Eshele Williams always believed she’d eventually own the home she rented in Altadena’s historic Janes Village neighborhood.
The 1920s cottage was where she brought her son Brayden home from the hospital and where she held backyard parties for birthdays or whatever anniversary family and friends wanted to celebrate. Her mom lived a block away; her three sisters weren’t much further.
When the Eaton fire destroyed the house she called home for nearly 17 years, she received a proposal from the landlord. Williams said she was told she could have the burned lot if she could pay $565,000, all cash, and close within 15 days.
“Nobody has $565,000 in cash just right up front,” said Williams, a 47-year-old therapist and consultant said.
Since flames destroyed thousands of homes in largely middle-class Altadena in January, more than 80 property owners have sold rather than rebuild, with many of the new buyers being developers, according to real estate agents.
That is raising concerns among some community members that in building pricey new houses, developers will usher in a wave of gentrification that will at least partially wipe away the architectural, racial and economic diversity that’s a hallmark of the small town below the San Gabriel Mountains.
A group of nonprofits are looking to blunt those economic forces.
First, they are trying to keep residents in Altadena through grants and other support that enable homeowners to rebuild, particularly if they were uninsured or underinsured. If someone ultimately does want to sell, the groups want to be there to acquire the land in a bid to stop an escalation in home prices.
Eshele Williams stands at the lot where her home, destroyed by the Eaton fire, once stood.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Williams benefited from both efforts. She said she could qualify for a mortgage to buy a $565,000 home, but didn’t have that money in cash, let alone more money to rebuild a house.
So when she received the offer from her landlord, Williams turned to the nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County, which she already had been talking to about receiving financial help for her family after the fires.
Neighborhood Housing Services stepped in and purchased the burned lot in April, and plans to build a new home on site and then sell it to Williams at an affordable price.
Lori Gay, the chief executive of Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County, said she and a coalition of nonprofits are looking to raise more money to purchase a couple hundred burned properties, build homes on them and ideally sell to people from Altadena at prices they can afford.
Disaster recovery efforts say an escalation in home prices is common after fires and hurricanes, as many families hit a wall in the rebuilding process and sell to developers and wealthier families who build more expensive homes.
“You don’t want investors or people who are super-high income coming in and jacking up the prices,” Gay said.
In Altadena, many community members purchased their homes decades ago and would struggle to afford today’s typical home value of $1.3 million.
Given the nation’s economic disparities, there’s been particular concern about a dispersal of Altadena’s long-standing Black community, which is focused on the town’s west side, in part due to a history of segregation and redlining.
Black residents had already been moving away because of gentrification before the fires and saw their homes severely damaged or destroyed at higher rates than other groups during the blaze.
The Williams family was among them. Not only did Eshele lose her housing, but so did her mother and two of her sisters, who owned their homes and are trying to find the funds to rebuild.
One potential option is Pasadena-based Greenline Housing Foundation, which is focusing on providing financial support to displaced Black and Hispanic homeowners, citing “historical systemic inequities and lack of access to resources” that will make recovery tougher.
The group has also acquired two lots, with the idea it can resell them below market to people from Altadena who want to stay.
“It’s just a community that needs to be restored,” said Greenline founder Jasmin Shupper, citing her fear a developer influx will drastically alter “the fabric of Altadena.”
Some specifics on nonprofit land acquisitions are still to be worked out, including how different groups might collaborate. But Shupper said more money needs to be raised quickly.
“It’s important we have this long-term vision organized,” she said. “But if we don’t have fast capital now, it won’t matter because there won’t be any lots left.”
For Williams, she is looking forward to moving back, seeing it as a chance to build generational wealth, as well as continue her family’s legacy in Altadena.
Her decision might already be having impact. Williams said she recently ran into one displaced neighbor in her 70s who over the years became a family friend.
The woman told Williams she doubted she’d return after losing her house.
“Probably the only way that I would reconsider is if you were going to be my neighbor,” the woman said.
“Well, I’m going to be your neighbor again,” Williams replied.
The woman then broke down in tears and said she was “definitely coming back.”
