The Resilient LA Delta Fund will provide homeowners with grants and loans to rebuild their homes to a resilient wildfire standard.
The Why: Rebuilding to be Resilient & Insurable
Los Angeles’s unprecedented Eaton and Palisades fires consumed nearly 40,000 acres of homes, businesses, and landmarks with an estimated economic loss of $250 billion. Residents and communities are now beginning the long and difficult path of rebuilding Historically, rebuilding after a catastrophe has entailed reconstructing exactly what was there before. This was due to many reasons: requirements in insurance and government programs that were designed to reduce fraud, a world of stationary risk, and concern that changes would cause delays and higher costs. This made sense if the odds of a repeat catastrophe were low. Unfortunately, the region faces significantly increased (and increasing) wildfire risks. It is now imperative that communities rebuild safer knowing their climate future is one of growing risk. Safer rebuilding will lower future losses, improve local economies, and support stable insurance, housing, and mortgage markets.
What is the “resiliency delta”?
Traditional tools for funding and financing rebuilding, such as insurance and our federal aid programs, only pay to rebuild exactly what was there previously and to meet current codes. To create safer communities for our climate future, however, we need to rebuild to higher levels of resilience. Building above code is not covered by insurance. This financial difference between what current financing will cover and what is necessary to rebuild to the highest level of safety and resilience is what we call the “resiliency delta”.
About the Fund
The Resilient LA Delta Fund is designed to ensure widespread access to the necessary financial resources to rebuild to the highest studied resilience standards and help preserve insurability. We aim for it to ultimately be available to any L.A. resident impacted by the fires so that all properties can be upgraded to the evidence-based IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus standard. This investment will increase the safety and likelihood of insurability for the homeowner and community.
The Fund will be structured as a $250 million blended capital Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with a set of requirements for administering loans and, for income-qualifying households, direct grants for property owners. It is attracting funding partners across the capital stack, providing a demonstrated return for investing in the most high-impact resiliency interventions that reduce risk.
This Resilient Delta Fund concept will serve as a template for how to activate building residential and community resilience at scale. This fund structure and system will be repeatable for rebuilding after future disasters.