Totress Beasley paid off the mortgage on her Pasadena home exactly one day before the Eaton Fire reduced it to smoldering ash. "We're in this circumstance with so many other people," the 64-year-old tells KTLA. She's not suffering alone, but there's an unfortunate downside to that. With so many people having lost homes in the fires that swept through Los Angeles County, there's high demand for the vacant homes and apartments still standing, and some landlords are aiming to profit. Beasley tells KTLA she was quoted an incredible $5,000 per month for a one-bedroom apartment. As bad as that is, she says friends have heard of landlords charging as much as $8,000 per month for similar apartments.
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman spoke out against "despicable" price gouging on Wednesday, accusing landlords of doubling and tripling prices. There are people "asking how [they can] make the most amount of money from people desperately seeking housing, supplies and services because they've lost everything," Hochman said. Though an executive order signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom forbids landlords from increasing rents by more than 10% above previously advertised rates, one Santa Monica property listed for $12,750 per month before the fires is now asking $28,000 per month, per KTLA.
Even a 10% rent increase can be "an impossibility, both for people who lost everything and for the rest of tenants in the city who were already struggling to get by," says a rep for the Los Angeles Tenants Union, which identified more than 500 properties where rental fees spiked, per Reuters. California Attorney General Rob Bonta says his office has launched multiple investigations. But even when rentals advertise somewhat affordable prices, bidding wars result. An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who lost the Sunset Mesa home she shared with her husband says the couple offered $14,000 per month for a home asking $8,000 monthly, and still didn't win it, per Reuters. They've been forced to move into their son's one-bedroom apartment until they can find something else. (More California wildfires stories.)
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