"Via de Las Olas was once a scenic drive in Pacific Palisades, perched above Will Rogers State Beach, offering sweeping views of ocean and sky. Now it resembles an archaeological site of its former self. "There were beautiful homes here, people would walk with their dogs in the morning when I would get here," said Amalia Atayde, recalling as she gazed at the street. "I would park and stand here and watch the ocean. It was beautiful.""
"She said two of the homes she once cleaned were destroyed in the fire. A third house, an Airbnb rental, is still standing. But with tourism down, there's been very little work. That's left her unable to pay her monthly $1,500 rent, forcing her to surrender her room at the apartment she shares with her brother. 'I'm sleeping in the living room,' she said. 'The owner of the Airbnb rental lets me stay twice a week in the back guesthouse.'"
Via de Las Olas and adjacent neighborhoods were heavily damaged by a wind-driven Palisades fire, leaving charred trees, excavators and cracked foundations where multimillion-dollar homes once stood. The January blaze killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of buildings, uprooting families and eliminating jobs for hundreds of general contractors, gardeners, pool cleaners and housekeepers. Dozens of displaced service workers now wait at the Malibu Community Labor Exchange hoping for work to pay for groceries, rent and bills. Many homes cleaned by housekeepers were destroyed, tourism dropped, and workers face eviction, shared-housing loss, deportation fears and return migration.
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