Black residents of Altadena were more likely to have their homes damaged or destroyed by the Eaton fire and will have a harder financial road to recovery from the disaster, according to research released Tuesday by UCLA.
The fire burned more than 9,000 structures in the heart of Altadena, ravaging historically Black neighborhoods that for decades had thrived despite racial discrimination and, more recently, gentrification.
A study from UCLA published Tuesday reveals that Black residents in Altadena were 1.30 times more likely to have experienced major damage or complete destruction of their home during the inferno. Researchers also found Black fire victims tended to be older and often with financial circumstances that will make it more difficult for them to rebuild when compared to residents as a whole.
The study found that 61% of Black households in the city are located in the fire’s perimeter, compared to 50% of non-Black households. And nearly half of Black resident’s homes were leveled or suffered severe damage, compared to 37% of non-Black households, the study says.
“This is threatened by any kind of shock, but particularly this kind of shock that happens so swift and to such a large number—2800 households—in a 24 hour period,” said Lorrie Frasure, an author of the study and director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
“These kinds of things the data can shed light so that when folks get to work on the ground with restoring and rebuilding that we know who’s at risk and the particular kinds of ways in which we need to address a middle class community,” she said.
The study reinforces concerns that many in the Black community have expressed in the weeks following the inferno.
Lisa Odigie’s parent’s home in Janes Village in Altadena had been in her family for decades. Her parents purchased it from her grandmother and soon she too was going to own the home after her mother retired.
She dreamed of her 5-year-old son and one-year-old daughter growing up in the three bedroom home that had fruit trees and, at one point, a treehouse and space for tetherball in the backyard.
“The house is supposed to stay in the family and hopefully go to my babies,” she said.
After the fire tore through the community, Lisa’s husband went to check on the house. It was destroyed. When he told his wife the news, she dropped to her knees and cried.
“What is insured is the structure itself, not the land, you know, and not the value,” Odigie said. “So whatever equity you earned, it’s gone. Think about people in 2008 who lost their 401Ks and things like that, it’s exactly that. What you spend 20, 30 years building is just wiped out in an instant.”
The Eaton Fire burst out of Eaton Canyon and made a run north and west amid hurricane-force winds. Embers flooded Altadena’s westside, leveling entire blocks. These areas west of Lake Avenue have large Black populations in part because of a history of segregation and redlining policies.
In 1939, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation created a security map of the region in which it ranked neighborhoods by the relative risk to lenders. In Altadena, areas west of Lake Avenue were mostly zoned in the “definitely declining” category, the second lowest ranking, while the neighborhoods east of Lake Avenue were ranked either “best” or “still desirable.”
The rankings suppressed home prices in the western swath of the city, which ultimately created opportunities for Black families to purchase houses despite the societal barriers they faced. By 1970, 70% of Black households in Altadena owned their homes, nearly double the rate for Black residents living elsewhere in Los Angeles County, according to data provided by the study.
The Black community in Altadena has declined with gentrification—and rising home prices—in recent decades.
Of Altadena’s roughly 42,800 residents, only 18% are Black, down from 43% in 1980, according to census data.
The median home value in Altadena from 2019 to 2023 was over a million dollars and roughly a third higher than homes elsewhere in the county, according to the UCLA study. The rising cost resulted in a decline in new Black homeownership in the city before the fire. And now, the study cautions, the younger Black community—already struggling to purchase a home in the city—will likely face additional hurdles.
Among Black homeowners, 45% spend more than 30% of their household income on housing costs, and 28% spend more than 50% of their household income on housing. The study notes, in comparison, only 32% of non-Black homeowners are cost-burdened, and 13% are severely cost-burdened.
Black homeowners in the community in the city are aging as well, making them especially vulnerable to “incomplete or insufficient insurance coverage or predatory financial scams as they navigate the process of rebuilding or restoring their homes,” the study states.
Attorney Ben Crump, who has filed wrongful death lawsuits against Southern California Edison following the Eaton fire, said families have lost more than homes and businesses and the memories they hold.
“The generational wealth that has been lost in this tragedy is overwhelming for our community,” Crump said. “We didn’t have stocks and bonds to leave our children, we didn’t have companies and corporations to leave our children, but we had these homes…. building generational wealth to leave to our children and they could leave to their children so they could start out in life with something.”
Some received phone calls as the fire was raging asking if they’d sell their property. They fear the community won’t be the same if outside investors swoop in and take advantage of people whose lives have been upended.
“If they’re not able to rebuild, that literally takes away the path to ownership to a lot of people or changes what that looks like,” Odigie said. “That obviously destroys the legacy and community that was built in Altadena.”
