Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivors Face ‘Imminent Housing Crisis’ as Insurance Coverage Expires

Joy Chen, co-founder of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, addresses fire survivors at Monday’s event. July 7, 2025. [Eddie Rivera / Pasadena Now]

THERESE EDU

One year after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena and Pasadena, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 19 people, Joy Chen says most survivors are running out of time.

“We have an imminent housing crisis happening that’s underway,” said Chen, Executive Director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, a coalition she describes as representing over 10,000 survivors and allies. Chen, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor, said more than 70 percent of Eaton Fire survivors remain displaced, and insurance housing coverage is expiring in the coming months.

On Wednesday, January 7, the network intends to hold survivor-led press conference at The Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury Road in Altadena, to mark the anniversary and press demands for housing relief from insurers, Southern California Edison, and the federal government.

Chen said these three sources owe survivors “tens of billions of dollars each.” She cited research showing only 38 percent of homes destroyed in five major California fires between 2017 and 2020 have been rebuilt eight years later.

“It’s not that families are failing at recovery,” Chen said. “It’s that recovery is failing families.”

According to Chen, many families have drained their retirement savings, maxed out their credit cards, and are taking on crushing debt.

She described a “K-shaped recovery” in which those who had wealth before the fire will likely recover, “but everybody else will end up in a much, much worse position.”

Chen identified Edison as “the utility that caused the fire” and alleged the company has been slow to compensate survivors. The official cause of the Eaton Fire remains under investigation, and the California Public Utilities Commission has not issued a final causation determination. Los Angeles County has filed a lawsuit against Edison alleging negligence and seeking recovery for fire damages.

Chen said the survivors’ network has already helped move over $100 million in insurance payouts to families, but that the challenge remains money on a scale that philanthropy cannot replace.

“We’ve come together as a community, we’ve created connection, we started to unlock the insurance payouts that are owed to us, but the challenge right now in this recovery is money,” Chen said.

According to Chen, recovery after California wildfires depends on three factors: pre-fire wealth, timely insurance payouts, and utility compensation if a utility is at fault. She stated that families with “$3 or $4 million lying around” can rebuild, but others need insurance payouts or utility compensation.

“And we hope that Edison will step up to a historic responsibility here and do what every other California investor-owned utility has done and provide advances for the urgent housing relief,” Chen said.

The press conference on Wednesday is scheduled to include Rose Robinson, daughter of Mack Robinson and niece of Jackie Robinson, alongside housing-insecure survivors, according to Chen. Additional dignitaries are also expected to attend, Chen said.

Over 200 nonprofits are working on the recovery, Chen said, but she emphasized that philanthropy operates in the hundreds of millions and cannot replace the obligations of insurance companies, Edison, or the federal government.

One year after the fire, Chen said, the question is who will be able to recover.

“Right now, Los Angeles is at that crossroads,” she said.