Urgent Help for Pasadena Family Recovering from Fire

On January 7, 2025, my family and I fled from the Eaton Fire. We are a family of 4 from Pasadena(Upper Hastings Ranch). Our neighborhood was engulfed in flames as we rushed my 90-year-old mom out of the house with nothing but her purse. Together with my wife, daughter, and our two pets, we abandoned our burning neighborhood and haven’t been able to return to live there.

Our rental house, while still standing, is uninhabitable due to the smoke, ash, and contaminants from nearby burned houses that have infiltrated our home. Most of what we owned has been destroyed due to the ash and smoke. Since the fire, we have been placed in 2 single-room hotels and 3 different temporary housing units with meager assistance from FEMA and LA211. Most of the expenses have come out of pocket, without reimbursement. We have spent our savings on food, replacement items of necessity, expensive parking for our cars around the city, ongoing bills, and many hotel and travel expenses that the insurance company refuses to pay for.

Our renter's insurance company will not continue to provide temporary housing for us even though our house remains uninhabitable. Instead, the insurance company wants to place our entire family in one hotel room with a kitchenette, 50 miles from where we lived, for only a total of 7 days. Then, we are on our own. Again, completely unacceptable and unfair for the insurance company to do this, given the loss of work for myself and my wife and the horrible circumstances. This whole scenario has wreaked havoc on my family given that my mother’s caregiver and nurse cannot travel a 50-mile distance to assist her, and in less than 10 days from now, we will have no place to go.

My wife and I are now caring for my mother who suffered a severe fall in one of the temporary housing units. We will not be able to return to normal life and resume working for at least another two to three months, when we hope and pray our rental home will be clean and safe to return to. In the meantime, we are in dire need of financial assistance which will help us with food, medical treatments, housing, and urgent necessities of life, all things the insurance company has denied thus far. We appreciate any help that will allow us to survive these next few months.