Overview
- More than 100 Eaton Fire survivors, advocates and allies traveled by bus to Sacramento on Tuesday to press lawmakers for a $25 million Community Aid for Rebuilding Equity (CARE) Fund.
- The CARE Fund is a proposed grant program meant to help low-income homeowners and renters rebuild, preserve affordable housing and prevent permanent displacement in Altadena and Pasadena.
- Survivors describe severe financial strain from paying mortgages on destroyed homes while renting elsewhere, a situation that many say cannot be solved with loans alone.
- The governor’s office points to 28 executive orders, mortgage help for about 1,400 families, a $100 million rebuilding fund and a May proposal for another $100 million while saying federal disaster money promised by President Trump has not arrived.
- Local lawmakers including Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez and Assemblymember John Harabedian have voiced support for the CARE Fund, and survivors’ organized lobbying increases pressure on the Legislature to consider targeted grant aid and housing protections.