More than a year after wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, a nonprofit is advancing a plan to tap the public debt market to create housing in the slow-to-recover Los Angeles wealthy enclave.
Uplifters Foundation plans to build new $3 million houses in the disaster area by issuing as much as $250 million in municipal bonds through the California
Public Finance Authority. While many nonprofit groups sell tax-advantaged debt to finance traditional affordable housing, the company plans to build multi-million dollar homes for purchase.
“If it works, it becomes a model for other communities to pursue,” said Uplifters co-founder Steven Dietz, a former venture capital executive who also ran a firm that built accessory dwelling units.
The Los Angeles City Council approved a second resolution Tuesday supporting the debt as a community benefit that lessens “the burdens of the government of the City of Los Angeles.”
“We need to be willing to look at creative solutions to a problem that conventional approaches aren’t solving,” said Traci Park, the city council member for the Palisades
who sponsored motions to approve the bond issuance. “Even though it represents just 1% of the structures lost, it could offer a return for some families that cannot rebuild on their own. These lots may otherwise remain vacant for years.”
The proposed 60 new homes would restore revenue to the city from property taxes and encourage other owners to rebuild, according to the resolution.
The bond deal requires no financial commitment from the city or other tax-payer-backed agencies, a key consideration in disaster-ravaged areas where government help has been limited and unreliable.
In January 2025, the Palisades and the Altadena community east of Los Angeles, were hit by simultaneous wildfires that combined killed 31 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in insured losses.
Rebuilding has progressed slowly in the Palisades where more than 5,000 homes were incinerated in January 2025, according to the city of Los Angeles. Construction permits have been issued for about one-third of the destroyed homes. Only 42 addresses have received certificates of occupancy as of Thursday.
Many displaced residents had owned their property for decades and lacked the insurance or financial means to rebuild. Others are daunted by the lengthy process of designing and constructing a house from scratch. A fear among residents and local leaders is that vast stretches of the Palisades will languish as weed-strewn, chain-link-fenced lots.