Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Altadena Renters Can Apply for $36,000 in Fire Recovery Cash Starting May 11

Tenant-led program offers two years of unrestricted monthly payments; only 30 Altadena households can be funded now

More than 15 months after the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena, a new privately organized cash assistance program is offering something most fire-relief efforts have not reached: unrestricted monthly payments to displaced renters and tenants, sustained for two years.

The program — called Direct Cash for Altadena Fire Recovery, and led by the Altadena Tenants Union, the Altadena Community Land Trust, and the National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles — will provide $36,000 to each of 30 income-eligible renter households selected by lottery, according to the groups’ announcement.

Applications open May 11 and close May 25. The organizing groups say they have assembled $1.5 million in funding and intend to expand to at least 300 families as additional funding is secured.

Each selected household will receive $2,000 per month for the first six months, $1,500 per month for the following 12 months, and $1,000 per month for the final six months. The payments carry no restrictions — recipients may spend them on any need they determine.

“We want to be very transparent that as of today, the $1.5M we have assembled can only support 30 families,” the Altadena Tenants Union wrote in the program announcement. “We’re working on it.”

To be eligible, an applicant must have been a renter or tenant in Altadena on or before January 7, 2025 — the evening the Eaton Fire began — and must currently reside in Los Angeles, Riverside, or San Bernardino County. Formal leases are not required; proof of residency is sufficient. Applicants must be the primary financial supporter of a household caring for dependents of any age, with combined household income at or below the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s low-income threshold for their county. Those currently enrolled in another guaranteed income program are not eligible.

The program is targeting renters who, according to the organizing groups, have been navigating a recovery built largely around homeowners. According to data published on the NCJWLA program page, 91 percent of Altadena renters were uninsured or substantially underinsured before the fire, and the median household income for tenant households was approximately $73,000 — about half the $150,000 median for Altadena homeowner households. The Eaton Fire destroyed 41 percent of all Altadena properties with rental units, according to a February 2026 report by Governing magazine.

Katie Clark, who founded the Altadena Tenants Union and lost her own Altadena apartment — the one she had lived in for 16 years — in the fire, has said that most displaced renters who lost their homes have since moved five or more times, according to Governing.

In-person information sessions will be held in Altadena on Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. and Wednesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at yet to be announced locations. Virtual sessions will also be available. All sessions will be offered in English and Spanish. For eligibility details, application information, and session location updates, visit altadenatenantsunion.org or ncjwla.org.