Los Angeles County has faced devastating fires, erasing homes and livelihoods across various demographics. Despite this devastation, recovery efforts reveal pervasive inequalities rooted in class and race, especially affecting impacted areas like Altadena, highlighted by a recent UCLA study. While wealthier individuals may navigate recovery with relative ease, many low-income families face barriers that may permanently hinder their recovery. Concerningly, as many as 35,000 low-income jobs held by people of color could be lost due to the fires. Despite these challenges, local organizers are mobilizing to combat exploitation and foster equitable recovery efforts.
These social filtering mechanisms arise in various guises: a flooded rental market ripe for price gouging, the unaffordability of legal representation for claimants to press for insurance payouts, and the risky deals on offer from speculators who have descended to cajole residents into selling burned lots for cheap.
The effects of historical redlining created the Altadena neighborhood, with a population 58 percent people of color. It subsequently thrived - but now, a UCLA study found, its older Black homeowners have been disproportionately harmed by the Eaton Fire.
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