Government red tape means it could take up to 18 months to clear the ash and debris from the charred remains of homes that were burned in the Los Angeles wildfires.
A federal program will pay contractors to haul away the rubble at no cost to residents, but they’ll have to work through layers of bureaucracy — including the Los Angeles County government, the federal Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency — to get it done.
That means that even through the wildfires have finally been contained, devastated Los Angeles homeowners can either pay out of pocket for the costly removal — or potentially wait more than a year before they can finally rebuild, authorities said.
Meanwhile, unlicensed contractors and scam artist landlords are coming out of the woodwork to prey on victims, officials warned.
The Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire had wiped out around 12,000 homes, businesses and other buildings before fire crews finally contained the infernos.
Residents have been forced to don hazmat suits to dig through potentially toxic ash in search of valuables, mementos, and, in one at least one case, the remains of a beloved family dog.\
At the same time, the EPA is going lot-by-lot sweeping the ruins for potentially hazardous materials such as paint, batteries and pesticides.
But before anyone can actually rebuild their homes, the rest of the rubble will need to be cleared away — and that’s where things get complicated.
Theoretically, the Army Corps of Engineers, acting on behalf of the EPA, will hire contractors to perform this service at no cost to residents, either sending the bill to insurance companies or footing it themselves.
But opting into this service requires a long, bureaucratic process conducted by multiple agencies that is full of paperwork and red tape.
First, a homeowner must submit a right of entry form to the county, which completes a review process before granting access to the Army Corps of Engineers, which then hires a contractor, which then makes contact with the homeowner for approval to survey the lot.
That process can take months to even begin if a property owner listed on a deed has died or trustees are unavailable to fill out the paperwork, Col. Eric Swenson, who is heading the Corps’ response, told the New York Times.
“I don’t want to make it sound like that’s the majority,” Swenson told the outlet. “Those are outliers, but they exist in every fire.”
Still, officials estimate that one in five properties could take longer than a year to get cleaned up, and it could be 18 months before all of the sites have been cleared.
“That’s a long time to wait for these governmental agencies to do their thing,” Kimberly Bloom, 65, told the Times.
Bloom and her husband’s Pacific Palisades home was totally destroyed, and they’ve turned to private contractors to get the job done — even though it will cost them far more than their insurance covers.
To make matters worse, they’ll have to watch out for unlicensed, scam contractors who prey on desperate victims.
In one common scam, unlicensed contractors go door-to-door claiming to “just be in the neighborhood” or have “leftover materials,” offer repair work at an impossible bargain, but then ask for cash upfront or hefty down payments for repairs, one presentation by the LA Department of Business and Consumer Affairs warned.
Other scams include swapping expensive materials for cheap stuff, drumming up other issues to repair after work begins, and absconding with a homeowner’s money before the job is done.
As they wait for the machinery of government to clear their properties, fire evacuees are struggling to find places to stay — and greedy landlords are making out like bandits.
Some landlords have jacked up rents by more than double, despite a California law that forbids increasing rent by more than 10% during times of emergency.
So far, two landlords have been charged with price gouging after they tried to shake down fire evacuee families for more than 50% of the original listing price, the state attorney general’s office said.
