Santa Barbara County’s tight housing market could become more competitive as residents flee from the destruction of the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, which devastated parts of Los Angeles.

Prices for local rentals have soared in the past week as evacuees moved north to find shelter with family and friends, or just a place to escape the lingering effects of the blaze.

In Los Angeles, rental housing prices have soared far beyond what laws restricting price gouging allow — sometimes rising by thousands of dollars.

Due to the fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the Los Angeles area, which limits the amount rents can rise after a natural disaster.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch said the declaration does not cover local landlords. It covers only Los Angeles County and Ventura County.

“Emergency orders are the necessary prerequisite to have the price gouging statutes kick in. We’re not under any emergency orders or a state of emergency based upon the fires in Los Angeles,” Savrnoch said. “We are, however, temporarily under an emergency order that the governor issued regarding the bird flu approximately 30 days ago.”

Savrnoch explained that the laws against price gouging do apply to rentals in the county under the statewide declaration. However, the declaration is set to expire Friday.

He added that his office is willing to investigate any claims but said a price increase is not automatically price gouging. Large increases may be legal depending on different factors, such as renovations or a planned price change.

The sudden influx of visitors also has had an impact on real estate agents and the market.

ARenee Grubb, the owner of Village Properties, said she has warned agents to be careful about raising prices on rentals.

“The California Association of Realtors has sent out notices about anti-price gouging rules and that it is advised that if you have a property that is currently on the market for lease and it’s at a certain price, that you leave it at that price and not try to raise it just because of the circumstances at the fire,” Grubb said.

She added that some real estate agents in Los Angeles County are already facing legal trouble after raising rental fees and could be facing heavy fines.

Grubb has recommended to agents in the Montecito and Santa Barbara areas to keep their prices at the market rate.

One of the things that Grubb said she thinks may happen is some of the people who lost their homes in the fire may choose to stay in the area. While some evacuees may already have a second home in the county, others may begin looking for new housing.

“I have heard of a few that actually moved (…) up to their home here, but as far as renting is concerned, I could see them staying,” Grubb said, “especially if they have children and want to make sure that they continue in school, rather than trying to find something else in a different area.”

Stanley Tzankov, co-founder of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, said he has concerns about landlord behavior during the crisis.

“Everyone deserves access to quality housing, always and through this emergency,” Tzankov said. “I worry predatory landlords will continue price gouging and officials will enable them — as we’ve seen in other recent states of emergency.”

He said that without long overdue and popular tenant protections such as a rental registry or rent stabilization, landlords who are already charging runaway rents would exploit this additional stress on the limited affordable housing stock.

“Housing is a human right. We can’t keep treating it like just another market commodity,” Tzankov said, “and we need to ensure that we have adequate oversight on property owners that continue taking advantage of vulnerable people and charge whatever they want.”

Noozhawk South County Editor Joshua Molina contributed to this report.