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By John Gittelsohn and Michelle Ma
As an inferno
roared toward her California home last January,
Pauline Ching didn’t have time to grab family
photos or her Chinese jade and ivory antiques.
The house where she had raised her children and
welcomed grandchildren soon became a statistic:
one of more than 16,000 structures destroyed in
the costliest wildfires in
US history.
A year on, Ching is
among the first homeowners to begin rebuilding
in Altadena, the Los Angeles suburb ravaged
by the Eaton Fire. She persuaded almost
half of the 54 homeowners in her gated community
to hire a single contractor, securing bulk
discounts and faster permit approvals out of
reach for many neighbors.
The site of
Ching’s home and a photo showing
her daughter's wedding, which took place at
the rear fountain. Photographer: Elizabeth
Weinberg
Still, the rebuild
will cost Ching about $350,000 more than her
insurance will cover. To close the gap, she has
joined a class-action lawsuit against utility
Southern California Edison, whose power lines
are suspected to have sparked the blaze.
“My situation is
better than a lot of others,” Ching, 69, said
from the home of her 96-year-old mother, where
she’s staying while awaiting her house’s
completion. “But once I got to the bottom line,
I saw it costs a lot more than my insurance is
covering. And there are things I lost that you
can’t put a price on.”
Ching’s experience
captures the difficult reality of LA’s fire
recovery one year after the Eaton and Palisades
blazes killed 31 people and blackened almost
40,000 acres: Rebuilding is possible, but only
for those who can negotiate deals, absorb losses
or take on risk — and even then, the money often
doesn’t add up.
“California has
been and will continue to fight for these
communities,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in an
emailed statement. “We will not walk away.”
Rent
shock
Before it burned in
the Eaton Fire, Chrissy Austin’s $1,600-a-month
cottage was her sanctuary. Today, she’s paying
$2,300 a month for a rental in South Pasadena
after spending $30,000 on temporary homes and
motels since the fire.
Because she’s
nearly depleted her savings, she is trying to
move into affordable housing. “You’re lucky if
you can get in or get on a list even if there’s
an opening,” she said.
About 40% of over
350 renters surveyed this summer by Eaton Fire
Collaborative, a community group, reported
paying less than $1,500 per month in Altadena
before the fire. Today, the average asking price
for a one-bedroom is about $2,350. More than
three-quarters of surveyed renters reported
not being able to afford that price.
Jamie Mead,
CEO of Thomas James Homes, which completed the
first house in Pacific Palisades. Photographer:
Elizabeth Weinberg
Slow
rebuilding
Rebuilding
applications so far outnumber lot sales, but
construction has lagged. In Altadena, permits
have been filed for more than 1,700 parcels,
with at least 544 homes started, according to LA County data. In
Pacific Palisades, owners of roughly 1,400 of
4,500 burned lots have applied to rebuild.
The first completed
house in the Pacific Palisades is a four-bedroom
traditional-style home built by Thomas James
Homes and backed by private equity firm Oaktree
Capital Management. For now, the firm is keeping
it as a model to showcase the area’s rebirth.
“It’s a very lonely
house right now, but it’s a house,” CEO Jamie
Mead said in an interview.
Beachfront
bet
Some investors see
an opportunity.
New Zealand
billionaire brothers Mat and Nick Mowbray have
spent $128 million buying 16 burned Malibu
beachfront lots, betting they can more than
double that investment by building and selling
new homes.
The investment is
the biggest so far by any developer in the burn
areas. With an average sale projected at $25
million per home, the Mowbrays are betting
prices will climb to new heights in an area
known for sprawling estates owned by Larry
Ellison, Marc Andreessen, Beyonce and Laurene
Powell-Jobs.
Read the full
story to hear how more survivors are handling
the recovery process.
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