Friday, May 29, 2026

SGV Habitat for Humanity Honored for Altadena Rebuilding as Nonprofit Reaches 10-Home Milestone

The Monrovia-based nonprofit has completed or started construction on 10 homes since the Eaton Fire, with 25 funded and 100 targeted

San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity has completed or begun construction on 10 homes in Altadena’s Eaton Fire burn scar, a rebuilding pace that earned the nonprofit a 2026 Nonprofit of the Year honor from Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena) on May 20 in Sacramento.

The recognition, presented at a luncheon hosted by CalNonprofits on California Nonprofits Day, came 16 months after the January 7, 2025 fire destroyed more than 9,000 buildings in Altadena. SGV Habitat has committed to rebuild at least 25 homes with $4.55 million in grant funding from the Altadena Builds Back Foundation and aims to build 100 or more in the coming years, according to the organization’s website. More than 800 families have contacted the nonprofit about rebuilding, according to SGV Habitat.

The organization completed its first post-fire home on March 27, 2026, a residence on East Pine Street built for Kenneth and Carol Wood, an Altadena couple in their 80s who had lived in the community for more than 40 years before losing their home, according to NBC Los Angeles. The project took approximately five months and drew 1,626 volunteers, according to United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Nine additional homes were under construction as of the ribbon-cutting, according to ABC7.

“Habitat has been so wonderful to give us hope beyond what we even dared to imagine could happen,” Carol Wood said at the March ceremony, according to United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

Harabedian’s press release stated that SGV Habitat “immediately jumped into action” after the fire. The organization was the first to receive a rebuilding permit in Altadena, according to ABC7.

“At a time when families were facing unimaginable loss and uncertainty, Habitat showed up with compassion, urgency, and action,” Harabedian said in the press release.

The California Nonprofit of the Year program, sponsored by CalNonprofits in partnership with the state Assembly and Senate Select Committees on the Nonprofit Sector, has honored more than 1,000 organizations since 2015, according to CalNonprofits. Each legislator selects one nonprofit from their district.

SGV Habitat, founded in 1990, operates a ReStore at 32 N. Sierra Madre Blvd. in Pasadena that has provided affordable furniture and materials to fire survivors, according to Harabedian’s press release. Harabedian’s district office is at 257 S. Fair Oaks Ave. in Pasadena.

“The community has lost over 4,400 single family residences, and we are going to do our absolute best to bring back as many families as we can,” Bryan Wong, CEO of SGV Habitat, said at the October 2025 groundbreaking, according to the Pasadena Community Foundation.