By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Contributing Columnist
I can’t begin to describe the exhilarating surge of relief and joy I felt when I stood in front of a family member’s home in West Altadena three days after the Easton fire ravaged the neighborhood.
Her home was one of only three homes that stood intact on her block. I spent many hours over the years in her home at family gatherings, events, celebrations and visits.
The area is more than just a neighborhood. It’s part of what has been fondly dubbed, Black Altadena. The area is a long-standing historic mix of homes, businesses, churches and community centers that have long served Blacks.
Black Altadena became Black decades ago when Blacks were totally excluded from home purchases in many sections of Pasadena. West Altadena became their landing place.
As I stood in front of my relative’s home, the exhilarating joy quickly gave way to pain and sorrow as I looked up and down the block. It looked like a scene from Dresden, Germany, in 1945 after the allies totally decimated entire swatches of the city.
It was an apocalyptic view by any measure. I grieved for the dozens of families whose well-kept homes were now nothing but cinder and rubble.
The cry went up almost immediately after the fires were doused — Rebuild Black Altadena. Yes, rebuild and rebuild quick, fast, in a hurry and perhaps even better.
However, I also realized that it was going take far more than a cry and a dream to make that happen. The obstacles to a fast repair, rebuild and reconstruction effort are formidable.
One obvious obstacle is the insurance companies. It will take time, negotiation and almost certainly formal complaints and lawsuits, to ensure that the insurers cough up in a fair, equitable and timely basis the funds needed for repair and rebuilding.
Those homes insured by the California FAIR plan, which is the state agency tasked with insuring those denied coverage by private insurers, have a rigid ceiling of $3 million in total coverage. Even here there are limitations in the coverage.
The next obstacle is Los Angeles County. Its job is to lobby state and federal agencies for massive clean up and clearance funding needed to maintain and increase police, fire and emergency services as well as clean-up funds for the area.
Then there is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Its mandate is to provide the tens of millions required for disaster recovery. On the surface, that seems to be an easy decision that the agency will ensure equitable and fair dispersal of the requisite funds to all disaster victims.
That’s hardly been the case. FEMA has been the target of legions of complaints, lawsuits and hearings. The charge is that FEMA has often been anything but even handed when it comes to disaster relief.
FEMA was roundly assailed for providing tens of millions less in relief aid to mostly Black areas of New Orleans devastated by the Katrina Hurricane in 2011. In just about every other disaster such as floods, tornadoes and fires where Blacks have suffered catastrophic losses, FEMA has been hammered for providing far less funding in aid to the Black victims.
Another example is the tornado that wiped out dozens of homes in a majority-black Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 2022. Hundreds remained displaced months after the tornado and many had no access to internet or insurance coverage. FEMA did not provide adequate funds to aid the victims,
One problem that almost certainly will arise in dispensing aid to homeowners in Pacific Palisades versus West Altadena is property assessment. Relief estimates are based on property values and the area. It takes little imagination to figure that there will be vastly more funding for Palisades than West Altadena if that is the criteria.
This has consequences that go far beyond simply the repair and rebuilding of a damaged home. It further widens the racial wealth inequality gap.
A 2018 study by Rice University sociologists and the University of Pittsburgh examined counties that were hit by natural disasters. They found that even when the hazard damage was equal Black survivors’ wealth decreased by an average $27,000 while white survivors’ average wealth increased $126,000.
The deafening outcry over FEMA’s often racial blinders on disaster aid dispersal forced former President Joe Biden to act. In 2021, he signed Executive Order 13985. The order called for federal agencies to conduct equity assessments on their operations and find opportunities for closing disparities in outcomes.
The operative word was “equitable” given that FEMA disaster funding is anything but that when it comes to poor, underserved mostly Black and Hispanic disaster victims. The Biden order though was not enough.
Harvard Kennedy School researchers who examined it urged more proactive action. It called for the creation of zoning that evaluates communities based on levels of historic discrimination and underdevelopment.
Now the burning question my relative in her Altadena home and her even more hard-pressed neighbors who lost everything ask is will the state, insurance companies, relief agencies, and most importantly FEMA do what residents demand. That is rebuild Black Altadena.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is “President Trump’s America” (Middle Passage Press). He also is the host of the weekly The Hutchinson Report Facebook Livesteamed.
