Can California learn from other states about housing recovery after a natural disaster?

Sameea Kamal

CalMatters

That’s the idea behind Assembly Bill 239 by Assemblymember John Harabedian, a freshman Democrat from Pasadena whose district was at the center of the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire. The bill, modeled after a hurricane-response plan in Texas, aims to speed up housing recovery by coordinating federal, state and local responses through a state-led task force to address the Palisades and Eaton Fires.

“I think that government agencies generally don’t do a good job of talking to each other,” Harabedian told CalMatters. “There isn’t a ton of coordination on these types of things, because natural disasters, thankfully, don’t happen all that often.”

The concept of a state-led task force originated from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005 and little progress was made on rebuilding housing even six years later, the agency said in a 2011 memo.

Texas took up that recommendation in 2019, two years after Hurricane Harvey, which caused more than $125 billion in damages and “highlighted critical gaps in Texas’s ability to provide timely and efficient housing recovery for displaced residents,” according to Harabedian’s office.

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Harabedian’s bill is similar to the Texas law: It would create a task force with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the state housing department and local governments. The task force would expedite the housing response to Los Angeles County fires that have damaged or destroyed an estimated 18,000 homes and other structures.

That group would appoint a state disaster housing coordinator to oversee money distribution, coordinate efforts between the different levels of government, and would be required to report housing recovery progress in the impacted areas to the Legislature quarterly. If passed and signed into law, it would go into effect immediately.

“I think it’s difficult for any one jurisdiction to coordinate across all of these entities outside of the state, because our local leaders are hyper-focused and doing a tremendous job on meeting the immediate needs of their communities,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Culver City who co-authored the bill. “I think the state and the federal government have a larger responsibility to look both regionally and beyond.”

Harabedian’s office said a sunset date for the task force is still under discussion.

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Lessons from Texas

In Texas, disaster recovery has been mired in controversy — including allegations by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that the Texas General Land Office mishandled flood mitigation dollars after Hurricane Harvey. Still, the law has had some impact on improving coordination among different levels of government when dealing with housing recovery after a natural disaster, said Michelle Annette Meyer, director of the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University, which helped draft the bill. Most of the impact, though, has been through promoting pre-disaster planning, a provision that’s not in the California bill.

The bill is expected to be considered at a committee hearing in mid-February, but at least one group is in early support: the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, which advocates for policies to boost the region’s economy.

Luis Portillo, president of the group, said he likes what he sees in the bill so far because it includes accountability measures for rebuilding homes, especially for the Black community in Altadena, where home ownership is 81%, compared to 36% statewide.

“People can’t be waiting … five or eight years for their house to be rebuilt,” he said. “Eventually, they’re just going to give up and say, ‘I’m going to take the money I got from my insurance for a house I was going to buy, somewhere else.”

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Local Efforts and Coordination

Los Angeles County supervisors did not respond to requests for an interview on how a state-led task force would work with existing efforts, but a spokesperson for Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said there was a housing taskforce specifically for wildfire recovery led by the Los Angeles County Development Authority.

Its website links to an application for federal aid assistance, as well as county-level resources for taxes, childcare support and businesses.

Harabedian, who served previously as the mayor of Sierra Madre, said his proposal was not meant to compete with any local task force –- but to supplement the effort.

“Really, what we need is a quarterback,” said Harabedian, who launched into disaster management within weeks of starting his term as Assemblymember. “I think actually being able to appoint a coordinator from the state that is coordinating with FEMA and these local agencies and task forces is really key.”

About the Author

Sameea Kamal covers politics for CalMatters, with a focus on democracy, representation and accountability.

About CalMatters

CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics.