LA Fires: Finding Home & Community Again After Tragedy

Los Angeles Fires: 6 Months Later

Finding Home & Community Again After Tragedy

“It’s more than just a house, you know? I lost a home like a home is where the love is, it’s where the gathering is, it’s where you get to know people, you get to understand people…that’s what the house gave us,” said Alphonso Browne, a near lifelong Altadena resident, and retired local bus driver.

He, like many others in his neighborhood, lost his home in the Eaton Fire in early January 2025 when hurricane-force winds and dry brush fueled massive walls of flames that spread far into communities on both the west and east sides of Los Angeles, destroying much in their path.

CORE responded quickly to the crisis, deploying staff throughout the city to address immediate needs, including providing face masks, water, and tens of thousands of much-needed hygiene kits to those displaced. CORE, working out of the Pasadena shelter, also provided portable charging stations and Wi-Fi access, allowing locals to stay in touch with concerned family members.

That is where Alphonso first interacted with CORE. After the fire swept through his block, he and his wife of 40 years found themselves at the Pasadena Convention Center, among so many other residents of Altadena. While searching for a way to charge their phones, they stumbled upon CORE’s booth.

Sunny and Alphonso at the Pasadena Convention Center.

That is when he met Sunny and Daniel and other members of CORE’s team, with whom he had an immediate personal connection. Even in these awful circumstances, he found himself, admittedly, in the right place at the right time. The people he met at CORE were precisely what he needed to get him and his family through tough moments.

They provided a much-needed bit of humanity to the situation. Whether that was quick check-in each day, or a simple conversation about cooking, it meant a lot and gave him a sense of much-needed normalcy. He wasn’t just another body; he was a person, he was Alphonso.

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Moving Forward After Tragedy

While Alphonso and his wife’s time living at the shelter stretched on, he remained connected with Daniel, Sunny, and others at CORE. They helped him with resource navigation, as he and many others reviewed mountains of paperwork and spoke with various agencies to initiate the process of rebuilding and returning home. Alphonso also received funds in CORE’s initial round of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA), which saw money transferred to 3,000 households impacted by the fires.

In times of crisis, CVA is an invaluable tool that aims to give people agency, enabling them to purchase the goods they need, rather than receiving multiple instances of the same in-kind aid.

For Alphonso, the small amount of money was nice; it helped him buy gas and groceries for his family, but it was not what made the most impact. It was the people at CORE that he connected with; they were the ones who made the difference.

“They gave me help that money cannot buy. They give me support. They give me things, they guide me, and they point me in the direction of many resources. They connect me with a great caseworker, Simone,” Alphonso said.

As part of CORE’s 5-Year Community Recovery Plan, we’ve hired a dedicated team of disaster case managers who can assist impacted homeowners in their recovery journey. Something that is especially needed as the months drag on, and the process, at times, can seem impossible.

Alphonso said, “Well, it means a lot to me, and it provides me with a lot of comfort and guidance because sometimes…once every so often, the reality of the tragedy hits me, and you don’t feel like doing anything. And then here comes Simone, and she’s a driving force, even ‘Hey, you know I think I have this resource we’re going to do this. Let’s reach out to this company. Let’s reach out to that company.’ So, even when you don’t have the spirit to carry on, a caseworker does everything.”

CORE has seen the resilience of people from the Palisades and Altadena over the past six months as they’ve rallied together to rebuild their communities. But we know the recovery process is far from over, especially for those who lost their homes.

5-Year Community Recovery Plan

Today, if homeowners are lucky, their properties have been cleared of debris, but they’re only left with a blank slate on which to start over. There are still so many hurdles and obstacles that remain in the way. At CORE, we’re committed to being with community members like Alphonso throughout the entire recovery process, which we know may take years.

If you’d like to get involved or learn more about our 5-Year Community Recovery Plan, please visit our response page. If you’re able, we’d appreciate it if you could donate on our donations page. Any little bit adds up to going a long way for those still in need of support.