Hey John,
The wildfires in Los Angeles county have been hard to watch knowing that so many people have been devastated and lost their homes and their possessions in an instant. To say nothing of losing those who didn’t make it out in time.
Much of the news coverage has focused on the impact of the wildfires in the Palisades where stories of celebrities losing their multi-million dollar homes are in no short supply. Comparatively the Eaton fire devastated Pasadena and Altadena, a historically working class and majority Black community that had extensive fire damage. One count had 7,000 buildings destroyed by the Eaton wildfire. Both of these wildfires have been devastating to low-income communities of color, with thousands losing their jobs and many more losing their homes.
We know during and after these crises landlords and developers engage in the worst kind of predatory practices and under the cover of chaos will evict, spike rent, and purchase land and homes for pennies on the dollar from working class and poor communities. True to form, the evidence of all these corrupt practices is everywhere you look. Local community members have found almost 1300 different apartment listings that have jacked the rent up beyond the 10% that is allowed under the state’s emergency protections. News outlets are already anticipating a massive spike in rents in LA which is already so deeply unaffordable to so many of its working class and poor residents. With one real estate agent saying “People smell blood in the water.”
We have joined many of our Los Angeles members in signing on to Keep LA Housed’s letter to Los Angeles elected officials to enact an emergency eviction moratorium immediately alongside taking on other critical reforms that would shore up the more than 100,000 LA county residents who have been displaced.
The truth is the wildfires are only highlighting the ongoing crisis in housing in Los Angeles. Landlords, developers, and banks have exploited working class, poor, undocumented, Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities for generations. The houseless population in LA has grown dramatically in just the last few years from continued displacement and rent spikes. In the long term we need housing that isn’t treated as yet another financial plaything by the rich. We need investment in things like social housing, tenants opportunity to purchase (TOPA), and land moved to community land trusts that are controlled and managed by the community that lives in them. We need cities and states committed to keeping communities in their homes and neighborhoods that are truly climate resilient.
As we continue to get information on how to support our people in LA County we wanted to send out a resource list that was pulled together by the Rockwood Leadership Institute:
- LA Times master list of ways to support including a GoFundMe central hub
- 805 Undocufund is opening their fund to survivors
- Mutual Aid LA
- The Sidewalk Project
- It's Bigger Than Us LA
- Pasadena Community Foundation
- Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory
Keep your eyes peeled for updates on how you can support our member organizations on the ground. Thanks for all that you do.
In solidarity,
Kamau, Matt and the Right to the City Alliance team |
