Fury Erupts Over CA’s Plan to Convert Fire-Ravaged Lots into Low-Income Housing
“Residents may have dodged SB 549 this session, but the real transformation is already underway, quietly funded, pre-approved, and immune to local input.”
On Tuesday, the California State Senate passed Senate Bill 549, advancing the bill to the State Assembly, where debate began the following day. The legislation would authorize the use of taxpayer funds to purchase fire-damaged lots in formerly upscale neighborhoods for conversion into low-income housing.
Promises made by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to streamline the rebuilding process in the aftermath of the January wildfires have gone largely unfulfilled. Despite their public assurances, city agencies have been slow to issue building permits, leaving many displaced homeowners in limbo and frustrated by bureaucratic delays.
It now appears that the pair either never intended to help homeowners rebuild — or they saw an opportunity to advance a broader agenda by introducing low-income housing into high-value real estate markets. Either way, SB 549, introduced by Democratic State Senator Ben Allen, whose district includes much of the area impacted by the wildfires, seemed well on its way to passage last week, signaling a dramatic shift in how the state may repurpose fire-destroyed land.
Newsom was so sure of its passage that he’s already allocated $101 million to jumpstart the program. An announcement from his office said, “The $101 million being made available today will support the development of affordable multifamily rental housing in Los Angeles, prioritizing the needs of displaced residents in the fire-devastated regions.”
Apparently, this radical-left power grab has met with fierce resistance from outraged homeowners and others who understand the government’s motivation. What’s being sold as “recovery” is, in reality, a thinly veiled attempt to reshape once-thriving neighborhoods through top-down mandates — without community consent.
. @GavinNewsom lied.
He said he wouldn’t grab the land where homes burned down in the Palisades to build low-income housing facilities – but he and Karen Bass just did.
They are changing the character of the Palisades and Malibu to fit their woke agenda. They don’t care what…
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) July 17, 2025
.@adamcarolla nailed this almost immediately following the fires.
They will make it so insanely difficult that you’ll just leave, for pennies on the dollar. pic.twitter.com/wxVCFKr0wh
— CannCon (@CannConActual) July 17, 2025
@POTUS @realDonaldTrump
YOU NEED TO GO BACK AND REVISIT – The residents are looking for your help and promises made. It appears the goal is to exhaust the people with red tape, grab the land and build low-income housing. 😡Palisades has been forgotten 🔥 pic.twitter.com/oUVX2qlWan
— Joni Job (@jj_talking) July 17, 2025
The backlash must have been quite severe because the government has announced a pause on the legislation “until at least next year.”
In a statement on X, Allen wrote, “I appreciate the input from the folks who have weighed in about the bill, and along with colleagues have decided that it would be best for us to pause the bill until next year to give us more time to see if we can get it right. For me to feel comfortable proceeding, the bill will have to be deeply grounded in community input, empowerment, and decision-making, including the support of he impacted Councilmembers.”
🚨 BREAKING: California state Senator @BenAllenCA just made the right decision to pause, until at least next year, SB 549, the bill that would have permitted governments to purchase & develop burned-out properties, under opposition/concern from local citizens & leaders like… pic.twitter.com/ee5Ilm2IUf
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) July 17, 2025
Allen’s pathetic statement isn’t fooling anyone.
All part of a bigger plan. There, I’ve said it. I had held back, but when Newscum announced the $101,000,000 plan to destroy the Palisades with crime box buildings, I just don’t care anymore.
Does anyone think this wasn’t planned to some degree all along? pic.twitter.com/tyzHJ2vOpq
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 15, 2025
While grateful for the pause, many Californians are worried about what’s next.
SB 549 PAUSED… but don’t get too comfortable.
Sen. Ben Allen hit the brakes only after community backlash exposed the bill for what it really was: a top-down power grab dressed up as “rebuilding.”
Meanwhile, Newsom just dropped $101M to push state-controlled density housing… pic.twitter.com/QubEJlJUC1
— Cece Woods (@cecewoodsmedia) July 17, 2025
An editorial in the Malibu Daily News reminds Californians that Allen promised only “a pause, not a pivot.”
But that pause rings hollow when you consider the parallel track: federal and state funds already earmarked to reshape neighborhoods through “supportive” and “transit-oriented” housing, with or without the input of local governments.
Regarding the $101 million Newsom has allocated toward this project, the editorial warned:
[I]n practice, it’s a vehicle for implementing controversial housing mandates that have failed to gain traction through democratic means. Instead of responding to local needs, the state appears to be seizing the opportunity to push through a top-down vision of urban planning, using disaster as the justification and equity as the branding.
It’s not about rebuilding what was lost. It’s about replacing it with something politically aligned, legally insulated, and ideologically driven.
If SB 549 was the public rollout, this wildfire recovery package is the stealth pilot program.
…
This isn’t just about fire recovery—it’s about rewriting the social fabric of California’s most coveted communities.
Residents may have dodged SB 549 this session, but the real transformation is already underway, quietly funded, pre-approved, and immune to local input.
And once it’s built, there’s no going back.
In other words, Allen’s announcement was just a strategic pause — a move to keep the political wolves at bay. SB 549 may be off the table for now, but it’s far from dead. The bill can be expected to resurface in the next legislative session, just five months away. In the meantime, state officials will be hard at work behind the scenes, fine-tuning the proposal and laying the groundwork for its return.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
you get the govt u vote for
It’s easy for folks to throw that tired old expression around, but, you have no idea how the folks in the Palisades voted. And even so, their vote does not warrant confiscation of their property.
I agree in principle with your sentiments, but, the underlying thesis of political ownership of the situation is valid. It’s fair to assume that the majority of residents in that area are Dhimmi-crats. They’ve had decades to witness the uniquely corrupt, incompetent, derelict and lawless style of Commiefornia Dhimmi-crat governance — going all the way back to Jerry Brown. Many of them voted for the same apparatchiks who are now proposing these obnoxious conceits. There is nothing to be surprised about, here, from the perspective of a Commiefornia Dhimmi-crat voter.
Hey pennies on the dollar is better than outright stealing by eminent domain
Not at all.
A lot of them voted to confiscate much of other people’s property.
Fair enough. The answer appears to be they voted for Harris with a bit in excess of 71%. Trump got 28% and RFK JR got 1%. I suspect that’s a similar breakdown in local and State elections over the several decades to cement the d/prog into one party rule in CA.
That said they didn’t deserve a devastating fire (more likely several deliberately set by arsonists) or to have an empty reservoir or lack of sufficient fire equipment or an undermanned fire dept or foolish eco extremist policies that practically forbade brush clearance and proper fire breaks or a State Govt that ran Insurance Companies out of State or soft on crime/refusal to address Cray Cray Homeless weirdos who set the dang fires …..though they did vote for the political leadership time after time who delivered all those things and set conditions for the catastrophe.
Accidental upvote, sorry.
Those things are precisely what they deserved.
Humans the world ‘round would do well to take note.
Disagree. They voters there didn’t ‘deserve’ to have their homes/community destroyed by fires.
That’s a different thing than whether they they should have EXPECTED it as a natural consequence of the goofy policies put into place that created the contributing factor that resulted in the fire. These folks deliberately chose to elect wokiesta leftists year after year, decade after decade. The voters have zero claim that they don’t bear a large measure of responsibility for entire context that created the fires….even those who voted against the lefty politicians and wokiesta politicians but decided to remain there under the implementation of the policies and the dominion of incompetent lefty politicians.
They voted 70% dem last election cycle.
Actually, 38.3% of California voters voted for Trump in the last election cycle.
Residents of pacific palisades voted dem approx. 70% (or 71%) last election cycle. Which almost certainly correlates closely with newscum and dumBass. They voted for their own self destruction, no matter how you slice and dice the data. TDS is strong there.
We’re not discussing the entire State but the fire ravaged Pacific Palisades community.
I agree that their vote doesn’t warrant confiscation of their property, but we do know how they vote, and it’s overwhelmingly Democrat. This is the inevitable result. Jqusnr is correct.
NO jackass … you get the government the MAJORITY of voters voted for.
If you voted for Trump and Biden won I don’t see a lot of people raining down condemnation on you because Biden won and declaring “you got the government you voted for”.
Perhaps Trump should threaten to drop California from the union, and let it devolve into Haiti.
After the collapse, invade and make it great again.
This is a state issue. The state is screwing them over and I can’t see how any pressure from Trump is going to change Greasy Gavin or Marxist Karen’s minds.
People work long and hard, they save and make sacrifices to live in a neighborhood that is aesthetically pleasing, safe, convenient and that reflects the values of the residents. Government, on the other hand, is focused on changing those neighborhoods to reflect the social agenda they have. What Newsom, Bass and the California legislature is doing is wrong, (do I dare say, immoral?). The slow-walking of the necessary permits is likewise immoral. As the song lyric could go – ‘They burned paradise and put up a welfare hood”.
Ben Allen is a traitor to the idiots that voted him into office. It will be interesting to see if he gets reelected.
My state is forcing my bedroom community to build apartment buildings. They’re not low income housing but they are for lower income workers. The reason is my community is on a rail line and this way the workers housed can take the train into Boston.
This will change the nature of my community and severely stress not only town services but the minimal businesses that service it. It is going to be a royal pain especially if those apartment dwellers all own cars and choose to use them rather than commute by train.
The progressive globalist elite in the EU, the UN, the federal government, and at the state level want to majorly change the nature of the US by packing us all into dense communities, remove our private cars, and letting all the freed up land go fallow to help with global warming and those species threatened by extinction. They don’t care what we think or the lifestyle we wish to live. They want us to live in hives and eat ze bugs.
The governing self-style elite of course being the pigs they are will continue to have their privileged lives and likely multiple estates, some in communities set aside for that purpose and with only “their type” resident.
Meanwhile your property value will take it from behind with no lube.
Welfare housing by any other name is still welfare housing. Will start out as housing for “lower-income workers” and will end up housing no-income, welfare recipients (section 8 and all the rest that comes with it) and your once nice bedroom community is transformed into just another welfare ghetto. Guaranteed.
As the Great Man from Kenya once said, “Elections have consequences.”
It’s as if the plans were already there …waiting for a match and a little nudge. Remembering back to the Summer of St. George of Floyd when a Massachusetts official said that the only way to grow a new forest was to burn down the old. It isn’t “fair” that only the well off can enjoy the better parts of LA…. they need 15 minute cities so that all can share in their new found misery.
Meanwhile, no permits will be issued.
Welcome to the California Soviet Socialist Republic.
Yes Comrade. You will live in 15 minute cities and be monitored by your overlords. You will eat gruel and borchst. You will bake in the summer and freeze in the winter. Speak out and will be disappeared to a reeducation camp.
They on the other hand will live in their dachas far far from seeing you in misery. They do not care for you, they never did.
Dasvidaniya
The “People’s Republic of Californistan”.
The residents of the Palisades are getting Californicated.
I do believe it was all deliberate and planned.
But I am getting popcorn out. Here’s why.
Those lots (dirt alone) in Malibu are about 10k /sq ft. JUST FOR THE DIRT. As Adam C noted, these weren’t primary homes, these are one of 3-6 homes these people own.
Very few of us commenters here at LI are worth a 100 million dollars. Let me tell you what being worth 100 million dollars gets you. #1 That kind of money OFTEN has brains attached to it. Not just the brains to have 100 million, but the kind of brains 100 million can hire. These are the kind of brains that can work a system. Even a system as corrupt as LA and CA.
Unlike you or me, they are not in a panic. They are annoyed, but not in a panic. They live in a 2 class system where they get to do pretty much whatever they want. They KNOW they will rebuild. They are just figuring out what buttons to push.
Other than Adam’s vlogs, I don’t know the geography very well. The Palisades might look rich, but my wife tells me a lot of the land is not from money, but has gone from generation to generation of upper middle class. They may be more screwed like the rest of us would be.
The Malibu money on the other hand… they will hire the nephew of the guy approving the building permits if they have to. Everyone elected or working for the city is absolutely looking at the Blagovich angle. In my day job, I’ve seen suppliers hire contractors to build swimming pools at “steep discounts” for every decision maker that could influence a purchasing decision. 9 times out of 10 they get away with it. This is sadly how the world works.
These are the sorts of people who put a couple million bucks into options during the lowest lows of the trade war and are now up 300%. This is why they can tolerate CA’s madness, because they probably even paying CA taxes on it.
They aren’t going to sell. They will pay to build.
I heard that Malibu was unique because homes were built right on the edge of the beach, way back in different era when it was legal. But since then CA has banned that kind of private development. Those homes were “grandfathered” in as legally non-conforming use from different era. But if or when they got destroyed by earthquake, or other natural disaster, they could not be rebuilt. California Coastal Commission or some mumbo jumbo. I’m guessing the anti-development forces are so powerful, that they will tied up for 10 years trying to get permits, hoping they give up and move away.
I thought all beach was public in the state of California. Some movie star types had erected fences blocking beach access, after all we don’t want hoi-polloi and papparazzi looking into the backyards of their betters! The issue ended up in court, and they had to allow some level of public access. Maybe they’ve restored the fences now; what I know is from 20-30 years ago.
It is … the issue is getting legal access to it via private property. It’s just not rich people … there are tons of large multi dwelling real estate projects all up and down the coast.
This is probably why we aren’t hearing much from Malibu. These stories are from Palisades. The noveau riche / upper middle class. Malibu folks might not even mind seeing them knocked off the property ladder. It will make Malibu that much more special.
It’s comical, because some of the stupid and naive Dhimmi-crat elites in California are only now finding out for themselves Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks’ intrinsic lawlessness, totalitarian ethos and indifference to the consent of the governed. To say nothing about promulgating manifestly ill-conceived and corrosive policies.
Well .. if the idiots in Cali continue voting the same way there’s a pretty good chance it will all be burned down in 10 or 20 years.
Let the Cali Govt. rebuild it…then burn it down again.
One only needs to look at what’s happening in the UK to understand the grand plan to reshape society. No automobiles. Everyone, except the special people, will be forced into crime-ridden public transportation. No single-family housing. Only massive high density small apartments. The UK is well on its way to becoming a facsimile of the old Soviet Union. One can get arrested and imprisoned for insulting Islam. Yes blasphemy laws. Of course Muslims can insult Jews with impunity. I think it will take a civil war to fix Britain. If we are not careful, the same will happen here. CA shows the way.
I’ve come to believe the deep blue d/prog one party jurisdictions do not want a middle-class. Instead they seem to want a narrow upper class at the top with everyone else working hand to mouth. The middle class, the Yeomanry, is a big pain in the ass for them b/c they are independent, educated, can recognize when they are getting shafted and able to effectively organize politically to resist it. Much easier to have a complaint underclass and a few oligarchs with a few overly credentialed upper middle class types as enforcers of the regime; School Administration, Senior LEO, District Attorneys, Judges, City planning.
first they have to disarm us …;.
and dont think they can hire enough
security to protect them selves.
“Residents may have dodged SB 549 this session, but the real transformation is already underway, quietly funded, pre-approved, and immune to local input.
And once it’s built, there’s no going back.”
So, effectively, it’s already been built.
Bass is marxist at her core beliefs. When she was younger she traveled to cuba to help harvest the sugar cane crop for castro.
She probably was there to whip or hold shotguns on the workers. Castro was from an upper crust family too.
The solution is simple if you think outside the box. Each residence should be allowed to rebuild immediately. But they must agree to let 3 homeless people or 1 family pitch a tent in their back yard.
F that. That solves no problem and isn’t even funny.
It’s a one party state. And California’s downward spiral into a state without a middle class was noted a decade ago by the now defunct magazine. The Weekly Standard. One of their cover stories covered the elites’ love of cheap immigrant labor, effectively dividing the state into the Haves and Have Nots, while squeezing out the middle class. California is a lost cause.
I think ya’all are falling for the idea that the government really believes in this low cost housing stuff. Nope: think simple manipulation of property values.
You used to own an expensive home in an exclusive neighborhood. Now you can’t get the home rebuilt for a while but the property is still valuable: unless the government threatens to move lots of “Section 8” people in which will drive down property values.
You are not able nor now willing to rebuild a mansion admits the potential slums. So you are going to cut your losses and sell your property cheap before values go down further.
However when enough people have sold cheaply to relatives or connections to the politicians, the low-cost projects will be canceled and the area redeveloped into expensive homes.
I think it’s something close to this.
The Friends of Gavin Newsome and Karen Bass club will get their building permits.
They must have Blogovich working on retainer. Everyone agrees to what it is, they are just working on the price.
The connected firms that build these houses know how to grease palms.
Gooder and harder
Hmm, it’s almost enough to make one question whether that empty reservoir and the fire hydrants failing to function were actually incompetence or an accident.
Criminal negligence
The empty reservoir … you also have to be an idealist to drain a reservoir all the while thinking a large fire will never happen.
The fire hydrant failures … that was city planning … lack of foresight … mostly for needs and uses that were beyond their comprehension at the time they were built … and they were built decades ago. They never contemplated fires like this when they were built. Nor did they contemplate such high and widespread use that would deplete the water pressure.
There is really no question in my mind that it was intentional. If this sort of case could get in front of a jury, it might be easy to convict people like Bass of capital crimes. (Or the judge could be sure one holdout was there to hang the jury.) But we can’t seem to get to that point.
The WEF couldn’t write a better infomercial for the New Commiefornia.
You will own nothing and be happy while eating Soylent Green and being even happier. Step right into this nice room for your surprise “retirement party!”
The state is just a middleman for China to buy it cheap. Only a matter of time before they buy downtown Portland for 12-13 cents on the dollar.
They voted for it and now are getting it good and hard. The only surprise is how long it took for the marxist’s to finally admit what they had planned all along. Let the place burn down, slow walk permits and make them so expensive people give up then offer to buy the land for pennies on the dollar and build low income housing. They will then move the bums, gang bangers and derelicts out of LA just in time for the Olympics and run around crowing about their great and beautiful city.
Newscum and bAss are the result of the public unions controlling Commiefornia. The state is well on its way to insolvency. (see Illinois) The dewatering of the Central Valley is by design. Not building any water storage projects is by design. The demonrats want the middle class run out of the state. The elites want the coast for themselves. They want illegals to be the modern day serfs. It’s a lost cause. They take in federal money and only use it to make the lives of the tech/Hollywood oligarchs as smooth as possible. The truth is that the DOJ should start investigating the demonrat politicians ala Madigan in Illinois. Same corrupt, money grabbing class.
Hey California, wake up! It’s rakes, torches and pitchforks time.
Put down your latte and make yourself heard in numbers, before it’s too late.
This was the first try but they will do it again. The people that were burned out are rich and almost all Dem Blue plus heavy Doners. They need to wake up and slam the Dems in the 2026 election and turn all burned areas Red with Republicans and give the state more Republican Doner money.
If they do not do this and 2026 does not see a mass move of Republicans into various areas of the state and Sacramento then these areas will continue its push. If these areas push into low cost public housing this will cause more and more of the states tax base to leave.
TDS is strong there. CA dems will change the “messenger” who looks and talks different. But CA voters will keep voting dem no matter the negative outcome.
It’s because they hate us.
That means we should not moderate ourselves to try to make them like us or adopt our positions. It means we should go harder, if that’s possible. These people have declared that they are on the opposing team. I don’t really understand it, but I am done waiting and trying to talk to them.
38% of us voted for T … and we’re glad he won … don’t lump us all in the D basket.
As many Leftist desire, they are. replacing tax payers with tax absorbers.