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US: Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has said that he plans to donate $15 million worth of factory-built dwellings to support survivors of the recent Los Angeles wildfires.
The pre-fabricated homes are constructed by Gebbia’s more recent startup venture – Samara. These homes are designed to be built in a minimum of five months and can be installed in the space of several weeks, and the Airbnb co-founder said that low-income residents with properties that burned down in the neighbourhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades will be prioritised for temporary homes.
According to a statement, all homes will be 100 per cent funded, including installation costs, and the initiative is being coordinated by non-profit organisation Steadfast LA, which was launched to rebuild the city of Los Angeles after last month’s wildfires.
Steadfast LA founder Rick Caruso said: “This initiative is about keeping communities intact. We’re giving these victims a realistic way to stay on their properties and quickly return to their lives at a time when the deck is stacked against them.”
The wildfires in Los Angeles, which lasted for more than three weeks in January, killed at least 29 people and destroyed some 16,000 structures, of which 11,000 were single-family homes. The damage from property and capital losses from the fires is estimated to be as much as $164 billion, according to economists at the University of California in Los Angeles [UCLA].
Gebbia said: “Our hearts go out to all the individuals, families, and communities impacted by these destructive wildfires. So many people are faced with unbelievable circumstances. We want to help them get back home.”
Co-founded by Gebbia and Mike McNamara, Samara initially started out in 2016 as a blue sky product R&D team within Airbnb with the purpose of thinking critically about the future of living, but the startup pivoted to add small homes to people’s backyards when it launched its inaugural product in November 2022. Almost a year later, the startup raised $41 million in a Series A funding round.
Having launched in California as its inaugural market, Samara Backyard is designed to offer “transformational, flexible dwellings” with multi-use flexible layouts that can change in purpose and evolve with people’s lives, including helping those seeking to create a new income stream through a rental space.
Built with “highly durable, environmentally-considerate” materials, Samara’s accessory dwelling units [ADUs] can also be used to address housing crises and support displaced residents in their time of need, as will be the case in Los Angeles.
According to Bloomberg, Samara’s smallest homes typically start at $147,000 but larger units can sell for up to $275 per square foot / $2,960 per square metre. Custom homes could cost up to $1,500 per square foot to rebuild, according to UCLA.
Moving forward, Steadfast LA will create an independent organisation to administer and facilitate the eligibility, building and installation process between the wildfire survivors and Samara, with the intention to install the houses as quickly as possible.
As well as being a co-founder of Airbnb and Samara, Gebbia also serves as a board member at Elon Musk’s automotive and energy company, Tesla. Last week, it was revealed that Gebbia would be joining Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has been responsible for job, spending and contract cuts in government to increase “efficiencies”.
