This spring, longtime community advocate and Eaton fire survivor Martin Gordon sent a letter to the Pasadena Community Foundation asking that it provide more direct funding to homeowners trying to rebuild.
For months since the catastrophic blaze, the well-known, 72-year-old local foundation has been a hub for millions in fundraising dollars, which it then allocates to an array of nonprofits working on the ground in the area.
Nine months on from the devastation, those nonprofits continue dispersing the money, but not in the way Gordon and some of his fellow homeowners would like.
Gordon, who serves as chair of the Pasadena Community Coalition, also a local nonprofit organization, specifically highlighted Altadena’s Black community, which was heavily impacted by the fire.
He wrote that the coalition had identified 50 African American homeowners who were ready to build, if given the financial resources.
But now, Gordon said fewer than 10 homeowners remain in Altadena from the group of 50. The rest could not wait any longer and were forced to sell.
“My community is sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Gordon said.
Gordon’s ask of the Community Foundation sheds light on a tension in the rebuild of the unincorporated town that lost 19 residents and thousands of homes in the disaster.
On one hand, many, such as Gordon, want to see nonprofit money allocated directly to homeowners trying to rebuild their homes from the ashes.
Another example of large nonprofit assistance to the region is L.A. developer Rick Caruso’s Steadfast LA, which is offering programs like small business grants and grants to fire survivors to cover the purchase of pre-fab homes.
But in contrast, much of the donated money to the Community Foundation money went toward cash and rental assistance, temporary and medium-term housing, childcare and mental health support.
That’s not a bad thing, given the scale of the disaster, Gordon said, adding that help was vital in the immediate aftermath of the fire. Ultimately, people who lost their homes are not seeing the kind of direct assistance via the nonprofits that they’d hoped, he said.
And that’s particularly the case among Black homeowners, he noted.
Since January, the impact of January’s catastrophe on Black property owners has been watched closely.
A UCLA study published in January found that the Eaton fire disproportionally impacted Altadena’s Black community.
According to the study, 61% of Black households in Altadena were within the fire perimeter compared to 50% of non-Black households. Almost half of Black households were destroyed or suffered major damage compared to 37% of non-Black households.
In addition, 57% of Black homeowners in Altadena are aged 65 and over compared to 38% of the overall population.
The impact has raised concerns about whether many can retain generational wealth in a community that was already feeling the hit of the region’s relentless housing affordability crisis.
Adding to the complication of rebuilding, Altadena’s residents are immersed in a post-Eaton fire rebuild process complicated by a slow-moving permitting process, economic uncertainty, underinsurance issues and the entry of outside investors, who are estimated to have bought up two-thirds of severely damaged homes in the area.
Gordon’s home burned down in the fire, along with several others on his street near Loma Alta Drive and Fair Oaks Avenue.
He argued that instead of money being distributed to nonprofits, it should go directly to the homeowners who need it most. In effect, the distribution system simply creates another layer of red tape that officials promised they would cut, Gordon and his neighbors said.
“If you truly care about people, not just Black people, if you care about people and their pain and what you can do to alleviate pain, move people to sustainability from a devastating loss of everything they’ve ever owned in their life, then you need to pay close attention,” Gordon said.
Pasadena Community Foundation officials tasked with allocating and ultimately distributing funding agree that dollars do need to go toward homeowners and their rebuilding. And indeed, money has been, ever since the immediate aftermath of the fire. But they also note that the infrastructure set up to distribute that money was not designed for cash payments directly to homeowners.
Rather, they said, the system calls for a pipeline that must go to local nonprofits first. The process, they say, preserves an equitable playing field.
Sarah Hilbert, director of marketing and communications for the Pasadena Community Foundation, said that it has partnered with nonprofits like Door of Hope, Greenline Housing Foundation, First AME Church, Altadena Rotary, National Day Laborer Organizing Network/Pasadena Job Center, Harambee Ministries and Friends in Deed to direct emergency grants to thousands of fire-impacted residents.
They received cash assistance, emergency supplies, rental assistance, temporary and medium-term housing, childcare and mental health support.
“From the day the Eaton fire broke out in our community, Pasadena Community Foundation has been committed to the health and well-being of all fire survivors and an equitable recovery and rebuilding of Altadena — and we will remain so, for as long as this work may take,” Hilbert said in an email.
In March, the foundation launched the Altadena Builds Back Foundation to oversee the long-term reconstruction of residential Altadena.
As of Aug. 30, Hilbert said, the organization has provided $12.3 million in relief and housing grants to more than 60 nonprofit organizations.
They have included $4.55 million to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity to rebuild 22 homes in West Altadena at no cost to low-income, underinsured, long-time homeowners; $750,000 to Door of Hope for cash assistance and stable housing for 150 low-income families; $320,000 to Civic Soul and Greenline Housing for rental assistance; funding for Greenline to launch a land banking initiative to hold land in trust for those who have or want roots in Altadena and $175,000 in grants to Friends in Deed for cash assistance and 18 months of rental subsidies for several dozen families to transition into stable housing.
Candice Kim, project director for the Altadena Builds Back Foundation, said ABBF and the Pasadena Community Foundation do not have the infrastructure to handle direct relief payments to homeowners. Instead, they’ve opted to take the approach its leaders say it always has, partnering with smaller local nonprofits that it says have more experience and capacity to deal in a one-on-one setting.
“We want every dollar to go as far as it can to have the greatest impact in our community, and so yes, by working with community partners that have a track record of really maximizing every dollar that is a strategy that we have,” Kim said.
Gordon and his neighbors are frustrated with having to jump through hoops to be given money to help rebuild and want to see the red tape cut.
One of those neighbors, Marc Archuleta bought what he planned to be his retirement home two years ago only for it to burn down in the fire.
Six months before the fire, Mercury Insurance dropped him and he signed up for the California FAIR Plan, he said.
He received his insurance payouts, but as of right now he’s facing a shortfall to rebuild.
He’s working through the Foothill Catalog Foundation and Los Angeles County to rebuild but after being told his architectural plans would be ready at the end of July they were delayed.
“As time goes on we’re slowly getting pushed and pushed and pushed,” Archuleta said.
According to a county dashboard, as of Wednesday, Oct. 15, 207 rebuild construction projects are underway in the Eaton fire area. The county has received 2,034 rebuild applications and issued 530 building permits. On average it takes 80 business days for a permit to be issued.
Regina Birdsell, director of USC’s Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management program, said the practice in fundraising post-disaster has shifted to money going to nonprofit organizations.
“From the nonprofit side, they’re trying to be sure that the money gets to the people that need it, and that could become cumbersome when you feel like you’re already spread thin trying to get your life back together,” Birdsell said.
Greg Middleton lived across the street from Gordon and Archuleta in a home he’s been in since 1995 that burned down. He’s been frustrated with having to prove to organizations of the losses he’s suffered.
“My house is dirt, it’s dust, what do I got to qualify for?” Middleton said. “Can’t you see it’s gone?”
Middleton is rebuilding because of the community that existed pre-Eaton fire. He said everyone on the street enjoyed each other’s company and doesn’t want to give that up.
“It won’t ever be the same as it was and I know that,” Middleton said. “It won’t. Altadena in fact, the look and the decor and everything, won’t be the same .. but if the people can keep the community together that’s what’s more important to me.”
Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement that her priority is making sure county resources are distributed equitably and reach those who need them most.
“Philanthropy must uphold that same standard, and I have full confidence that PCF—an organization with decades of trusted service in this community—will continue to rise to the moment with transparency and a survivor-centered focus,” Barger said.
According to the foundation’s Six-Month Impact Report, it raised $72 million as of July and has committed $56 million through the establishment of the Altadena Builds Back Foundation. That $56 million, Kim said, was set aside to support rebuilding at the request of donors.
Last week, the foundation announced that it would be providing a grant to Beacon Housing to build three new affordable accessory dwelling units at its Garfield Agape Court in northwest Pasadena.
Pasadena Community Foundation declined to release a list of all the donations it’s received since Jan. 7 and how each of those donations were allocated. It cited the protection of its donors’ privacy as its reasoning.
“They’re collecting money on behalf of the Altadena citizens and nobody I know has gotten anything substantial from them,” Middleton said. “How can they collect money in our name, on our behalf and not give it to us?”
Hilbert said while nonprofits are legally able to award grants to individuals for disaster relief, it comes with many legal requirements.
As an example, awardees would need to be selected based on an objective, nondiscriminatory basis that includes a determination of need.
“I’m grateful for the people that are so passionate about finding solutions for a community, and there’s not going to be one right path forward, so I appreciate people that are engaged and actively advocating for their communities,” Kim said.
Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder said lots of nonprofits sprang up in the wake of the 2018 Camp fire, which destroyed more than 18,000 structures and killed 85 people. The largest was North Valley Community Foundation, which like PCF, did not give direct funding to fire survivors but distributed it to local churches and groups like Salvation Army.
Crowder said he thinks the money from larger nonprofits should go to the local, smaller nonprofits for distribution.
“I think there is more control over what the money would be used for. Housing. Not vacations and extravagant purchases,” Crowder said in an email.
Altadena Town Council Chair Victoria Knapp said the Altadena Eaton Fire Relief Fund, in partnership with GoFundMe, is providing direct grants to Altadena fire survivors.
She said it was unfair to characterize organizations not giving direct assistance as not helping survivors.
“We have to be aware of the consequences of framing these efforts negatively,” Knapp said in an email. “When funders are portrayed as failing survivors—even while they are operating within their stated construct—it discourages others from stepping forward to give.”