January 2026

Another Community Giving Back

By Suzi Hoge
Posted: 02/05/2025

Losing your house is horrific. Then comes the paperwork as you need to deal with insurance, FEMA, EPA, temporary housing, etc. etc.

At the Village’s fire relief meeting, committees were formed to organize and investigate various resources and support for members who had lost their homes or were going to be part of major clean up efforts. I shared that I would like to organize some kind of binder or file system for all that paperwork. Board member Michelle Chiu and Villagers Sharon Jarrett and Patrick Mathews volunteered to join that effort.  

Then, I found Out of the Ashes, a non-profit group of community members in San Diego who created an organizational system after they suffered a wildfire in their community. They were set up at the Kaiser Fire Relief Center in Pasadena, but the place was swamped with folks needing help. I decided to try to contact them virtually.

Lo and behold, once I sent a message on Facebook, I was contacted about 3 minutes later by Ross, a volunteer. We began to chat. Yes, they would be delighted to give us these organizer systems. It turns out they had several at another relief spot in Venice - if we could get someone to pick them up. I called Dan Guerrero, head of our Village Transportation Team. Dan agreed to pick them up the next morning and deliver them to my house, as the Village Office was full of air purifiers that were being distributed.

Pasadena Village is now working to distribute these organizational systems to our members who have lost their homes. We will hold a live one-hour meeting at the Village Office at 9:30am Tuesday, February 11 for any folks who would like to an introduction to the Home Loss File System.  Any extras will go to other older adults in the area. 

Here is the website for Out of the Ashes: https://uphelp.org/claim-guidance-publications/out-of-the-ashes-home-loss-file-system/ 

Here is the link to access and use their resources digitally: https://homelossfilesystem.com/what-is-a-the-digital-home-loss-file-system/ 

Here is a PDF with directions: https://uphelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/digital_assembly_instructions.docx_-_google_docs_1_0.pdf 

 

*To See More Experiences With The Fire, Click on #LAFires