Brandon Lamar, NAACP Pasadena Branch President, and José Madura, Pasadena Job Center Director Jose Madera, seen prior to departure Tuesday morning. [Courtesy photos]

More than 100 residents and advocates make two-day trip seeking $25 million for CARE Fund

More than 100 Eaton Fire survivors, residents, workers and community advocates headed to Sacramento Tuesday for a two-day campaign urging state leaders to provide $25 million for a recovery fund aimed at helping displaced Altadena residents return and rebuild.

Before boarding buses at the Pasadena Community Job Center Tuesday morning, survivors and leaders of the Dena Rise Up Coalition held a press conference outlining their demands and describing the financial and housing pressures still facing residents more than a year and a half after the January 2025 fire.

The coalition is seeking $25 million for the proposed Community Aid for Rebuilding Equity, or CARE, Fund, which would provide rebuilding-gap assistance for lower-income homeowners and help preserve and expand affordable housing for renters and working families.

“Recovery cannot be measured by promises. It must be measured by whether families can come home,” coalition spokesperson Florence Annang said. “The CARE Fund is a community-driven solution designed to help working families, renters, seniors, and homeowners rebuild their lives and remain in the communities they helped build.”

Eaton Fire survivor Mary Peterson sharply criticized Southern California Edison and state leaders during the Pasadena press conference.

“SoCal Edison has the nerve to come out and try to protect their shareholders and their profits over our losses,” Peterson said. “What kind of company, what kind of governor represents Wall Street over Eaton Fire survivors?”

Brandon Lamar focused on renters and working families who could be permanently displaced from Altadena.

“We cannot continue to make sure that politics reign over making sure renters have a place to go,” Lamar said. “The CARE Fund is actually allowing people to come back home. It’s creating affordable housing for those who are renters and working-class families.”

The delegation was still en route to Sacramento Tuesday afternoon. Its buses are scheduled to arrive at a West Sacramento hotel between 4 and 4:30 p.m., followed by an evening organizing session in which participants will meet their lobbying teams and prepare for Wednesday’s advocacy.

Wednesday’s schedule begins with a 9 a.m. press conference outside the Governor’s Mansion, followed by a protest with day laborers and a march through downtown Sacramento to the Capitol Swing Space. The planned route includes stops at the state Attorney General’s Office and Legislative Office Building.

After clearing security, participants are scheduled to gather for lunch and lobbying-group meetings before spending three hours, from noon to 3 p.m., meeting with California legislators or their staffs.

The delegation also plans to raise concerns over insurance coverage for toxin testing.

“We need the insurance company to pay for everything that has to do with toxins testing,” an unidentified Eaton Fire survivor traveling with the group said.

The buses are scheduled to leave the Capitol at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and return to Pasadena at about 10 p.m.

Eaton Fire Senior Summit Organizing Committee members. [From courtesy images]

Community Women Vital Voices and BMO Bank present the summit under the title “Rebuilding with Confidence.” The organizers describe it as a community forum for seniors, families and community leaders.

Three subjects are on the program. They are contractors and rebuilding, insurance claims, and consumer protection and fraud prevention.

Community Women Vital Voices is a Pasadena-based nonprofit led by Lena Louise Kennedy. The organization says it works with Black women, families and seniors across Pasadena and Altadena. It works to carry forward the legacy of Councilmember John J. Kennedy.

The group says its fire recovery work has included earlier senior summits and the distribution of resource guides. It also says it organized a public forum with Southern California Edison to press for compensation for fire victims.

More events follow this fall. A State of the Black Community forum is set for Sept. 26 at First AME Church, 1700 N. Raymond Ave. The SoCal Women’s Conference and a forum called Man Cave are both scheduled for Oct. 16. A second annual Eaton fire community event is set for Jan. 7, 2027.

Attendance is by advance reply through a form posted at https://www.communitywomenvv.com/. The organization can be reached at (626) 314-3005 or lenaperspective@gmail.com. The nonprofit lists a mailing address at P.O. Box 40371, Pasadena, CA 91114.

County undergrounding aid, if approved, wouldn’t reach Altadena until late 2027 — and wouldn’t cover work already done

Los Angeles County’s plan to help Altadena homeowners pay to underground their utility connections has not been funded, would not pay out until late 2027 and would not reimburse work already completed, a county official told the Altadena Town Council on Tuesday.

Ciara Barnett, an assistant deputy director with county Public Works who said she is serving in a new role with the county’s Rebuild Authority, told the council that Public Works and the Rebuild Authority filed an application in March 2026 for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money that would offset private-property undergrounding costs for fire survivors.

The county is working with Cal OES to secure the funding from FEMA, she said. The application has been received and deemed eligible, but a decision is not expected until the end of 2027.

“The funding is not secured,” Barnett said.

If awarded, the grant would offset 75% of the cost, based on a county estimate of about $24,500 per property for 100 linear feet on a typical lot, she said, adding that the estimate also factors in standing homes. The money would be paid as a rebate but would not be retroactive.

Barnett acknowledged the timing. The schedule, she said, “is going to be too late for some homes that are in construction now and completing construction,” because a rebate program would not cover them.

Council Member Morgan Whirledge, who chairs the council’s Rebuilding and Infrastructure Committee, pressed her on how many households that would exclude.

“So I think by the county’s own numbers, over half have submitted for permits currently,” Whirledge said. “So assuming that that funding doesn’t come until the end of 2027, then it just seems like that’s far too little too late for most, right?”

“It’s an important decision point,” Barnett replied.

Council Member Connor Chipola asked Barnett to state the terms plainly.

“It’ll be a rebate program, not retroactive,” Barnett answered.

Asked by Council Member Justin Moramos to explain why the money could not be applied retroactively, Barnett said only that it was a function of how the grant program is structured.

Insurance would also determine eligibility. Barnett said qualifying homes would include insured properties already eligible for insurance claims, and that underinsured homeowners may be eligible if they can produce documentation supporting that position. But if insurance covers the connection, she said, the property would not be eligible for the program.

“I think especially for standing homes, that battle is just very, very difficult for residents,” Whirledge said.

The county’s $24,500 estimate is below what residents say they are being quoted. Whirledge said homeowners have received estimates of between $30,000 and $40,000, and that Southern California Edison asked the California Public Utilities Commission for the ability to include the cost in its capital expenditures only up to what he believed was about $6,000.

“It’s just hard to understand how a project can be taken to a significant level of completion, but then left to the residents to bear the burden of the final cost of completion,” Whirledge said.

No alternative funding source was identified during the presentation.

Asked by Whirledge whether other money was being pursued, or whether the cost could be folded into a tax increment financing district, Barnett said Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office wrote to Edison in June and that Edison’s response letter referenced CPUC funding.

Vice Chair Milissa Marona said federal money already promised to the county has yet to arrive.

“It would be nice if we could get that FEMA money that was already promised to the county, looking at you, Washington, D.C., for that money,” Marona said. “We still are waiting. Our people still are hurting and we need that money and we need it quickly.”

She invited President Trump to come to Altadena and see what is there and what residents are doing and enduring.

Marona, who said she has worked closely with the CPUC, also said Edison maintains its own standards for transformers while Malibu is receiving underground vaults, and asked whether the council could write to the commission on its own. Barnett said she would welcome working together on it and with the council’s rebuilding and infrastructure committee.

Barnett said the Rebuild Authority was newly established within Public Works by the Board of Supervisors to coordinate recovery after the Eaton and Palisades fires and is not another permitting agency. Its role, she said, is to bring together county departments, utilities, state and federal partners and residents rebuilding private property, and to push Edison for better information, proactive communication, advance notice and compliance with county requirements, including protections for trees in the public right of way.

Utilities are regulated by the state through the CPUC, she said, while the county’s role is permitting work within the public road right of way and ensuring it meets county requirements, alongside what she described as a responsibility to advocate for the community.

She said Public Works is modifying its permit conditions to require 30 days’ advance notice so residents can review planned work before construction begins. Edison is rebuilding 63 miles of line within Altadena, she said, and AT&T now has an agreement covering 40 miles in the very high fire hazard severity zone.

Asked by Whirledge whether utilities would trench the same streets more than once, Barnett said the work does not require full road closures and that microtrenching moves quickly. Coordination is complicated by the pace of private rebuilding, she said, noting that more than 50% of some streets now have active permits and pointing residents to a new parcel map on the county’s recovery dashboard.

Chipola asked whether the county has authority to require joint trenching. Barnett said a single shared trench is not always practical because electric and telecommunications infrastructure use different construction methods and depths, and that the county’s role is sequencing the work so neighbors are not disturbed more than once.

Council Member Dorothy Wong asked how water lines and street reconditioning fit in. Barnett said underground work must be completed before roads are rebuilt, and that the county is developing an infrastructure recovery plan identifying public projects and a framework for prioritizing them.

Whirledge also asked whether the Rebuild Authority includes a seat for a community member from the affected area. Barnett did not identify one, saying the authority’s purpose is to convene the parties and subject matter experts and that she looked forward to working with council members and committees.

Council Chair Nic Arnzen said he has been looking for precedents and pointed to Paradise, California. After PG&E admitted fault there, Arnzen said, Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder told him the utility helped with road repair and covered the cost of running service from the street across private property to the home. A letter to the CPUC succeeded in compelling undergrounding there to include telecommunications providers, Arnzen said, producing what he called a “one dig” in which the full town went underground.

“So a precedent is set that a disaster stricken area can push for that,” Arnzen said. He asked Barnett whether the county has compelled the CPUC at all or only held discussions, and said the Altadena council could take a lead on the effort. He said he has raised the approach with the council but has not taken it to the county.

“We can coordinate, we can advocate, but we can’t control their overall undergrounding investment decisions or their program boundaries,” Barnett answered, saying the undergrounding program is ultimately part of the utility system and regulated at the state level.

Lake Avenue in Altadena, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. [Eddie Rivera / Pasadena Now]

The pop-ups are run by the county Department of Economic Opportunity and its America’s Job Centers of California for workers and job seekers affected by the January 2025 wildfires and windstorms. They run at all 18 county job centers.

Services are free for wildfire-affected youth and adults 14 and older. They include career planning, job-readiness support, job training, paid work experience and direct connections to employers hiring.

“These Fire Recovery Thursday pop-ups can be a lifeline,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said of the program.

The Altadena center is operated by Managed Career Solutions. Other locations are listed at https://www.ajcc.lacounty.gov/ajcc, or by calling (888) 226-6300.

The Altadena Library District has canceled both of its Curiosity Connection mobile library stops for Thursday, Aug. 20.

The morning stop at Altadena Triangle Park, 800 E. Altadena Drive, set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the afternoon stop at Prime Pizza, set for 2:30 to 5 p.m., are both off.

Thursday is the final day of a National Weather Service heat advisory covering the San Gabriel Valley, which expires at 8 p.m. Highs of 95 to 105 degrees are forecast across the valleys, 4 to 8 degrees above normal.

Two Altadena Library programs remain scheduled Thursday: English as a Second Language classes from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Center, 2659 Lincoln Ave., and free notary service from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory.

The bookmobile returns to both stops Thursday, Aug. 27.

[photo credit:
The Eaton Fire Collaborative]

The Small Business Administration’s Disaster Loan Outreach Center at the Eaton Fire Collaborative, 540 W. Woodbury Road, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The filing deadline for this disaster has passed, and the center is focused on survivors who have already applied and need help completing an application or moving it forward. New applications may be accepted case by case in extraordinary circumstances.

That distinction matters for anyone who has not yet filed. The center is not an intake site for new claims, and residents in that position would be relying on an exception rather than the ordinary process.

The agency’s disaster assistance covers homeowners, renters, nonprofits and businesses of all sizes affected by the January 2025 wildfires and windstorms, through home disaster loans, business physical disaster loans and economic injury disaster loans. The fires and straight-line winds ran from Jan. 7 to Jan. 31, 2025.

Walk-ins are accepted at the center, but appointments can be booked in advance at https://appointment.sba.gov. The agency’s customer service center can be reached at 800-659-2955 or disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. People who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech disability can dial 7-1-1 for telecommunications relay services.

At the same site, the Altadena Library District offers free notary service from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The service is for adults 19 and older. Appointments are recommended and walk-ins are welcome, and appointments can be made at (626) 798-0833, extension 118. Details are posted at https://www.altadenalibrary.org/notary.

The county lists recovery services for workers and businesses at https://opportunity.lacounty.gov/how-we-help/emergency-resources/.

A sign at a booth presents one side of the Democrats’ conflict about taxing wealthy people. The booth was at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026. Photo by Jeff Chiu, AP Photo

When a professional political operative describes an election as “nationalized,” it means the outcome could have consequences far beyond the locality in which it occurs and therefore is drawing outside attention and resources.

This year’s congressional elections in California are a prime example, with two distinct and unusual aspects.

First and most obviously, Democrats are hoping to gain as many as five California seats in the House of Representatives due to a partisan gerrymander of the state’s 52 districts last year. Thus the outcome in California could determine whether their party regains control of the House, where Republicans now hold a paper-thin majority.

Meanwhile, outside the five districts that Democrats hope to switch, there are safely Democratic districts where progressive candidates are jousting with mainstream rivals, a subset of the national party’s ideological conflict.

One example is the duel between progressive state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, president of the Bay Area Regional Transit board, over the east Bay Area congressional seat Eric Swalwell held until resigning amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Another is in San Francisco, where state Sen. Scott Wiener faces San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan for the seat that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is vacating. While both are self-proclaimed progressives, there are specific issues dividing them, such as housing. Wiener has long championed making housing easier to build, but in San Francisco resisting development is a bedrock cause for those on the city’s left.

There’s another conflict on California’s November ballot that’s become nationalized: Proposition 40, which would impose a 5% tax on the wealth of California’s roughly 200 billionaires. Once again, it’s on two distinct levels.

First, it tests a concept of taxation that, if enacted, could spread to other states or even become a national issue. It has drawn attention in national political media and from national political figures, such as progressive icon Bernie Sanders.

Secondly, Prop. 40 has divided California Democrats and their political allies, somewhat mirroring the party’s aforementioned national conflict.

Attacking the wealthy is a long-held tenet of left-leaning politics. In California, progressive politicians see Prop. 40 as an embodiment of that attitude. However, not-so-progressive Democrats — such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra, Newsom’s almost-certain successor — are concerned about driving high-income taxpayers out of the state and undermining the state budget.

The state’s unions are also divided. While Prop. 40 is sponsored by SEIU-UHW, a union of healthcare workers — and it would direct most of its new revenue to healthcare programs — the California Teachers Association and other influential unions are opposed because of that financial slant.

Prop. 40 joins three other California ballot measures in the last half-century that became nationalized: Proposition 13, the state’s iconic tax limits adopted in 1978, sparked a national tax revolt; Proposition 187, passed in 1994, would have denied public services to undocumented immigrants had it not been overturned in the courts — it foretold an immigration policy debate that continues to rage — and Proposition 209, approved in 1996, prohibited affirmative action preferences by race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in college admissions, public employment and public contracting.

Were it to pass, Prop. 40 could also reverberate nationally, but its approval remains uncertain as the 2026 campaign season narrows. Mail voting will begin in just seven weeks.

Seemingly countless millions of dollars are being spent on the measure, particularly by its wealthy opponents. And the latest poll, conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, found 48% of likely voters support it, 41% oppose it and 11% are undecided.

That translates into a maybe — maybe a win, maybe a loss and maybe a national impact.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

A coalition of Eaton Fire survivors is scheduled to hold a news conference and bus send-off at the Pasadena Community Job Center on Tuesday morning before traveling to Sacramento to press state leaders for $25 million for a proposed rebuilding fund.

The Dena Rise Up Coalition said in an announcement released Monday that more than 100 survivors, residents, workers, faith leaders and community advocates would make the trip. The send-off is set for 9 a.m. at 500 N. Lake Ave.

The coalition is seeking the money for the proposed Community Aid for Rebuilding Equity Fund, known as the CARE Fund. The coalition says the fund would provide rebuilding assistance for lower-income homeowners and preserve affordable housing opportunities for displaced renters and working families.

“Recovery cannot be measured by promises. It must be measured by whether families can come home,” said Florence Annang, a coalition spokesperson.

Five fire survivors are expected to speak at the Pasadena event, along with Heavenly Hughes, executive director of My Tribe Rise, and Vlad Carrasco, climate justice director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, according to the coalition’s announcement.

The Eaton Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, at 6:18 p.m. near Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive and burned 14,021 acres before it was fully contained, according to CAL FIRE. The agency’s incident record lists 9,419 structures destroyed, 1,076 damaged and 19 civilian deaths.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a separate proposal on May 14 for a $100 million disaster rebuilding fund as part of his revised 2026-27 budget. A state fact sheet described the proposed fund as helping homeowners secure construction loans, gain access to low-interest loans and reduce borrowing costs when insurance and other aid fall short.

A second news conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday at Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park, 1526 H St., Sacramento, with arrival and media check-in at 8:30 a.m. and departure for advocacy at the state Capitol at 9:30 a.m. Coalition members plan meetings with state legislators and administration officials.

The coalition identifies its participants as My Tribe Rise, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Eaton Fire Collaborative, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, End Child Poverty CA, Catalyst CA, the Pasadena Community Job Center, POP, LA Voice, the NAACP Pasadena Branch, EFRU, the Black Power Network and Altadena Rising.

Laker great A.C. Green [From photo by Gage Skidmore]

HPP Cares says the family’s insurance had lapsed before the January 2025 fire, leaving them without coverage

An Altadena couple who lost their Taos Road home of more than five decades during the Eaton Fire are scheduled to break ground on a rebuilt house Tuesday, August 18, according to HPP Cares, the nonprofit housing counseling agency supporting the project.

HPP Cares announced the ceremony for 10:00 a.m. and said former Los Angeles Lakers forward A.C. Green will attend. Green played key roles in three NBA championships with the Lakers, in 1987, 1988 and 2000.

Emmanuel and Emma Alvarado have been married 65 years and raised five children in the Altadena house, according to the organization. HPP Cares said the couple married at 19 and 20, and that their family now includes grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The organization said the Alvarados’ insurance policy had been canceled before the fire over a roofing repair they were saving to complete, leaving them without coverage when the house burned. HPP Cares said it helped close the resulting financial gap.

HPP Cares also said that after the fire, Emmanuel Alvarado played “You Are My Sunshine” for his wife on guitar, and described the moment as one that drew national attention.

“Every family deserves the chance to come home again,” Katherine Peoples of HPP Cares said in a statement. “This moment is about more than one family — it’s a symbol of hope for the many Altadena residents still working to rebuild their lives.”

Green said in a statement that rebuilding a home involves more than construction materials, describing it as a matter of restoring hope, dignity and belonging.

HPP Cares, a HUD-approved nonprofit housing counseling agency, operates The ReBuild Center and marked a similar Altadena groundbreaking in June for Linda and Gary Zeigler. The Eaton Fire destroyed 9,414 structures and killed 19 people in January 2025.

Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses the media during a press conference unveiling his revised 2026-27 budget proposal at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento on May 14, 2026. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

The state budget is an obvious source for anyone interested in how California finances its programs.

However the budget, including the latest version enacted in June, is only a rough outline, a collection of suppositions and guesses, some educated, others politically motivated.

An obvious example is what happened four years ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom declared that California had a $97.5 billion surplus, bragging “no other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.”

That number never appeared in the budget, but legislators immediately pumped up spending. The surplus turned out to be a mirage based on what officials later acknowledged was a $165 billion error in revenue estimates.

However, the spending increases were already in effect, leading to chronic, multibillion-dollar deficits ever since. Moreover, one piece of increased spending, the extension of health care coverage to undocumented immigrants, cost $6.2 billion more than assumed in the budget, resulting in cutbacks of coverage.

While the budget itself is an imprecise source of financial information, its addenda provide troves of useful data for those savvy enough to find them. They reveal such statistics as how many employee positions the state has (482,088), a list of the state’s outstanding bond debts ($73 billion) and how much the state collects from dozens of specific taxes and fees ($328.4 billion).

One particularly interesting chart provides details on revenues and spending year-by-year, dating back to 1975. It reveals that income, outgo and the size of the state payroll remained stable relative to the growth in California’s population and personal income, until Newsom became governor in 2019.

Since then, the state has added about 100,000 positions to its payroll, increasing it by one-third, relative to population. State general fund spending rose from 7.9% of total personal income in 2019-20 to 9.58% in 2023-24, the highest ever recorded since 1975. It now stands at 9.42%.

Those numbers are why Newsom will be leaving his successor a very unbalanced budget — no matter what he claims. In fact, one addendum projects shortfalls lasting through the next governor’s first term, even if general fund spending remains virtually static, which it will not.

Those seeking an even deeper understanding of the state government’s financial position have another source: The 372-page “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report” that the state controller’s office files with the federal government. Its numbers are rock solid because they have to be and are backed up by audits.

State Controller Malia Cohen issued the 2024-25 report in May, two months after the federal government’s deadline — but that was an accomplishment. The state hadn’t issued a timely report since 2018 because it was struggling with a new financial reporting tool, the Financial Information System of California, dubbed FI$Cal, that was years overdue, many millions of dollars over budget and incapable of generating accurate data.

The financial report covers a much broader array of state agencies (201) and programs than the budget, and therefore a much larger financial spread: $595.5 billion in revenue and $582.5 in spending — 66% larger than the $351.7 billion current state budget.

Among its revelations is that the state has $176.5 billion in unfunded liabilities for state employee pensions and retiree benefits, primarily healthcare. The report also contains detailed data about taxable sales, personal income and other economic sectors from which the state derives income.

One chart is especially timely, given the current debate over Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a tax on the wealth of California’s approximately 200 billionaires. Opponents of the wealth tax argue it could impel one-percenters to leave the state if it passes.

A chart on page 322 hints at the ramifications, supporting the oft-quoted assertion that California’s top 1% of taxpayers by income — about 175,000 people — generate nearly half its income tax revenues.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.