ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — The sight of celebrity mansions and movie landmarks reduced to ash gave the impression of a group of movie stars affected by the wildfires sweeping through the Los Angeles area.
But a drive through the charred neighborhoods around Altadena reveals that the fires also destroyed a remarkable refuge for generations of black families from discriminatory housing practices suffered elsewhere. They are racially and economically diverse communities where many people own their homes.
Some now fear the most destructive fires in California history have changed that forever. Recovery and redevelopment may be out of reach for many, and the pressures of gentrification may return.
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Samantha Santoro, 22, a first-generation college student at Cal Poly Pomona, remembers being annoyed when initial news coverage of the wildfires focused more on celebrities. She and her younger sister, who attends the University of California, Berkeley, worry about how their Mexican immigrant parents and working-class neighbors in Altadena will fare when they lose their homes.
“We don’t say, ‘Oh, I’ll go to my second home and stay there,'” Santoro said.
The landlord of their two-bedroom house with a pool never raised the $1,650 rent, allowing the Santoros to afford to raise their daughter. Now, they are temporarily staying with a relative in Pasadena. The home has renters insurance, but not much else.
“I find it hard to believe that you have nothing,” Santoro said through tears, thinking about her parents. “Everything they did was in that house.”
Altadena was once a mixture of small bungalows and grand mansions. The community of 42,000 people includes blue-collar families, artists, entertainment industry workers and white-collar workers. About 58% of residents are nonwhite, with a quarter of them Hispanic and nearly a fifth black, according to census data.
During the civil rights era, Altadena became a rare opportunity for black Americans to enter the middle class without the discriminatory practices that denied them access to credit. They maintain their families and help others prosper. Today, the black homeownership rate there is 81.5 percent, nearly double the national rate.
This is an impressive number considering that 92% of Altadena’s 15,000 residences are single-family homes, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Community Survey. The median income is over $129,000. Just over 7% of residents live in poverty.
Altadena City Council President Victoria Knapp fears the fire has irrevocably changed the families’ living conditions.
“Someone will buy it and develop it, but who knows what it will do. It will change the character of Altadena,” Knapp said, adding that those with fewer resources will be disproportionately harmed.
Kenneth Snowden, 57, and his family were one of the first black families to buy a home in 1962.
He asked state and federal officials to help all fire-affected communities equitably because “your $40 million home is no different than my $2 million home.”
Snowden hopes to get a home loan with 0% interest. “Give us the ability to rebuild and start our lives over,” he said. “If you can spend billions to fight a war, you can spend a billion to help get us back to where we were.”
Sean Brown not only lost her home, but also the public charter school she founded in Altadena. She had a message for black homeowners who might be tempted by offers on their properties: “I would tell them to be strong, to rebuild, to continue the generational progress of African Americans.”
She and other Pasadena Rosebud staff are working to raise funds to rebuild while searching for a temporary location for the church.
But even some churches were burned. At Altadena Baptist Church, the bell tower is pretty much the only thing still standing.
The Rev. George Van Alstine and others are working to help more than 10 church members who have lost their homes and need needs such as navigation insurance and federal assistance. Pastors worry the fires will lead to gentrification and that black parishioners, who make up half the congregation, will pay the price.
“We’re seeing a lot of families that may have to move out of the area because redevelopment in Altadena is too expensive for them,” he said.
Photographer Daniela Dawson, 32, who had been working two jobs to pay the $2,200 rent on her studio apartment, fled the wildfires with her Hyundai SUV and her cat, Lola. She lost almost everything else, including thousands of dollars worth of photography equipment.
She had no renters insurance. “Obviously I’m thinking about it right now. Wish I could have it,” she said.
Dawson plans to return to Arizona, her former home, and regroup. But she may not return to Altadena.
___ Don reported from Sunnyvale, California. Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Associated Press deputy director Kim Johnson in Chicago and data reporter Angeliki Castanis in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
