California is offering homeowners grants of up to $3,000 to help them with earthquake retrofitting. Shanna Mendiola reports for Today in LA on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Time is running out for California homeowners to apply for a grant that can help them seismically retrofit their homes before the next big one arrives
Eligible homeowners can receive up to $3,000 by applying on the California Residential Mitigation program website run by the California Earthquake Authority through March 26.
The seismic retrofit grants will allow homeowners to bolt their homes to the foundations and brace the crawl space well, making the structures more resistent to quakes.
An estimated 1.2 million houses in California were built before 1980 in high-hazard areas, at risk of collapsing or destruction, according to the California Earthquake Authority.
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Homes that were built before 1940 are even more vulnerable as many of them have a crawl space.
“The crawl space has got studs that are 7 feet or less, and they are not properly anchored to the foundation. And they’re not properly braced with plywood, said Chief Mitigation Officer Janiele Maffei with the California Earthquake Authority.
The typical cost of retrofitting a home ranges from $3,000 to $7,000 depending on the location and the size of the house.
The average amount of the grant homeowners receive may not cover the entire bill, but Maffei reminded Californians that not preparing for a big earthquake would end up costing them even more, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“For the $3,000, the retrofit on average is about $5,200 statewide, so there will be an outlay by the homeowner, but it's very, very important to note that the expected damage is far greater than that,” she said.
Supplementary grants are also available for low-income households so the full cost of retrofitting their homes could be covered.
To quality for a grant, applicants must be homeowners who occupy the homes in the eligible areas
The state agency also helps people find licensed contractors in more than 1,100 neighborhoods by zip code.
