Steeper Rents May Force Fire Survivors Out : Relocation: Laguna Beach renters, most of them uninsured, fear housing costs will price them out of the market as landlords rebuild. Many artists lost both homes and studios.

LAGUNA BEACH — Four months after the firestorm that swept through this city, some of the hardest hit victims appear to be renters, many of whom were uninsured and who face serious questions about being able to reclaim their lives.

Particularly hard hit were artists who lost both rented homes and studios in the blaze.

“Undoubtedly, there has been a social (and) economic upheaval here, especially for renters,” said Community Development Director Kyle Butterwick. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

David Sabaroff, who heads the Canyon Acres Renters Assn., a support group formed after the fire, said about half the residents of that heavily burned community were renters. Only one of the 30 that Sabaroff has met with carried insurance.

Sabaroff, an artist who lost his home and a studio, said it is that combined loss that has been hardest to accept. “It’s so total you can’t fathom it without going through the experience,” he said.

One thing renters find particularly worrisome is the possibility they may never be able to move back home. As landlords rebuild, renters predict that some landowners will have new, higher mortgages that will prompt steeper rents.

“What we’ve seen is many longtime residents of Laguna who were renters are facing the distinct possibility of having to leave Laguna because there is no affordable housing to go to,” said Anita Mangels, director of the Laguna Fire Relief Coalition.

Recently, Rick Jenkins, a member of the Laguna Board of Realtors, said he has received “quite a number of calls” from renters who moved out of the city to stay with friends or family after the fire and who now want to come back.

But renters say most of their former neighbors have, for the moment at least, managed to relocate somewhere within the city limits.

Judy Durocher, 42, an artist who lost her Canyon Acres home and workshop, said she has moved to North Laguna with her boyfriend.

“That’s the only way I could stay in town. I couldn’t afford the rents they were asking,” she said. “I would have done anything not to leave. . . . It’s been my home for 20 years.”

While some federal rental assistance is available, fire survivors say accepting it increases the chances they will have to leave Laguna Beach because recipients must be willing to move to a comparably priced dwelling within 20 miles of their job.

“If you’re uninsured, you’re at the mercy of the government and the private organizations here in Laguna,” said Polly Ferrell, who lost the Canyon Acres home where she had lived for 20 years. Ferrell said she has moved to a slightly larger home where she now pays twice the rent.

“I personally have had a lot of help, a lot of help,” Ferrell said, citing support from local churches and the Laguna Fire Relief Coalition.

Ironically, the director of the coalition, a community-based group that renters hail as particularly supportive, has expressed concerns lately about its future financial welfare. Mangels said some money the coalition expected to receive is instead being diverted to Los Angeles area earthquake victims.

“With some of the larger institutional sources of funding, we have been told that the resources have been committed to the earthquake and there’s really not much left,” Mangels said. “We have not had to turn anybody away for lack of funds at this point, but looking to the future, we recognize that we will need to secure additional funding.”

Janice Jensen, a college instructor who lost the Canyon Acres rental home where she had lived for 18 years, said the relief group has provided an ongoing sense of community for uprooted residents.

“The impact of something like this doesn’t come to you until after several months,” Jensen said. “The coalition has been just great, because they seem to be there for the long haul and they have maintained their sympathetic posture.”

While now may be a hard time for the city’s renters, some say they have been buoyed by the help they have received since their former lives went up in smoke.

“Nowhere else in the world would people get the support that we get,” said Jeff DiPaolo. “I’d bet the farm that everybody is paying more rent and the lifestyles have changed dramatically. But that’s what happens in a disaster.”

Times Staff Writer Anna Cekola contributed to this report.