How to Help People in LA *Right Now*
Straightforward ways to provide a modicum of stability
The Los Angeles Fires are terrifying for so many reasons, and on so many levels. There’s a lot to say about the existential climate dread they incite, but right now, I think most of us just need help or want desperately to help.
Below, you’ll find a many ways to provide direct aid to those who’ve lost everything. Think about how incredibly destabilizing it would be — and how daunting the prospect of finding lodging is right now. What we can help provide is the promise of short-term financial stability.
Some people will look at this list and think: I can’t possibly donate to all of these, how do I pick one, or three, or whatever. And it’s true, we can’t donate to all of them. We also can’t help being touched by personal stories, and wanting to direct funds to the personal tragedy that feels most legible. But we can also try to spread funds around.
The individual families featured here are people who matter to someone in the larger Culture Study community. The spreadsheets at the end are organized by identity; you can search by the percentage of their funding goal they have reached. If you have the means to give — five dollars, five hundred — don’t feel like you have to somehow figure out how to give “perfectly.” What matters is that we are attempting, as best as we can, to provide stability in this moment to those who need it.
This list is of course incomplete in so many ways. Please post links to additional GoFundMes, Mutual Aid, and other fundraising in the comments.
If you are in the area and able to volunteer: here’s a masterlist from Los Angeles Mutual Aid of in-person volunteer opportunities
And here’s a similar masterlist of places that are accepting donations (including what they need) and places accepting gift cards/funding to assist in their continued efforts — there’s a lot
A Culture Study Reader’s friend is distributing bras, underwear, and tampons “because fires don’t stop periods” — you can buy from their Amazon Wishlist here.
A Culture Study Reader (who I know, and know is a real and trustable person) has a studio-sized space in a quiet neighborhood in Glassell Park (not from Altadena) with bed, bathrooms, and kitchenette that she would like to offer to someone who has been displaced. It is fully furnished, and would be available roughly through the end of February. If this is you or someone you love and trust, send me an email (annehelenpetersen at gmail dot com) and I’ll connect you.
Culture Study Reader Morgan and her husband Andy lost “the project of their lives” — an old fixer-upper they’ve been working on for the last two years. You can donate to their GoFundMe here.
This family attends the school of a Culture Study reader, who writes “While many at our school lost everything, most are in a position to recover. This family could really, really use all the support it can get.”
Dennis and Erika’s home of 35 years was lost in the Eaton Fire. You can find out more and how to help here.
Two young LGBTQ couples from the Pasadena Royals Rugby team have lost everything — you can see their GoFundMes here and here
Amanda is the dear friend of a Culture Study reader: “She was working as an animator for children's films. She’d just moved to a tiny home in the Altadena area after a personal loss (someone near and dear to her died). She made it out with only a handful of items and some damage to her car in the rush and chaos to flee. She lost everything. Her VFX rig. Harddrives. Every film she’s directed for the last 15 years, all her development notebooks. Her identity documents.” You can donate to her GoFundMe here.
Tamir is part of one of the hundreds of Black families that lost everything in the Altadena Fire, and is currently only 50% funded on his $20,000 request to survive until FEMA funding starts to come through. You can donate here.
Jennifer and Christian are both public service workers, and lost everything in the Eaton Fire. They are parents to two young children. You can donate to their GoFundMe here.
Shira is the sole caregiver for her mom, who has Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia. They lost everything in the Pacific Palisades fire. They are currently in a hotel but need funds for ongoing housing. You can donate to their GoFundMe here.
This list of GoFundMes for Displaced Black Families (Mostly from the historically Black neighborhoods in Altadena) is organized according to percentage funded, so you can spread your funds around. All of these spreadsheets also information on how to best word your own GoFundMe to avoid messing up FEMA funding, and contact info if you or loved one wants to be added.
A list of GoFundMes for Displaced Latine Families, similarly organized
A list of GoFundMes for Displaced Fillipino Familes, similarly organized
A list of GoFundMes for Displaced Musicians
A list of GoFundMes for Displaced Disabled People: “These are people that were already dealing with a system that does not prioritize them, and now they are trying to get any help they can get.”
World Central Kitchen is on the ground providing meals to first responders and others displaced or affected by the fires. Donate directly here.
This is Humanity is providing assistance to front/second line farmworkers, day laborers, essential workers and families impacted by fires in Los Angeles. Donate directly here.
Finally Los Angeles Mutual Aid has a massive spreadsheet of resources for those in need. You can support their work here.
In closing, a piece from Arabelle Sicardi, who you can support by buying a subscription to their newsletter — a small and profound way to grant someone stability for the year to come.
One that just came in from a reader: My dear friends Florence and Anna and their two-year old daughter Rigby just lost their Altadena home, which they had just bought in December. We helped them move in; they hadn't even unpacked. The dark joke of the week is that my retired parents, who also lost their home, needed to downsize anyway, but Flo and Anna are at the beginning of building their life together, and the house was the biggest financial investment they'd ever made. Please consider donating to help them rebuild:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-anna-florence-and-little-rigby-wildfire-recovery
The CA-based Anti-Recidivism Coalition is raising money to feed, supply, and provide post-release scholarships for incarcerated firefighters, about 800 of whom are involved in the current efforts: https://antirecidivism.org/firefighterfund/
Pasadena Humane is, in addition to sheltering and finding temporary fosters for displaced pets, treating area wildlife injured by the fires: https://give.pasadenahumane.org/give/654134/#!/donation/checkout