Feb 22, 2025 | Housing
By Kristian Fors
Feb 22, 2025
The horrific wildfires that devastated the Los Angeles area — and necessitated a $1 billion bailout of the FAIR Plan, California’s insurer of last resort — have many people asking why so few homeowners harden their homes against wildfires. Home hardening is how homeowners reduce their wildfire risk by retrofitting their homes with fire-resistant materials and removing excess vegetation. A report by Guidewire found that home hardening consistently reduced wildfire risk, in terms of likelihood and damage severity.
Feb 22, 2025 | Housing
By Mathew Miranda
February 22, 2025 3:04 PM
Peace of mind. Those are the words Amadullah Safi used to describe what it meant to be a first-time homeowner in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. Safi, 40, no longer had to navigate an “insane” housing market. His three children each had their own room. And most importantly, the family finally had a home to call its own. “A place where we can build memories,” Safi told more than 100 people Saturday morning in an event held by the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.
Feb 21, 2025 | Housing, Legislation
By Christian Leonard
Feb 21, 2025
When it went into effect in 2022, Senate Bill 9 was hailed as one of the biggest — and most controversial — housing laws in years. Observers called it the end of single-family zoning in California, with the law essentially legalizing duplexes in large swaths of the state’s suburbs. Combined with its lot split provision, SB9 let homeowners turn one home into as many as four. But three years later, California’s suburbs largely look the same as they did before SB9 — prompting legislators, including state Sen. Scott Wiener, to take a swing at tweaking it.
Feb 20, 2025 | Housing
TRD Staff
February 20, 2025
A foundation set up by billionaire developer Rick Caruso has planted a stake to rebuild single family homes within Los Angeles burn zones, rather than change the housing makeup by erecting apartments. Steadfast LA, the nonprofit founded by the former mayoral candidate to help rebuild burned areas in L.A. County, has partnered with a prefab homebuilding firm to provide new houses for low income homeowners in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, City News Service reported.
Feb 20, 2025 | Housing
Housing Is A Human Right
February 20, 2025
The California Apartment Association often frames itself as a defender of mom-and-pop landlords, but that’s anything but the truth. Research shows time and again that many of the nation’s largest corporate landlords use the CAA as a front group to make outsized profits, fueling the housing affordability crisis. A recent investigation that I carried out only underlines that fact.
Feb 12, 2025 | Housing, Politics
By Jessica Flores, Reporter
Feb 12, 2025
As day laborers go into hiding, labor experts say the workforce withdrawal could exacerbate the labor shortage and worsen the housing crisis. Shirley Pablo and Annia Lopez walked down East 12th Street in Oakland on a cold Wednesday morning, each pulling a foldable wagon filled with oranges, water bottles, granola bars, disposable face masks and “red cards” listing a person’s constitutional rights. The outreach workers approached four men chatting on the sidewalk near the intersection.
