Can California learn from other states about housing recovery after a natural disaster?

That's the idea behind Assembly Bill 239 by John Harabedian, a freshman Democrat from Pasadena whose district was at the center of the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire.

The bill, modeled after a hurricane response plan in Texas, aims to speed up housing recovery by coordinating federal, state, and local responses through a state-led task force to address the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The task force would try to expedite the housing response to the Los Angeles County fires, which damaged or destroyed around 18,000 homes and other structures.

“Because Altadina and the surrounding areas haven't had a fire or any natural disaster like this to actually work from, a blueprint, but the upshot of this bill, and hopefully, if it comes into fruition, will be to just make it easier for people on the ground to get relief and actually rebuild their community.

-That group would appoint a state disaster housing coordinator to oversee money distribution, coordinate efforts between the different levels of government, and would be required to report housing recovery progress in the impacted areas to the legislature quarterly.

Luis Portillo, President of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership said he likes what he sees in the bill so far because it includes accountability measures for rebuilding homes, especially for the Black community in Altadena, where homeownership is 81% compared to 36% statewide.

Most of the impact, though, has been through promoting pre-disaster planning, a provision that's not in the California bill.

Harabedian, who served previously as the mayor of Sierra Madre, said his proposal was not meant to compete with any local task force but to supplement the effort.

“Really, what we need is a quarterback.

I think actually being able to appoint a coordinator from the state that is coordinating with FEMA and these local agencies and task forces is really key.” -For CalMatters, I'm Sameea Kamal.