Our Latest Report Shows Displacement Risks from Post-Eaton Fire Corporate Land Grab; Shares Urgent Policies Needed to Safeguard Altadena’s Black Community

Following up on our May 2025 spatial analysis of land sales in Altadena post-Eaton Fire, today we are releasing updated data on the state of disaster capitalism in Altadena along with immediately actionable policy recommendations that could make a real difference to our community.

Confronting Disaster: Curbing Corporate Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena

– authored by a community-driven research partnership between SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy), Inclusive Action for the City, morena strategies, Public Interest Law Project, the UCLA Veterans Legal Clinic, and theworksLA – analyzes the displacement risks facing long-term Altadena residents, especially Black Altadenans, in the wake of the Eaton Fire as outside investors rush in, and makes concrete policy recommendations for local and state leaders to protect families from displacement and preserve Altadena’s historic community and residents.  

Unfortunately, the post-fire trends in sale of land, including to corporate buyers, we started to document in May have only continued.

Notably:

• Corporate investors have accelerated their purchases of Altadena properties in 2025. Of the 151 post-fire sales from February 11 to July 5, 2025, 74 (49%) parcels were purchased by corporate entities – compared to only 18 of 181 (10%) during the same period the previous year.

• Post-fire property sales are notably concentrated in BIPOC communities.

“While this report highlights the truly dire reality Altadena is facing, our hope is that those with the power to do something will hear this clear call to action. And also, that those outside of Altadena or Los Angeles County – or even California – will heed this warning and proactively put in place needed policy frameworks before their communities are impacted by disaster capitalism.” Rémy De La Peza, lifelong Pasadena resident and Founder and Principal of morena strategies

“PILP engaged in this research as a follow up to our 2024 statewide Land Use and Ownership Scan which showed that investment entities are the largest identifiable landowners in California after the federal government. Confronting Disaster: Curbing Corporate Speculation in Post-Fire Altadena brings that data to the street level – showing how shifts in land ownership will shape who is able to return to Altadena and who gets left behind.” Shashi Hanuman, Executive Director, The Public Interest Law Project

Read our full report here:

ConfrontingDisaster.pdf

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