Black families were disproportionately affected by the Eaton Fire, UCLA report finds

Of the households owned or rented by Black families in the Eaton Fire zone, nearly half were destroyed or majorly damaged compared to 37% of non-Black households, according to a new UCLA report.

And since only 18% of Altadena’s roughly 42,700 residents are Black, that makes the impact disproportionate on an already dwindling Black community there, said Lorrie Frasure, director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and one of the authors of the report.

“ The legacies of redlining and racial discrimination led to the concentration of Black families in West Altadena, and that had devastating impacts when a natural disaster such as the Eaton Fire happened,” she said. “ We want to make sure that through data, we can speak to recovery efforts, that the process should acknowledge the historical legacy.”

(It’s important to note that the findings are based on preliminary damage assessments by CalFire and may change.)

Redlining’s role in disproportionate fire impact

Racist housing laws in the early 20th century denied people of color and other underrepresented communities financial support, such as mortgages, to buy homes in certain areas — a practice called redlining. It’s why, until the 1960s, Altadena was almost entirely white.

Those discriminatory practices, plus more affordable housing prices, led to many Black families moving to west Altadena, where they could buy homes and build generational wealth.

Since then, rising costs have pushed some of the largely middle-class Black community out: the population is now at about 18%, down from 43% in 1980, according to census data.

That legacy of redlining resulted in 61% of Black households in Altadena being concentrated within the Eaton Fire perimeter, compared to 50% of non-Black households, according to the UCLA report.

“The GIS mapping technology allows us to show, starkly, how the legacies of redlining and discrimination impacts Altadena, particularly when the Eaton fire hit,” Frasure said.

An aging population and rising housing costs

Furthermore, the report found that most of the affected homeowners were 65 years or older, which could further jeopardize rebuilding efforts, Frasure said.

 ”If you’re an aging population, you worry about some of the barriers to being able to rebuild and restore your community back to the way it was before,” she said.

Most Black homeowners in Altadena are over the age of 65.

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Courtesy UCLA Bunche Center

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Older community members may be less likely to rebuild due to being underinsured, on fixed incomes and facing health issues that may further complicate their ability or desire to rebuild.

The report found that among Altadena Black homeowners, 45% spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, compared to 32% of non-Black homeowners in the area.

“These disparities highlight the disproportionate financial challenges faced by Black homeowners in the area,” the report states.

Concerns about “climate gentrification”

Many homeowners in the area are reporting they’re already getting calls from developers to sell their destroyed or damaged properties, further raising concerns about what’s been dubbed by some researchers as “climate gentrification,” when increasingly extreme natural disasters accelerate the displacement of communities already happening due to rising costs.

For example, a study found that after Hurricane Katrina, damaged neighborhoods were more likely to gentrify. Ten years after the 2005 storm, there were more white residents and 100,000 fewer Black residents in New Orleans, and housing prices nearly doubled in some of the most flooded areas, NPR reported.

Amari Jackson and Terri Lyday of Altadena. Jackson is a lifelong resident and his family owns multiple properties in the area.

Studies have found that disasters tend to worsen inequality over time, and the increasing severity of these disasters driven by fossil fuel pollution is likely to continue that trend without strong policy interventions.

Targeted financial support and how to help

All of that is one reason why GoFundMes have popped up to specifically support the Altadena Black community and other communities of color affected by the Eaton Fire. While the generosity of people giving physical donations has been immense, many folks need plain money, as LAist has previously reported.

That’s why AfroPunk writers Cierra Black and Leslie Vargas started a list of GoFundMes for displaced Black families, which also links to GoFundMe lists for impacted Latino families, Filipino families, and people with disabilities.

A list of GoFundMes curated by concerned citizens.

James Bryant, a partner at the Cochran Firm in L.A., along with several other Black lawyers in the region, started a GoFundMe as well to provide direct support to affected Black families. So far, Bryant said they’ve given out around $1,000 to about 100 families affected by the Eaton Fire.

“FEMA was only like 700 something dollars, and a lot of people were either getting denied, or people were committing fraud and using their names and causing delays in FEMA funding,” Bryant said.

So far, he added,most of the assistance has been spread through word of mouth.

“The community is so small, everybody knows each other,” he said.

The fund started by James Bryant and colleagues as of Jan. 31, 2025.

For Bryant, it’s also personal — a close relative he called his stepdad lost his home during the 2023 fires in Lahaina, Hawaii. There, Bryant witnessed firsthand the predatory practices of developers in the aftermath. He also saw financial donations for local families dry up fairly quickly after the flames died down.

“I  didn’t want that to happen in L.A.,” Bryant said. “As we continue to raise more money, we’ll help out more families, but the key is trying to create and formulate real partnerships to help these people continue to keep their homes. The reality is it’s going to be an uphill battle, and they’re going to need some assistance, or they’re going to have to leave.”

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