Days after an inferno razed the Pacific Palisades, Maya Lieberman is desperate to find somewhere to live. But unscrupulous landlords who are jacking up prices are making it hard.
'The price gouging is going haywire, it's obscene,' the 50-year-old stylist told AFP. 'I can't find anywhere for us to go.'
Huge fires that have torn through Los Angeles since Tuesday have leveled whole neighborhoods, turning swaths of the city to ash. More than 105,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes, while another 87,000 are under additional evacuation warnings, as authorities try to keep down a death toll that has already reached 16. On Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said law enforcement has also received 16 reports of missing people since the fires erupted last week, adding that he expects the number to rise.
One blaze devastated the Pacific Palisades, an upmarket enclave that was home to celebrities like Billy Crystal and Kate Beckinsale, which — until this week — was some of the most desirable real estate in the United States.
With the area now under a compulsory evacuation order, even those whose homes survived the inferno need to go elsewhere for the foreseeable future.
The higher-than-average incomes of people forced to leave their homes there appear to have tempted opportunists, who see a chance to make money from others' misery.
'We put in an application at a house... that was listed at $17,000 a month, and they told us if we didn't pay $30,000, we weren't going to get it,' Lieberman said. 'They told me they have people ready to offer more and pay cash. It's absolutely insane.'
California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned against price gouging, looting and other scamming attempts at a news conference Saturday, vowing that anyone seeking to take advantage of the wildfire victims would be held accountable. He said bad actors were already trying to capitalize on the trauma and chaos created by the blazes.
'We've seen businesses and landlords ... jack up the price,' Bonta said at the briefing. 'It's called price gouging. It is illegal. You cannot do it. It is a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and fines.'