Tahitian Terrace and Palisades Bowl mobile homes parks were destroyed. Fire victims may qualify for Cal Assist mortgage relief.
This editor received a question from a reader on October 13: “Cal Assist was supposedly a program for fire victims mortgage relief. I applied twice and was turned down simply because I have my name on my father’s home. I had to add my name to his title because I pay all his bills. I receive no monetary gains from having my name on his property.
“Several of my friends have also applied for the Cal Assist program only to be turned down. Do you know of anyone who has actually benefited from Cal Assist?”
CTN immediately reached out to Cal Assist officials. On October 22, CTN was told the program would be expanded to Survivors of the L.A. County with household incomes up to $211,050 — a $70,000 increase from the previous threshold. (click here.)
The program is funded by the state of California and provides grants for up to three months of mortgage payments, totaling as much as $20,000 per household. Funds are paid directly to mortgage servicers and never have to be repaid. The CalAssist Mortgage Fund was allocated $105 million to assist homeowners. Applications were/are available on the CalAssist Mortgage Fund website.
People seeking assistance were told that funds are limited and applications are reviewed in the order received. Call (800) 501-0019 (Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
In response to CTN’s specific questions about Palisades residents, CalAssist Media Relations Director Lorena Dominguez responded on October 31.
“If an applicant believes they meet the eligibility and have been declined, we encourage them to call our contact center to explain their circumstance,” Dominguez said. “If they would like to offer additional information on how they meet that requirement, the contact center can provide assistance on how to proceed. That said, the program does require the applicants to own only one home.”
Dominguez pointed out that the income cap in L.A. County had increased by $70,000 to $211,000 and “the program is designed to serve low-to-moderate income households.”
According to Dominguez, “There is also a requirement that total mortgage loan amount cannot be larger than the 2025 conforming loan limits for the county where the property is located.”
CTN asked how many applications had been approved, and of those, how many Palisades residents received mortgage relief?
Dominguez said, “Of the 434 applications approved to date, 75 are homeowners impacted by the Palisades fire.”
Thank you Sue, This is great information.
So 75 homeowners out of 5,078+ burned down homes got assistance. Big whoop. Cal Assist is really Cal Resist–resisting every real effort to help the people who lost everything. Cal Assist just another bureaucratic farce. Seventy five Palisades families helped out of thousands isn’t assistance, it’s just more abandonment wrapped in red tape. Call it another “no-assist assist.”
Thank you for this research, Sue. Thank you for taking the time to look into this and continuing to shine a light on what survivors are going through. It means alot that someone’s paying attention.
So many of us have lost so much. Yet time and again, we are denied the very aid that was meant to help us rebuild. We are told that our income was too high or that we did not have a mortgage, as if those details erase the hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses we have suffered. Our future has been changed completely. Retirement is no longer in sight. Our business, once steady, is now struggling to survive. And still, we are told we made beyond the threshold for the year before.
This is not only about money. It is about fairness and compassion. The Red Cross and a few other organizations have helped incredibly but the rejection of aid time after time from so many other so called nonprofit organizations that were given money to help fire victims continues to be a slap in the face. I’m tired of the gate keeping and needing to deem myself worthy for small amounts of aid.
How is the income level counted? Suppose a retired person earned more than $211000 in 2024 on his/her income tax mostly due to taxable income from a retirement plan, is that counted as part of the income tally? For what year is considered for the income or is it averaged over several years?