Altadena Fire Survivors Face Soaring Rebuild Costs (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We all feel the affordability crisis, but it's hammering fire survivors here in Altadena. A disaster that wasn't their fault, they're now stuck paying for.

[00:00:10] Speaker 2: Costs skyrocketing. The American dream is not that affordable anymore. When you look at this, it's like it's all gone. It's all gone. The physical stuff, the material things are gone. The memories are still there.

[00:00:25] Speaker 1: Robert Lara is a general contractor. He's living in a trailer on his property while he rebuilds.

[00:00:31] Speaker 2: I wish I could stay in a nice place and I didn't have to go through this. This will also mentally drain you. You see yourself in a vacant lot, just a pile of dirt. I can't afford, there's no way, no way I could afford to rent a place out.

[00:00:50] Speaker 1: Tariffs enacted by the Trump administration have driven the cost of building supplies up. And the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration means that there are fewer and fewer people in California to build houses.

[00:01:04] Speaker 2: Everyone I speak to here, all my neighbors, everyone's like, we're in that same boat. We're all underinsured. The only reason why I was able to be in Altadena was because my mom bought here many, many years back. She worked at Huntington Hospital for over 20 years.

[00:01:19] Speaker 3: Could you work in housekeeping at Huntington Hospital today and afford to buy a place here? No way. There's no way.