On the evening of January 7, the Eaton Fire hit Altadena, destroying more than 10,000 commercial and residential homes and displacing thousands of families. Just a little over two months later, and this historically Black community is facing a new threat.
Shortly after the fire, a private developer paid $550,000 in cash for the first vacant lot left behind from the wildfires, about $100,000 above asking price. In the days since, at least 13 more properties have sold, at least half of them by offshore private developers.
But community leaders are working to beat back the tide. Last month, a Pasadena-based housing justice nonprofit purchased a burned lot in the neighborhood, marking the first Altadena property that has been removed from the market and protected in a community land bank.
Jasmin Shupper, a Pasadena resident and founder of Greenline Housing Foundation, worked with land use attorney Remy De La Peza to purchase the lot using a $500,000 grant from The Pasadena Foundation. The pair is speaking with other residents about purchasing their fire-burned properties and is offering Greenline as an alternative buyer for any property owners who need to sell but would like to keep the land in the community’s hands.
