For decades, Altadena functioned as a rare constant in the Los Angeles area: a place where Black families owned homes and passed something on to their descendants. That all changed with the Eaton Fire.
One year after the fire tore through Altadena and neighboring communities, destroying thousands of homes and displacing families who had lived there for generations, the neighborhood remains in flux. Rebuilding has been slow, uneven, and expensive. Some residents are pressing forward. Others, finding it too difficult, have left. But collectively, their decisions may determine whether one of Los Angeles County’s most stable Black enclaves endures.
Zella Knight understands that uncertainty all too well…