Hot off the Press!! Compounding Disaster: A Spatial Analysis of Housing Risk & Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena

Thrilled to share this new community-centered research report, Compounding Disaster: A Spatial Analysis of Housing Risk and Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena. This is the first in a series of briefs collaboratively produced by SAJE, Public Interest Law Project, Inclusive Action for the City, morena strategies, UCLA Veterans Legal Clinic, and theworkLA focused on land ownership and speculative risk in Altadena following the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

Compounding Disaster.

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Our findings include:

• Rising housing costs were making renters & homeowners vulnerable to displacement prior to the Eaton Fire

• This pre-fire displacement vulnerability was racialized, disproportionately affecting tracts in western Altadena, historically home to one of the largest communities of Black homeowner in LA County

• Following the Eaton Fire, corporate acquisition of land accelerated; nearly half of the 94 post-fire sales from February 11-April 30, 2025 were to corporate entities. For comparison, during the same period the year prior, only 5 of 94 sales were to corporate buyers

• Post-fire sales of lots show notable concentrations in BIPOC communities

Corporate investors are losing no time buying up land in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire. We know land ownership determines who will get to return to Altadena, who will have a say in its recovery, who will benefit from the rebuilding and resurrection of a truly unique and beautiful community – and who will be left out.

We authored this research to support the strong community organizing and policy advocacy that has been underway since the fire was contained to stop corporate speculation, disaster capitalism taking advantage of people in pain, and advance (and fund and finance!) community-centered land acquisition strategies.