find shelter, exacerbating housing shortage

Tens of thousands of people evacuated by the Los Angeles wildfires are now scrambling to find – and maintain – temporary shelter, exacerbating the housing shortage in one of the least affordable cities in the United States.

While 92,000 people in Los Angeles were still under evacuation orders Monday, displaced people were scattered across Southern California, in shelter beds, hotel rooms, spare rooms of relatives and friends’ couches, not knowing where to go next while extreme fire danger still looms. another week.

The search for longer-term housing has already sparked bidding wars in some neighborhoods bordering the fires. In upscale Brentwood, adjacent to the Palisades fire, a real estate agent suddenly attracted 1,000 applicants for a new rental listing. In Pasadena, a family whose home burned in the Eaton Fire in Altadena said they were set to lose their emergency short-term rental where they had been staying since the fires to a family willing to pay $8,000 per month.

Some evacuees, like Lila King, ended up staying in their vehicles.

Ms. King, 75, has been hopping between motels and sleeping in her truck with her 40-year-old son since they were displaced by the Eaton fire.