Nine months after the most devastating wildfires to ever hit Los Angeles County, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of bills to help victims recover from the January disaster, his office announced on Friday, Oct. 10.
Taken together, the bills aim to protect homeowners and tenants immediately after a disaster, provide property tax relief, help workers recover and make it easier to rebuild, and make insurance work better for property owners and small businesses.
Legislation the governor signed also seeks to crack down on looters and people who impersonate first responders and to reduce the risk of future catastrophic wildfires.
“While it’s been nine months since these firestorms struck Los Angeles, the destruction and devastation left behind is still fresh for thousands of survivors and remains a constant reminder that we have more to do to support our fellow Californians,” Newsom said in a statement.
“Together with the legislature, we’re putting the lessons we learned in January into action and delivering the most significant upgrade to California’s disaster response and recovery efforts in years – supporting wildfire survivors now and in the future,” he added.
The governor this week met with wildfire survivors and legislators in Altadena — a San Gabriel Valley community ravaged by the Eaton fire — to sign several of the bills.
Below is a sample of the bills he signed this week.
Others can be found on the Southern California News Group’s wildfire bills tracker — which you can also find at the bottom of this article.
But first, a sampling of the more recent bills that Newsom signed:
Homeowner and tenant protections
AB 299, by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, allows people displaced by a disaster to live in hotels, motels or short-term rentals for up to 270 days without being considered tenants. Previously, people who lived in a place for more than 30 days were granted tenancy rights, thus discouraging landlords from renting out their places for longer than that. By delaying tenancy status, the bill seeks to encourage landlords to rent out hotel, motel or Airbnb rooms to wildfire victims for longer periods of time.
AB 851, by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, bans unsolicited offers from predatory buyers to purchase property in certain fire-affected ZIP codes in L.A. and Ventura counties until Jan. 1, 2027.
SB 610, by Sens. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, and Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, requires landlords to remove hazardous debris and maintain habitability while giving tenants the right to return to their dwelling at the same rental rate as before the disaster. Mobile home residents may receive rent refunds, relief during evacuations and relocation benefits if a mobile home park closes.
Tax relief
AB 245, by Assemblymember Mike Gipson, D-Carson, gives households extra time to rebuild their home or business without a property tax increase.
SB 293, by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, grants homeowners more time to update their property ownership records to avoid tax penalties from a reassessment.
SB 663, by Sens. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, and Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, further clarifies the property tax exemptions for low-income veterans, churches and nonprofits as they rebuild from the fires.
Workforce development
AB 338, by Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr., D-Lynwood, funds workforce development strategies, including education and supportive services for unemployed and under-employed individuals with low to moderate incomes.
Rebuilding efforts
AB 462, by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, streamlines approvals for accessory dwelling units in the state’s coastal zone by mandating decisions about coastal permits be made within 60 days and eliminating unnecessary Coastal Commission appeals. It also allows occupancy certificates for ADUs to be issued before a primary dwelling is rebuilt in disaster zones.
AB 818, by Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, D-Martinez, allows residents to put up manufactured or modular homes, or detached ADUs, on private lots while rebuilding their homes, and local governments must decide on permit applications for such homes within 10 business days.
SB 625, by Sens. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, and Laura Richardson, D-San Pedro, limits the authority of homeowners’ associations to delay or block the rebuilding of homes destroyed in disasters due to disagreements over the design.
SB 676, by Sens. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara County, and Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, establishes expedited administrative and judicial review procedures, beginning Jan. 1, 2027, under the California Environmental Quality Act for projects that maintain, repair, restore, demolish or replace wildfire-damaged property or facilities in areas which the governor declared to be in a state of emergency.
Insurance
SB 495, by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, requires insurers to offer 60% of the personal property coverage limit, up to $350,000, without an itemized claim in cases where a home is completely lost due to a disaster covered by a state or emergency proclamation. It also extends the deadline, from 60 to 100 days, for a policyholder to provide their insurer with proof of loss.
SB 547, by Sens. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, and Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, bars an insurer from canceling or refusing to renew a commercial property insurance policy for one year from when a state of emergency is declared if the property is within the perimeter of a wildfire or in an adjacent ZIP code.
Crime crackdowns
AB 468, by Assemblymembers Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, and Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey, increases criminal penalties for looting in an evacuation zone. The increased penalties are in force for one year following an evacuation order for residences damaged in a disaster and for three years for residences under repair or reconstruction.
SB 571, by Sens. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, and Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Acton, makes it a crime to fraudulently impersonate a first responder in order to gain access to areas under evacuation, particularly for the purpose of looting.
Reducing catastrophic risks
AB 888, by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier, establishes the California Safe Homes grant program, providing grants to low-income homeowners to upgrade to fire-safe roofs and fund defensible space vegetation clearing projects.
SB 429, by Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, establishes the Wildfire Safety and Risk Mitigation Program to provide funding to one or more universities to start a research educational center for developing and deploying a wildfire catastrophe model and assist in aligning federal, state and local wildfire risk reduction efforts.
A list of other wildfire-related bills that Newsom signed this week can be found at this link.
And below is a list of bills we’ve been tracking.