USC study explores extent of wildfires’ impacts on ‘housing insecure’
A new survey conducted out of USC’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research explored the extent to which financially vulnerable people were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires.
The study, released Thursday and which is ongoing, found that 31% of housing-insecure people experienced housing damage, displacement, or a utility disruption, compared to 24% of housing secure individuals. It also found that 11% of housing-insecure evacuees stayed in a homeless or evacuation shelter, while none of the evacuated housing secure respondents used a shelter.
“Housing insecurity” is defined as “worrying sometimes or often about losing one’s housing.” The survey team – USC Dornsife’s Kyla Thomas and LABarometer team — measured housing insecurity through several means, from how much rent individuals pay, to looking at the hazards in individuals’ homes.
LABarometer conducts research on social issues that impact Los Angeles County residents, ultimately with a goal of informing public discourse and policy.
“The findings highlight how intertwined our housing crisis is with our climate crisis in L.A.,” said Thomas, a member of the study’s survey team and director of LABarometer. “As long as we have this huge group of housing-insecure residents in L.A., we’re going to also be hit harder by natural disasters.”
The survey tracked 1,360 L.A. County residents from Feb. 1 to March 30.
Housing-insecure individuals were more likely than housing-secure individuals to house evacuees, suffer greater financial and work-related impacts, suffer from more severe physical and psychological health issues, and to still be displaced after the wildfires, according to the results.
Respondents were asked about the different ways the wildfires impacted them, including their health, physical and mental health, housing, work, and finances. They were also asked about their thoughts on future risk, housing plans, and attitudes towards potential policy responses to the wildfires.
Housing-insecure residents were three times more likely to struggle financially due to the wildfires. Additionally, these residents were more likely to experience health problems, food insecurity, and healthcare barriers due to the wildfires.
A similar trend from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic also emerged when LABarometer surveyed their panel residents.
“L.A. suffered a lot during COVID, because a lot of our residents were in more precarious situations before COVID hit,” Thomas said.
Thomas saw a continuation of this vulnerability amid the L.A. County wildfires.
“We have to solve these social and economic problems in LA, if we want to build our resilience to climate change,” said Thomas.
Other notable numbers included, according to the survey:
- 1 in 5 renters who were displaced during the wildfires want to move this year
- Among renters, 22% of those who evacuated during the fires, but did not lose their home,plan to move to another home in the next year, compared to 11% of those who did notneed to evacuate
- Among homeowners, housing plans are not correlated with displacement – 5% plan tomove in the next year.
- 60% of the still-displaced are living in a friend or family member’s home; this increasesto 70% among those who were housing-insecure before the fires
- 22% of housing insecure individuals experienced financial losses due to the fire, compared to 8% of those who are housing-secure.
- 24% reported symptoms of psychological distress, compared to 10% of housing-secure.
The next step in their study, Thomas said, will be to link the addresses of their respondents to burn zone maps to look at how physical exposure to the fires related to these various impacts, and to dig deeper on why housing-insecure people were disproportionately affected.