For years, Aurys Hernandez worked alongside his mother, who started the family daycare in their townhouse twenty years ago. Altadena, California. It only took hours to wildfires that razed entire communities in the Los Angeles area last week to consume their home and livelihood.
The fires destroyed the renovated garage where their licensed child care business was located. Gone is the well-lit room where 12 to 15 children, for the most part working families of Altadena and Pasadena played with multi-colored toys and completed worksheets. The photos of children that adorned the walls are now in ashes.
“In three hours, everything was gone. Our house, our homes, our work, everything,” Hernandez, 45, told NBC News.
Along with mansions and wealthy enclaves, California’s still-raging wildfires have charred and turned to ash. communities of working families. The merciless flames left gardeners, caregivers, domestic workers, child care providers and others without the tools needed to do their jobs. The fire destroyed the businesses where they worked and the homes of many employers and clients.
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“There are a very large number of Latinos who are cleaning up,” said Julián Castro, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization. “They are the gardeners. They are day laborers. They are street vendors and their lives have been turned upside down. Their livelihoods have been taken away.
Workers are a key part of the state’s economy, vital to homeowners and consumers. Today, many are unemployed and must find temporary shelter or rent in an expensive real estate market.
Hernandez fled the family’s smoke-filled four-bedroom home in the early hours of Jan. 8 with her two children, husband and parents and only two days’ worth of important papers and clothes. They now live with a sister in Arcadia — 10 family members in a one-bedroom apartment, said Mariah Hernandez, her sister who organized a GoFundMe for the family.
The family, interviewed for the first time by Telemundo 52 Los Angeleslearned that their house was in ruins thanks to a video a friend showed them. Their hope now is to find affordable housing to rent, where they can also resume child care, Mariah Hernandez said.
The lack of child care has also had a cascading effect on area workers, some of whom receive state vouchers to help cover costs. There are more than 20,000 in-home child care providers in Los Angeles County, including 200 in Altadena alone, said Blanca Gallegos, a spokeswoman for Workers International Union Local 99. service.
It’s unclear how many of these businesses are now in ruins.
“We know of 12 people who have completely lost their homes and dozens more have suffered damage that prevents them from reopening their day care centers,” Gallegos said.
Short-term needs, long-term fears
Similar stories have occurred in other sectors that employ the working class.
Heberto Campos’ work as a landscaper has allowed him, his wife and two daughters, ages 15 and 9, to live a good life in Altadena. He worked as a dishwasher and a cook, took care of horses and pruned trees, changed jobs and learned skills. to increase his income as his family grew, he said.
The fire was 20 to 25 feet from their rental home when they fled.
“We left the house running,” Campos, 40, said.
All that’s left are concrete piers – none of the $10,000 worth of tools and equipment he used for his landscaping business. He doesn’t have rental insurance.
After spending $850 for four nights in a hotel, Campos and his family are now sheltering in Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, joining other families at church. Their two pet dogs and birds are at a shelter, but the family’s chickens died in the fire.
His wife is sick from smoke inhalation, but he can’t afford the medicine she needs, he said. “I and other friends are trying to find” work in homes or businesses that were not damaged by the fire, Campos said.
The church’s pastor, José Cervantes, said the first refugees from the fire arrived at the church on Tuesday. The couple, who were members of the church, were later joined by three others on Wednesday morning.
“They had nothing,” Cervantes said.
After seeing the flames in Altadena from afar on the evening of Jan. 7, the church posted a notice online saying it would be open to people needing a place to sleep. As word spread, it became a refuge.
Many of those staying with him, especially single men, have lost their jobs in restaurants or as gardeners, Cervantes said.
The church provides meals and clothing. A local nonprofit provides a taco truck that attracts about 70 people. Cervantes said many of those who come have vouchers to pay for hotel stays, but those vouchers do not pay for food.
The League of United Latin American Citizens compiled and reviewed a list of Latino families in need of help, and the list grew from 54 to 500 families, said Juan Proaño, chief financial officer of LULAC, the oldest organization defense of civil rights in the country.
“Obviously, a lot of Latinos have been affected, and people don’t know it,” Proaño said. “We try to highlight their stories and raise funds to support them. »
Castro’s organization, Latino Community Foundationis releasing $1 million from its California Wildfire Relief Fund to community organizations focused on helping Latino workers and families. Groups that receive these grants will provide cash assistance to fire victims as well as to meet other needs, the organization said.
“We want to make sure the needs of the most vulnerable residents are met,” Castro, who was housing secretary under President Barack Obama, said of the philanthropic efforts. “But at the same time, only government has the resources to meet long-term housing needs. »
Hugo Martinez, 46, lives in South Los Angeles and considers himself lucky to still have a place to live. But questions remain about how he will manage to pay the rent on the house where he lives with his wife and three children aged 13, 10 and 6.
Martinez lost his job as a jewelry maker for Bill Wall Leather when the Malibu home where the business was run caught fire and exploded. Part of the modified building was also used by doctors who had flammable medical equipment, Martinez said.
“Nine of us were working there, more or less, and now we’re all out of work,” Martinez said. “We’re all trying to figure out what to do.”
For now, he lives off his savings. He took a short-term unpaid job painting interiors because he says staying busy helps his mental health. He works with a friend who lost his job in a restaurant destroyed by fire.
“The most important thing is my family, my children and I have my house,” he said. “Unfortunately, others have lost theirs.”
The fear of what comes next, however, remains. “Housing is incredibly expensive,” Martinez said, “and now it’s going to be more expensive.”
