Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America's second-largest city.

Collectively, the losses — whether in the hundreds or, as is far more likely, in the thousands — will weigh on the city’s already urgent housing shortage.

An estimated 180,000 people fled their homes this week as firefighters battle to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed at least five people and ravaged