Category: Housing, Justice, Listening Sessions, Personal Stories, Poverty News & Policy Updates, The Safety Net, Wealth Building, Work
January 15th, 2025
Altadena resident Shimica Gaskins, President and CEO of End Child Poverty California powered by GRACE, whose home burned to the ground on Tuesday, January 7, 2024, shares some of her first reflections on the destruction in her beloved community and the personal loss. Scroll down for ways to give directly to displaced families and Altadena small businesses.
This article originally appeared in End Child Poverty California’s blog.
I grew up in the small, tobacco-farming town of Lake City, South Carolina. My family’s roots in this country grew under enslavement. I knew my history. My father would walk us through the woods, and show us the land our great-great-grandfather owned, hundreds of acres post-Reconstruction. We would go to our family cemetery, where I could read the names of generations of Gaskins. I grew up in a town where people knew each other’s goodness, complexity, and history.
Altadena, all the way across the country, in the sprawl and chaos of Los Angeles, offered me this rootedness again.
Altadena, cuddled up against the San Gabriel Mountains.
Altadena, a place where Black and Mexican cowboys – the original cowboys – could still be seen riding their horses.
Altadena, where African drumming is heard on Saturdays while shopping for groceries. And if you’re drawn to the rhythm, the drummers will invite you in and make your children apprentices.
Altadena pulled me in and gave me a home.
Altadena has its own history of resistance, respite, liberation and hope for Black folks. As two Black attorneys (read nerds), we took pride that Martin Luther King, Jr., came to Altadena in the 1960s to take respite with his friend and attorney at-the-time, Clarence B. Jones.
When we bought our home in 2018, it felt nothing short of a miracle. We had put in more than 20 offers on homes in Altadena and surrounding areas. Every time, we were beaten out. Cash offers. Offers so over asking price it was hard for us to fathom.
We didn’t have that kind of money. We had all the money we had been saving for years, and good enough credit to get a mortgage.
Our first home, which we bought when we were working and living in Washington, D.C., was through the first-time home buyers program at Fannie Mae. That program was a blessing for two first-generation college graduates with lots of law school loan debt. But this time, we could get a traditional mortgage – a helpful next step toward an abundant future. We were following the “Playbook”: Get an education, by any means necessary, and use it to move out of poverty.
In Los Angeles, I was discouraged and beaten down trying to buy a home. It was crushing, reaching dead end after dead end. So when my husband – who grew up in South Central LA– and our realtor called to say they’d found the perfect, affordable house in Altadena, I was nonplussed. They knew I wanted to be in Altadena the most, but I was reaching the point of despair. At the time, our kids were four and two. “It’s nap time,” I said. “Take pictures.”
“No. You really have to come now,” they said. So I woke up the kids (an act of parenting anarchy), and drove to Altadena. I saw the front of our house and thought, “This is too much work. There are too many people at this open house. This won’t ever happen.”
But my realtor and James were so excited as they walked me through. The prior owners had lived there for 60 years. They were the first owners after the original owner, whose father was a well-known architect in the Pasadena and Altadena areas. He had built our house for his son in the 1950s.
While I was judging the backyard, our realtor asked if he could take a picture of me and the kids next to the yard’s great oak tree, to put in the application. Then we went home.
I told James not to get his hopes up. We were going to be outbid by a developer with magical cash. We weren’t getting that house.
I couldn’t believe it when our realtor called to say we were in the running among 30 offers. Ours wasn’t the highest. But the owners had read our letter and wanted to know more about us. They wanted to see the picture in the application. Their realtor was worried, and wanted permission. The owners were an older white couple, and their realtor didn’t want us to think we would be discriminated against if they decided not to choose us.
We agreed to show them the picture, even though we’d experienced discrimination a lot in the LA rental market. With my name Shimica Gaskins, and my husband’s last name Perez, it got to the point that we would send my husband’s uncle before revealing who we were as applicants.
Our realtor called back within hours with good news. They loved us, and they wanted to keep the neighborhood diverse. They chose us. It was a miracle.
I called my parents and my Dad sprung into action. Our home hadn’t been updated in decades. There was so much work to do. For the last eight years, my husband, my father, uncles, and family have poured their love and labor into our home on Ganesha Avenue.
My father flew out from South Carolina multiple times and lived in the garage for months. We lived through all the renovations. We poured every paycheck back into making it the place we wanted to pass along to our children in the future.
I talked to my children often about how having a home, regardless of its condition, was the biggest blessing of all because it would be an asset. Most importantly, it was our home to create beautiful memories with our family and friends.
It wasn’t a big house. We knew we would need to expand when the kids needed their own rooms. Two years ago, we finally had what we needed to build a 200-square-foot addition to give our son his own room and have a family room.
Our dear friend agreed to be the architect even though this project was a mouse compared to the lion-scale of incredible work he does. We hired a local contractor who lived in Altadena. The project kicked off in January of 2022. In just three or four months, it would be done. That seemed easy peasy. After all, we had just survived the pandemic lockdown.
We broke ground and within days LA saw record-breaking rain – for months. The project slowed down. Then the late-pandemic shipping issues delayed the windows. Our months-long project for a simple concrete room was now almost a year in the making. We stayed faithful and patient.
In 2023, we finally got to host Thanksgiving for our family. This year we were able to spend so much time with folks by having our new addition. Most importantly, our house was no longer a project but a respite for my children, my parents, family, and friends. It was finally our home, cuddled up against the San Gabriel Mountains.
James could put down his tools and do other things – like running. Many people know James by seeing him run Altadena. That’s the thing. We know each other in Altadena. Our goodness, our complexities, our histories.
My children have spent their childhoods being nurtured by my neighbors. It hurts too much to talk about them right now, but they are the most generous, kindest people – always looking out for others and willing to share. My son spent two days learning how to make sourdough bread from our neighbor just days before the fire.
I’ve always been so grateful that our children had a village, and opportunities James and I didn’t have. They learned to play tennis from Veronica Badon, a Black athlete, who gives her all to the children of Altadena. She has taught at Loma Alta park for years. A park with the most gorgeous mountains you have ever seen as backdrop. I would sit there in awe many days as the sunset drew the sky down while they practiced.
They were learning how to be leaders at Two Dragon Martial arts with Sipoo Shelene Hearringand her son, Sippo Solomon. For over 40 years, Sippo Hearing and her late husband nurtured children physically and mentally. Many of you likely saw Two Dragons on the news collapsing in the fire.
These two women have shaped my children, but also me as a parent.
For many years, we had Heritage School in the Park. It was a place children could gather on Saturdays to learn about the continent of Africa. We would start each session with a land acknowledgment to the Tognva and Kich, and Gabrielino nations, because this is their land. We wanted our children to know that we have a duty we must honor to take care of the land and learn from the First Peoples.
My children’s elementary school, Aveson Elementary, is where they learned to garden, take care of chickens, and hike. They hiked the very canyon that was set ablaze.
It’s not the only school that burned. So many children are not only out of their homes because of the Eaton fire and other fires, but they are facing not having schools to come back to.
In the last few days when I’ve felt the most despair and hopelessness, it’s the children that bring me back to hope and give me strength to continue. It will be our bittersweet joy to rebuild Beautiful Altadena for them: so they have a place of respite, a place where Black joy is lived, a place where community is preserved.
All of our small business owners, including Rhythms of the Village, Two Dragons Martial Arts, Altadena Hardware, the barber shops and florist, Café De Leche, Sidepie, and so many others – we want you to return.
We want to make sure each and every one rebuilds and all our families return. Like the California poppies that grew in our front yard, Beautiful Altadena will bloom again.
The outpouring of support our family has received has been so profound. Words cannot express our gratitude for each and every prayer, resource link, donation of clothes, and dollar. None of us ever thought we would be here. But we will keep supporting each other and fighting for our children.
If you can support those affected, please do so. Here are the few links that I know about for now, and we will post more.
(Links are fully written out to make it easier to copy-and-paste and share. Businesses are listed in alphabetical order.)
This is a crowd-sourced & updated list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1pK5omSsD4KGhjEHCVgcVw-rd4FZP9haoijEx1mSAm5c/htmlview?pli=1
Or (same sheet, shorter url): https://bit.ly/supportaltadenablackfamilies
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-aveson-after-the-eaton-fire?qid=d37ef7417dc0193eae6b345203f05a0b
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-darrin-rebuild-after-wildfire-loss