The Eaton Fire has devastated many of Altadena’s residents, including the city’s sizable and historic Black community.
Black families settled in the Altadena during the Great Migration starting in the 1930s. In areas west of Lake Avenue, Black homeowners weren’t given mortgages until the 1960s. So the community formed in parts of Altadena exempt from redlining policies, where they have owned homes for generations.
Denise and Adonis Jones, a Black couple who are longtime residents of Altadena, lost their home in the Eaton Fire. Denise’s mother bought the home in 1968.
Returning from Fontana, where they’d evacuated, they only saw rubble and lingering smoke.
“It looked like a 1930 war movie…like a bomb just hit and destroyed all the properties,” Adonis Jones says.
Like many Altadena families KCRW spoke with, the Jones’ are determined to rebuild. GoFundMe is full of stories like theirs — families looking for community assistance to pay for things insurance won’t cover.
Local groups are banding together to help its Black community.
The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons State of California, along with two prominent Black law firms, The Cochran Firm, and Ivie McNeil Wyatt Purcell and Diggs, have set up a GoFundMe recovery fund for Black residents in both Altadena and Pasadena.
Their goal is to raise $5 million to provide families with temporary housing, pay for bills, and aid in the rebuilding effort, says James Bryant, a partner at The Cochran Firm who helped set-up the fund.
“What I don't want to have happen is that this small Black community be forgotten,” says Bryant.