Housing is where climate change gets personal. It shapes whether you can afford to stay in your neighborhood, whether your home stays cool during a heat wave, and whether a rent hike, an eviction notice, or a wildfire forces you to start over somewhere else.
Los Angeles is a region of renters in a housing shortage decades in the making. About 64% of City of LA households rent their homes, one of the highest renter shares of any large American city, and 54% of LA County households rent. 57% of LA County renters spent more than 30% of their income on rent in 2024, and the January 2025 fires destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 structures, adding displacement pressure to an existing housing shortage.
This guide centers a basic question: how can more Angelenos get a safe, affordable home and stay in it? It explains the shortage, tenant protections, disaster displacement, and improvements that make homes safer without pushing residents out. You do not need to read everything at once. Start with the quick take, then open the sections you want to explore.
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TL;DR: The Quick Take