ADUs Provide Crucial Housing to Wildfire Victims

Homeowners displaced by the January wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades are hoping to find temporary respite in accessory dwelling units.

In the six months since the fires, ADUs have been able to provide shelter for wildfire victims — sometimes on their own burned properties — as they await insurance payouts, permits and other necessary steps to rebuild, the Orange County Register reported.

“I’m definitely thinking we’re going to build an ADU,” Martin Gordon, an Altadena homeowner whose insurance payout would only cover a third of the cost to rebuild his house, told the Register. “There’s no way I could afford to build a house.”

L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger is among those politicians supportive of the effort to get fire victims into ADUs as the rebuilding process continues.

“ADUs are generally regarded as one of the most cost-effective ways to bring new housing online,” Barger told the Register, pointing out the units help property owners “to remain in their homes.”

“The fact that we’ve waived permit fees, and we’ve waived the requirement that an ADU has to be on property where there’s an [existing] structure has really simplified that part of it as well,” Barger added.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order in January designed to streamline the process of building ADUs and allow homeowners to set up temporary trailers on their properties with the goal of giving them a place to live while they rebuild. Valid until March 8, the order also suspended parts of environmental laws like the California Environmental Quality Act and fast-tracked rebuilding for coastal properties by exempting them from Coastal Commission review for new construction.

Rebuilding could get an even bigger boost after Newsom struck down key CEQA provisions regarding infill housing earlier this month.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass handed down development guidelines for the city in April that allowed homeowners to add an ADU to their rebuilding plans without losing the expedited approvals allowed for “like-for-like” rebuilds. L.A. County at large has similar regulations.

Prefabricated homebuilders have helped fill in the gaps as homeowners pick up the ashes.

Firms like Samara, Plant Prefab, Azure Printed Homes and Ark Container Homes have stepped in to provide ADUs, 3D-printed homes, modular homes and shipping containers to temporarily house fire victims.

In the more than six months since the January blazes, 119 rebuilding permits have been issued in the Palisades and Eaton fire burn zones, according to the county’s permitting progress dashboard. — Chris Malone Méndez