Fund Launched to Aid “Cherished” Black Communities Impacted by Fires

In Altadena alone, where 18% of the population identifies as Black and where Black homeownership is nearly double the national average, the Eaton Fire, named after the canyon where it started, destroyed 9,300 structures, killed at least 17 residents and displaced thousands. 

By Edward Henderson and Charlene Muhammad | California Black Media

The California Black Freedom Fund (CBFF) and California Community Foundation have partnered to launch the Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund to support community organizations on the ground working to meet the immediate and long-term needs of Black communities displaced by the wildfires.

The fund will particularly benefit residents of Altadena, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County that has historically been a haven for Black homeowners who could not at one point buy homes elsewhere because of redlining.

“Over the last few days, we have gained a better sense of how expansive the devastation was, and we decided we needed to take action,” Marc Philpart, CEO of CBFF told California Black Media.

“Black families that had settled in that region really did so because those were the only regions that they could settle in, so we wanted to be a part of helping those individuals who were impacted find some relief and begin to start the long road to recovery,” he continued.

The recent fires in Los Angeles County have claimed 25 lives, burned over 40,000 acres of land, forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate and caused nearly $275 billion in damages.

In Altadena alone, where 18% of the population identifies as Black and where Black homeownership is nearly double the national average, the Eaton Fire, named after the canyon where it started, destroyed 9,300 structures, killed at least 17 residents and displaced thousands.

Historically Black communities in Altadena and Pasadena have been hit particularly hard by this disaster.

Patrice Marshall McKenzie, a representative of Pasadena Unified School District 5, spoke with California Black Media about the scale of the devastation in the area and needs of displaced families.

“I am very fortunate and blessed that my immediate home, is not threatened, but I cannot begin to count the number of people whose homes are,” said McKenzie.

“It has just been a really, really harrowing week.  We are really working to support families, standing up graphical locations to provide food to families, providing childcare resources to parents who still have to go to work and so being able to support the needs of our students while they’re unable to be on campus full time or that they really want to be,” she continued.

In addition to the destruction of the entire business corridor on Lake Avenue, five public schools have been damaged significantly, and four of them are almost total losses. McKenzie highlighted the need for monetary donations for many of the displaced individuals living in hotels.

“Once they’re able to be more stabilized in terms of their temporary housing, then they probably will need things to be able to make sure that their home starts to come together again,” she siad.

For thousands of displaced Black residents like those mentioned by McKenzie, the road to rebuild is just beginning. Historic and systemic inequities add hurdles to the prospect of rebuilding. The Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund seeks to address those critical challenges so Black communities can return, reclaim, and rebuild just like other communities. The days, months, and years ahead will require hope, healing, and our collective resources to recover.

“In the wake of these devastating fires, we can’t just rebuild. We must ensure communities heal and flourish for generations to come. This is about more than recovery. It’s about restoring the heart and soul of neighborhoods that hold so much history, culture, and promise,” said Miguel Santana, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation said in a statement.

“Through our partnership with the California Black Freedom Fund, we are committed to addressing the urgent needs of Black communities displaced by the wildfires, especially in the cherished, historically Black neighborhood of Altadena. Thanks to this partnership with the California Black Freedom Fund, we are able to help safeguard a cultural treasure of Southern California, ensuring the vibrancy of these communities is a legacy passed down to future generations.”

Money raised by the fund will go to 12 grassroots organizations vetted by CBFF that are on the frontlines of the disaster, giving aid, counseling, housing, food rations, and other services to those most in need in the Pasadena and Altadena area.

“We’re in a prime position to be able to move quickly to support them,” said Philpart. “And many of these organizations have been starved. They haven’t had the investment that’s necessary for them to be able to do the work that’s needed in this critical moment. They’re small, they’re scrappy and we really rely on that ability to reach unique sets of entities and platform them as a way to help them get more investment and introduce them to a broader set of folks who wouldn’t necessarily know them otherwise.”

Since 2020, CBFF has distributed over $40 million dollars to over 142 organizations working on behalf of Black communities. The California Black Freedom Fund works to strengthen and coordinate California’s ecosystem of local, regional and state organizations dismantling cultural and systemic anti-Black racism.

For more information or to make a donation to the Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund, please visit https://www.pledge.to/BlackLA or text BlackLA to 707070.