While Trump turns his back on LA fire survivors, Governor Newsom issues order creating more flexibility for recovery and rebuilding

The Governor continues to work with survivors and local governments to design and adjust recovery efforts to survivors’ and communities’ needs. Today’s order, issued with homeowner feedback, ensures that homeowners with available insurance proceeds can use them to cover the costs of optional rooftop solar and other code upgrades. In response to local government feedback, today’s order also suspends state statutes to support faster and lower cost development of municipal sewer systems. Finally, in response to concerns that many survivors face imminent exhaustion of funds for rental housing, the executive order expands the Governor’s previous order prioritizing displaced survivors on waitlists for affordable housing placement.

Cutting red tape in rebuilding 

The order amends and expands on previous executive orders issued by the Governor in response to local feedback and needs. Specifically, the order:

• Modifies the Governor’s previous order suspending rooftop solar and battery storage requirements, as well as upcoming building code changes for fire rebuilds, to ensure these upgrades are eligible costs for insurance purposes for homeowners who have available insurance proceeds and  choose to install these features.
• Suspends the California Environmental Quality Act and California Coastal Act permitting requirements for projects to build new sewer systems supporting damaged or destroyed homes.
• Expands a prior executive order prioritizing LA fire survivors experiencing homelessness on the waiting lists for rental housing in the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)’s housing portfolio to include survivors at imminent risk of homelessness. Survivors must continue to meet all HCD program eligibility requirements. 

Read the executive order here.
 

Improving government services through engagement

Earlier this year, Governor Newsom launched the first-of-its-kind digital platform that empowers Californians to use a virtual town hall setting to engage and share insights about a particular topic. The pilot project involved people impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. They aligned on a rebuilding and recovery process through a six-month conversation with 2,500 comments from survivors and those in the LA recovery area. Many comments focused on topics related to today’s actions, including support for family housing. 
 

More support. Faster rebuilding

This continues the state’s work to help the Los Angeles community quickly rebuild, and address evolving needs as recovery continues. Following the disaster, Governor Newsom quickly took action to help accelerate recovery, issuing multiple executive orders, taking legislative action, and providing new resources to speed up the permitting and building processes. As a result, permits to rebuild homes in the Los Angeles area are moving forward at a pace that is on average, nearly three times faster than permits for single-family homes and ADUs in the five years before the fires. 

The Governor has also expanded funding for survivors through the state’s CalAssist Mortgage Relief program, allowing thousands more California homeowners impacted by recent disasters to qualify for mortgage relief. In Los Angeles County, survivors of the 2025 wildfires with household incomes up to $211,050 may now be eligible — a $70,000 increase from the previous threshold. These actions expand on the Governor’s work with state and federally chartered banks to provide mortgage relief. Bank of America recently expanded this relief by announcing they will offer their customers affected by the fires an additional two years of mortgage forbearance, as well as offering a line of credit to assist customers in rebuilding their homes. As recovery proceeds, an all-hands-on-deck approach is necessary to ensure all survivors have the support and tools they need to rebuild.

Recently, the Governor signed a bipartisan package of bills to support the ongoing rebuilding and recovery efforts and strengthen the state for future disasters,  including by codifying numerous actions the Governor has taken to protect Los Angeles fire survivors, ensuring that these protections also benefit survivors of future disasters.

Additionally, the Governor has helped accelerate recovery in the Los Angeles area by: 

• Fast-tracking temporary housing and protecting tenants: To help provide necessary shelter for those immediately impacted by the firestorms, the Governor issued an executive order streamlining construction of accessory dwelling units, allowing for more temporary trailers and other housing, and suspending fees for mobile home parks. Governor Newsom also issued an executive order that prohibited landlords in Los Angeles County from evicting tenants for sharing their rental with survivors displaced by the Los Angeles-area firestorms. 

• Directing immediate state relief: The Governor signed legislation providing over $2.5 billion to immediately support ongoing emergency response efforts and to jumpstart recovery efforts for Los Angeles.

• Helping businesses and workers get back on their feet: The Governor issued an executive order to support small businesses and workers, by providing relief to help businesses recover quickly, deferring annual licensing fees and waiving other requirements that may impose barriers to recovery.

For more information, visit ca.gov/lafires.

Trump abandons LA fire survivors

In addition to taking many actions to accelerate rebuilding, the Governor is also standing up for the Altadena and Palisades communities by calling out Congress and the White House for failing to approve long-term disaster funding for survivors of last year’s catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires.   

While Trump dines with a Saudi prince and builds his “royal” ballroom at the White House, California continues to address the impacts of the unprecedented firestorms from earlier this year, with little help from the Trump administration. 

California submitted its formal request for a federal disaster supplemental appropriation of $39.68 billion in February, following fires that killed dozens, burned thousands of homes, and caused billions in damage.

So many months later, Congress has not acted to authorize the long-term recovery aid typically granted early in the next session after disasters of this magnitude. The Governor renewed his call for immediate approval of the disaster supplemental, urging Congress and the President to deliver the same compassion and urgency that have been extended to other communities across the nation.

As the LA community focuses on rebuilding homes, schools, utilities and critical infrastructure while also supporting small businesses and job growth in the impacted region, they cannot do it alone: the federal government plays a critical role as a partner to the state in this long-term recovery effort. Funding in this supplemental appropriation would: 

• Fund the rebuilding of schools, childcare centers, homes, and vital community facilities. This helps thousands of working families, veterans who lost homes, and thousands of students displaced from their schools. 
• Keep small businesses open, support the economy, and maintain jobs. LA’s small businesses and family-owned enterprises are the backbone of our local and national economy. Disaster loans and grants will keep them open, preserve thousands of jobs, and spur wider economic recovery — benefiting Americans who may never set foot in Los Angeles but rely on its goods, services, and culture.
• Restore damaged water systems, rebuild responder infrastructure, and improve air quality monitoring. This protects not only LA’s population but the tens of millions who travel, conduct business, and interact with the region each year.