California Needs More Homes But Has Few Safe Places to Build

California, gripped by a housing shortage that is forcing families from the state, wants to build 2.5 million homes. But it’s running out of safe places to put them.

Much of the land best suited for new housing — wind-swept, grassy hills surrounding the state’s major cities — now faces an extreme threat of wildfire, brutally illustrated by the Los Angeles-area blazes in January that killed 30 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Fires have also leveled entire towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills, often considered an affordable place to buy a home. With California’s peak fire season on the way, the state’s main firefighting ...