Survivors press senators for fast-pay housing relief as wildfire fund options are debated

Survivors of recent California wildfires told the Senate committee that policy choices about the wildfire fund must prioritize prompt aid.

Joy Chen, executive director of the Every Fire Survivors Network and an Eaton Fire survivor, addressed senators with detailed accounts of displaced families and mounting mental-health impacts. "Two in three survivors are still displaced," Chen said, adding that many survivors are exhausting savings and retirement funds while waiting for claims to resolve. She urged the Legislature to require utilities to advance urgent housing relief and to reject any proposal that would strip survivor protections or cap non-economic damages.

Senator Perez and others pressed agencies and utilities about the timeline for payments and investigations. Panelists and advocates described a proposal in the SB 254 report for a state-managed fast-pay facility: a publicly governed program to provide early payments to survivors to stabilize households while responsibility and reimbursements are sorted out. Advocates said a fast-pay facility could shorten multi-year waits and limit downstream homelessness and financial ruin.

CEA and modeling partners said fast-pay arrangements were among the options studied; they emphasized that operational design and capitalization need more work. Consumer advocates and survivors asked legislators to attach conditions to any financing solution that accelerate survivor recovery, such as requirements for utilities to provide interim housing advances and for audits ensuring mitigation dollars are spent as promised.

The committee did not set policy at the hearing, but members requested further briefings on how a fast-pay facility would work, what funding sources would support it and how to preserve survivors' legal rights while ensuring timely relief.

The next steps include follow-up testimony to define implementation mechanics and budget implications for any fast-pay model.