$368.7 Million in Wildfire Funds Went to Housing. None Was Reserved for Fire Victims.
October 19, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
California directed $368.7 million in federal disaster-recovery money to affordable-housing developers after the 2018 wildfires, under programme rules that legally barred any unit from being set aside for displaced fire survivors.
$368.7 million in federal disaster-recovery money landed with California affordable-housing developers after the 2018 wildfires, and state programme rules legally barred any unit from being reserved for the displaced fire victims the funding was billed as helping. A California Post investigation, published October 18, found that California's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) awarded the entire sum to developers without requiring a single wildfire survivor to be housed.
The fires that triggered the allocation were catastrophic. The Camp Fire killed 85 people in Paradise and levelled 14,000 homes. The Woolsey Fire killed three people, destroyed 1,643 structures, and caused more than $6 billion in damage. Across both fires and others in 2018, 103 people died and more than 24,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, according to the California Post investigation. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) responded with a $1,017,399,000 allocation to cover recovery costs not met by insurance or other assistance.
California's HCD divided the money between homeowner rebuilding and affordable rental housing. The homeowner share came to $222.4 million, but state records show just $38 million of that had been spent rebuilding 110 homes by the end of 2023. The Camp Fire alone destroyed 14,000 homes. Developers, meanwhile, collected $368.7 million with no legal obligation to house a single survivor.
The per-unit cost makes the scale concrete. In one funding round last year, HCD awarded $146.9 million to 14 developments running from Santa Cruz to Covina, with a combined price tag of $632 million, roughly $754,000 per apartment, the California Post found. HCD could not provide a count of how many wildfire survivors actually live in those apartments.
In July 2024, the state offered $26.7 million in Woolsey Fire recovery funds. One developer applied. Rancho Cucamonga nonprofit National CORE proposed an 81-unit complex in Agoura Hills and scored 90 points, just above the 88-point minimum and the lowest score among projects funded that round, according to the California Post. It secured $26.1 million. After officials denied a density bonus, the project shrank to 54 units, but the $26.1 million award stayed intact, including $484,000 in federal disaster aid. Agoura Hills Community Development Director Robby Nesovic told the California Post the city had "no role in selecting the project, the site, or the funding amount."
At the Eaglepointe Apartments in Paradise, which opened last year with $7.3 million in disaster aid, just seven of 42 units went to Camp Fire survivors, according to local news reports cited by the California Post. That is one in six. Butte County Deputy County Counsel Andrea Woodward-Sollesnes confirmed the county also had no say in project selection or funding amounts.
HCD spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson defended the spending, arguing that new apartments replace homes lost to the fires and that displaced renters "generally choose to move to another existing rental housing unit." State fair-housing rules prohibit residency-based preferences, grouping fire survivors with Section 8 tenants as "least likely to apply" and reaching them only through advertising. HCD would not say whether it had ever considered changing that approach. HUD, which approved California's recovery plans and oversees the money, did not respond to the California Post's request for comment.
Mickey Schechter, 62, lost his home in the Woolsey Fire eight years ago and has lived in a 350-square-foot guesthouse since. The county charged him roughly $178,000 for debris cleanup, and he has spent another $300,000 maintaining the property, the California Post reported. His insurer paid $450,000 for a home he valued at $750,000; rebuilding now costs an estimated $2 million. "That's our money," he told the California Post. "We're the ones that suffer for it."
One in six units. Eight years. $368.7 million.
Published October 19, 2026 · Frisian News