Can a $250 Million Blended Fund Make LA Homes Wildfire-Resilient?

The Los Angeles fires torched around 12,000 family homes this January. Many who lived in them want to rebuild. The question is whether the new properties that rise from the ashes will withstand the next inferno — or be consumed by it.

Money may determine the answer. Right now, climate resilience advocates are beavering away on innovative financial structures that can bridge the dollar gap between what came before, and what needs to exist in the future if LA is to become wildfire-resistant. One such structure is the Resilient LA Delta Fund.

“The best, most affordable time to invest in resilience is when you’re doing a new build or rebuild,” says Abby Ross, CEO of The Resiliency Company, a nonprofit and one of the architects of the fund. “But if we don’t fix the funding and finance gap first, all of that other work will probably not go anywhere.”

The Delta Fund has a simple purpose: to bankroll the difference between what LA fire survivors can finance themselves and the amount needed to rebuild to the gold standard of fire-safety and damage prevention — what Ross and partners call the “Resiliency Delta”. 

The Resiliency Company and partner organizations aim to raise up to US$250mn for the fund, and to start disbursing grants and loans to homeowners from early next year. It’s an ambitious target, but one that Angelenos and climate resilience pros support. “I know that if we lean in really hard here with the LA Delta Fund we can actually normalize having a wildfire-resilient lifestyle,” says Jennifer Gray Thompson, Founder and CEO of After the Fire, a nonprofit that helps communities ravaged by megafires.

However, the logistical challenges — and shift in mindset — necessary for the fund to succeed are far from trivial. Thompson believes the change is on a par with the transition to indoor plumbing in the 20th century. “It is as big a change as when people were reluctant to put toilets in their house,” she says.