Wildfires Don't Discriminate, But People Do. Fight Back With Fairness
As featured in Inman News.
An unimaginable, bone-chilling 10,000 homes and structures are estimated to have been lost since the start of 2025 (a mere seventeen days ago) in Los Angeles County due to the destructive combination of various fires and windstorms. This means real estate professionals, who may be grappling with their own losses, are first responders!
What a devastating tragedy that has decimated both Malibu mansions and “forever homes” of legacy residents, who may be “house rich but cash poor,” making rebuilding seem like a herculean effort. Strikingly, however, there’s been a lot of commentary about and focus on the richest celebrities who have lost homes over the last week, which again is sad and tragic. But unlike people, fires don’t draw a distinction in class or celebrity; fires don’t discriminate.
So let’s raise awareness among real estate first responders about perhaps a little-known historic community where lives, homes and dreams have been upended due to the 2025 California windstorms and fires.
The Razing of Altadena, California
In this video, hear the firsthand experience of a 30-year homeowner describing losing his home to the LA County fires here.
Unfortunately, there are many first-person story accounts like this, but did you notice something in that gentleman's story? He said he lived west of Lake Avenue and drew attention to that line of demarcation twice.
It was not uncommon within our lifetimes that Black clients were only shown homes west of Lake Avenue, not east, and white clients were shown homes east and not west.
Similar to the 8 Mile Wall in Detroit or “The Berlin Wall” in Atlanta, Lake Avenue was a racial dividing line where real estate professionals upheld a notorious practice called steering. Although steering has been illegal since the 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Act in California (notably 5 years before the federal act), we know that the practice has continued into this century like in other parts of the nation (c.f. Long Island Divided).
To add insult to injury, “redlining”, which became illegal federally in 1968 but also still happens today, happened west of Lake Avenue, too (see map). That has meant that Black residents (who have been the second largest demographic in Altadena since before 1960, white being the largest demo.) historically faced higher interest rates (if mortgage loans were even approved), depressed property values and even some divestment due to simply being Black. Without easy access to capital and fair lending due to once-legal racial discrimination, real estate development and growth paled in comparison to other non-Black, non-"redlined" pockets of LA County. That left the culturally rich community of Altadena susceptible to outside (often lacking community roots and care) investors whose access to capital has not been diminished by their skin color because they are not Black (also known as gentrification).
But like many communities that Black Americans have been relegated to (c.f. Greenwood “Black Wall Street”, OK, Oscarville, GA, and Rosewood, FL, to name just a few), we have made lemonade. Altadena is no exception, as it has been a Black enclave (home to renowned artists like MacArthur Genius author Octavia E. Butler) and an oasis of generational homeownership beating the national average.
Fight Fire With Fire Fairness
In short, many of the homes west of Lake Avenue have been owned for decades by families that did not have any other options at one time due to legal yet unfair housing practices before 1968 and illegal, unfair practices with often no repercussions since 1968. So while every home, every business and most importantly, every life that has been lost is a true tragedy, for some of the residents, discrimination determined where they could and could not live. Now fire has taken even that away.
But history does not have to rhyme or repeat.
During my last fair housing continuing education course of 2024, before the Christmas break, a proud-to-be 65-year-old participant asked before the workshop began, “I’m glad we are focusing more on fair housing now, but in all these years since 1968, I wonder why Realtors are more concerned and involved than ever before?”
As the American dream of ownership is becoming harder to attain with rising unaffordability and uninsurability (particularly in coastal areas like LA County), the last thing we – as neighbors and our economy – need is to have to fight unfair housing on top of everything else.
As all of the communities struck by tragedy regroup, we real estate professionals have a duty to ensure that the phantom menaces of unfair housing – steering, redlining, gentrification, appraisal bias, insurance bias, forced displacement, denial of promised benefits based on a protected class, subprime loans, discriminatory CC&Rs, etc. – and other predatory practices – like price gouging – do not impede (re)building generational homeownership.
As real estate first responders, let’s be mindful to fight fire with fire fairness. Just three examples (of many) of the real estate industry leading the way include:
+ Sasha Darling, who lost her home to the fires yet has been sharing resources to help others not sell to predatory developers, and
+ The Oppenheim Group, which has offered to represent and credit the commission to anyone displaced and who has been calling out illegal price gouging by landlords,
+ The Gathering Spot’s LA coworking space is offering – what it does best – day space, shelter, along with donations from members, warm meals, and internet access to those who have been displaced.
Dr. Lee Davenport is a real estate coach/educator and author (including Be a Fair Housing D.E.C.O.D.E.R. and How to Profit with Your Personality). Dr. Lee trains real estate agents around the globe on how to work smarter with their unique personalities and how to “advocate, not alienate,” so everyone has access and opportunity in real estate.
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“Interesting approach on the topic of fair housing that I have not seen offered to Realtors.” --Maria, Broker/Owner, REALTOR®
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