California Democrats, led by potential 2028 presidential candidate Governor Gavin Newsom, are looking to exploit the wreckage from the Los Angeles wildfires to build low-income “affordable” rental units, taking advantage of distraught homeowners who just lost everything. However, instead of rolling over and taking the abuse, citizens have fought back and at least temporarily stopped this scheme – exposing the rampant corruption in California politics in the process.
Following the adage to never let a “serious crisis go to waste,” Newsom recently announced a $101 million initiative “to help rapidly rebuild critically needed, affordable multifamily rental housing in the fire-devastated Los Angeles region.” This adds to another $432 million released in February and March following the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in January, which wiped out more than 10,000 homes, at least 1,000 businesses, and killed 30 people.
In other words, while homeowners are still picking through the wreckage, Democrat officials are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for government-subsidized rental units. Even worse, they are pressuring devastated LA residents to sell their property on the cheap to build them.
Earlier this month, SB 549 passed the California Senate and immediately ignited outrage among fire victims in LA, and specifically in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that was devastated by the blazes. As a local Fox News affiliate reported, SB 549 “would allow Los Angeles County to make a so-called ‘Resilient Rebuilding Authority.’ The group would target housing shortages and issues with rebuilding from the Palisades Fire. It would also buy fire-destroyed lots and rebuild a percentage of them for low-income housing units.”
Under the provisions of the bill, “at least 40 percent of the funds must be allocated to building multi-unit low-income housing on lots where single-family homes once stood, particularly in areas like Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu,” KFI AM 640 also reported.
As Jessica Rogers, president of the Pacific Palisades Residents’ Association, pointed out, SB 549 is nothing more than a “land grab” by the state government. “This is a rebuild, this is not a politicians get to decide a pet project on what they’re going to decide in the Palisades,” Rogers said. “This is residents of this community get to decide what happens in our rebuild phase, period.”
It’s clear that the proponents of SB 549 expected the bill to quietly sail through the California Assembly and on to Newsom’s desk for signature. But outraged residents quickly grasped what was happening and rallied opposition to the measure. A few days after the bill passed the California Senate, its sponsor, State Senator Ben Allen, announced that the bill was being put on “pause” until 2026.
“It would be best for us to pause the bill until next year to give us more time to see if we can get it right,” Allen said. “For me to feel comfortable proceeding, the bill will have to be deeply grounded in community input, empowerment, and decision-making, including the support of the impacted councilmembers.”
Of course, neither Allen nor any California Democrat expressed any such concern until outraged residents pointed out that the state legislature was attempting to force them off their property to build government housing. Allen even hilariously blamed “the right-wing blogosphere” – despite the fact that it was the primarily liberal residents of Pacific Palisades who led the opposition to the bill.
Allen wasn’t the only Democrat who apparently couldn’t see that it was his own voters rebuking liberal affordable housing schemes. Newsom told the LA Times that “opportunists [were] exploit[ing] this tragedy to stoke fear — and pit communities against each other.”
“The state is not taking away anyone’s property, instituting some sort of mass rezoning or destroying the quality and character of destroyed neighborhoods. Period,” Newsom told the newspaper. “Anyone claiming otherwise is either misinformed or deliberately lying. That’s not just wrong — it’s disgraceful.”
But it is a fact the state does indeed want to turn single-family homes into low-income, government-subsidized housing. As Los Angeles Magazine reported on several financing proposals under consideration by the California legislature, “The two separate ideas open the door for the development of multi-unit low-income housing on lots where single family homes once stood in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, Malibu and other devastated areas.”
Others are pointing out that government officials are prioritizing rebuilding multi-unit rental structures while single-family homeowners have faced a nightmare of red tape and permitting delays to rebuild their homes.
“Though California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pledged to ease rebuilding efforts by waiving permitting fees and review requirements and removing red-tape, it took about three weeks for residents to learn that wasn’t true,” Elizabeth Stauffer wrote for Legal Insurrection on July 16. “Six months on, the entire process appears to have stalled. Only a handful of building permits have been issued to those whose homes were lost.”
The situation is so bad the LA Times recently ran an article explaining “what to do when your wildfire rebuild permit is delayed.” Just 200 of the 800 permits have been approved as of early July, the newspaper acknowledged.
While Newsom did sign an executive order to lift some home building regulations in early July, it still comes six months after the fires first swept through the Los Angeles area. A separate March executive order aimed to speed up the replacement of utility structures.
The long delays were predicted soon after the fire by conservative comedian Adam Carolla, who suggested the bureaucratic nightmare of rebuilding could even cause California to vote Republican. “You guys all voted for Karen Bass, the Mayor of Los Angeles, you all voted for Gavin Newsom and now you [expletive] get what you get,” Carolla said.
California Democrats clearly expected residents to quietly sell their fire-damaged lots for cheap to the government to build affordable housing. But instead, they fought back and refused to sacrifice their homes on the altar of left-wing “affordable housing” fantasies.
The next step – and one that has proven particularly difficult for California residents – is to vote out the failed leaders who tried such an outrageous scheme in the first place.
Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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