Airbnb Co-Founder Is Donating $15 Million to Build Prefab Homes for L.A. Fire Victims

Billionaire co-founder of Airbnb Joe Gebbia has unveiled a plan to donate $15 million worth of prefabricated homes manufactured by his new company to Los Angeles–area homeowners who have been displaced by January’s devastating wildfires.  

Gebbia’s California-based construction startup Samara has teamed up with the nonprofit organization Steadfast LA to provide factory-built homes free of charge to low-income residents of the two hardest-hit communities, Pacific Palisades and Altadena, who lost their primary residences and don’t have enough money to rebuild. 

“While we can’t help everyone affected by this crisis, the program covers all parts of building a new home,” says a statement put out by Samara. 

The process of designing and permitting a typical Samara home takes between five and six months, with an additional six to eight weeks for installation, depending on the model and the readiness of the site.

Samara’s modular homes typically range in price from $147,000, plus installation, for a 420-square-foot studio, to $261,000 for a 950-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. 

Samara co-founder and CEO Mike McNamara predicts that the construction environment in Los Angeles is going to be “tough” as the rebuilding efforts ramp up, but he believes modular homes could be the answer.

“Labor and material prices are going to increase, and people will face longer rebuild timelines,” he says. “We build these homes in a factory, which will avoid the strain facing the L.A. market and help people get homes on their properties faster.”

In his emailed comments to Realtor.com®, McNamara described Samara’s initiative as “mission-critical,” particularly to uninsured or underinsured homeowners affected by the natural disaster.

“The wildfires have devastated communities in the L.A. area, leaving many without homes and in dire need of assistance,” he says. “It’s why we’re building these homes for no profit and donating them at no cost to victims.”

McNamara explains that because Samara’s units are built in a factory, much of the prep work can be done on site while the home is being constructed off site.

“Once the home build is completed at our factory, we put it on the back of a semi and truck it to L.A., pick it up with a crane, and lift onto the site,” he says. “The crane-in happens in a matter of hours.”

As part of the program, Samara will handle the entire installation and permitting process, while Steadfast LA will work with local government officials to cut through red tape so that victims could move into their new homes faster.

Who is eligible

Residents who qualify for the program, based on financial need and other criteria, will receive a free Samara home with a fire-resistant design, complete with a frame that maintains its integrity at high temperatures, which will be manufactured in Mexico.

“This initiative is about keeping communities intact,” says Rick Caruso, billionaire real estate developer and founder of Steadfast LA. “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 Caruso Family Foundation will also provide seed funding for the rebuilding program.

“This is just the start,” said Caruso, according to KABC-TV.  “We’ve got a generous donation. We’re going to raise $30 million around it.”

That money is expected to be enough to manufacture and build between 80 and 100 homes.

The mounting costs of the L.A. wildfires

The historic fires that scorched Southern California in January killed 29 people and ravaged more than 16,000 structures, including nearly 12,000 homes. 

According to a recent analysis by the Los Angeles Times, which compared Cal Fire’s assessments of destroyed or damaged buildings with Los Angeles County Assessor’s parcel records, real estate losses from the Palisades and Eaton fires could amount to more than $30 billion. 

The Palisades inferno consumed 56% of the properties in the star-studded enclave of Pacific Palisades, while the Eaton fire burned nearly half of the properties in the working-class city of Altadena. 

In a report published earlier this month, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management estimated the total property and capital damage from the two largest fires at between $95 billion and $164 billion, with insured losses potentially reaching a stunning $75 billion. 

Gebbia going from Airbnb to DOGE

Gebbia, 43, who has a net worth of $8.7 billion, according to Forbes, left Airbnb in 2022 to start Samara, which was born out of Airbnb’s research and development unit. That same year, he joined the board of Tesla, his friend Elon Musk‘s electric vehicle company.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Gebbia will be joining Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been responsible for firing thousands of federal workers and canceling government contracts as part of the Trump administration’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Times’ reporting did not reveal what will be Gebbia’s role on Musk’s team.