Many Palisades residents were unaware of this two-week county program.
Of the $100 million raised for fire victims in Eaton and Pacific Palisades, some of that FireAid money went to L.A. County. Along with various nonprofits, at least four County Departments received money from the funds.
1.) County Relief Fund, 2) L.A. Region Workers Relief Funds: 3) L.A. Region Small Business Relief Fund and 4) L.A. County Arts Fund.
A reader wrote on May 31, “I was shocked to learn today that LA county had a disaster relief program, and people could apply for $18,000 grants.
“However, that information was barely publicized, and you had to sign up in a two-week period: Feb. 25-March 12. Who knew?
“Unlike other programs, like Red Cross, SBA, or FEMA, they never extended the deadline. I don’t know how our older neighbors without computers who are most in need of this could have gotten much of anything out of it.
“Shame on the County. Shame on Lindsay [L.A. County Supervisor]. She may have sent out an email about it, but I never got it, and the short window is a crime.
“My daily emails from Constance Farrell (her assistant) and the search term “relief fund” only shows a daily cacophony of county emails about eviction protection, not about grants to help wildfire victims.”
The reader sent the link click here., which also stated that grants would only be accepted online.
It would be interesting to see who received the $18,000 grants and how many were given. It would also be beneficial to see how much FireAid money was given to the County and how much money was given to each individual nonprofit.
This editor has asked for the amounts but has not received that information, yet, and it is not online click here.
Tim Campbell, who managed a municipal performance audit program and conducted an audit for the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights (homeless spending), was asked if there was a way to see the amounts that nonprofit organizations (NPO) receive.
He responded “NPO’s don’t have the reporting requirements that government agencies do, but they should be able to give you a breakdown of how much went to each NPO for use in the Palisades. That seems like a reasonable request, and if I were their auditor, I’d expect them to be able to produce the data.”
(Editor’s note: Tomorrow we continue to look at individual nonprofits that received FireAid money, most of whom do not have any connection to Pacific Palisades.)
Where is the ATF report too and why are both reservoirs still empty after six months
All of this is so mismanaged and ridiculous
When u originally posted the charities that were receiving fireaid monies to distribute (and had not!)I was struck w the high salaries and overhead % relative to their revenues. I’d appreciate someone more versed in this world to jump in, but I would think 5-10% operating costs more appropriate. Keep up the good work!
This is maddening but I’m not surprised. I’m sure the money grabs were outrageous.
This is heartbreaking that people would essentially steal money from the needy and from those that have, in good faith given, thinking it was going to a specific place. The victims of the fires. Adds insult to the injury. Shame if this is true.
They were at the disaster relief center, but the application was onerous. They wanted all my financials including bank statements. I started to feel very uncomfortable handing over all that information on myself for a possible $19k. They said there was a selection process that to me was not transparent enough to me feel comfortable about proceeding.
I did apply for my small business and received $5000, but it too required so much documentation. I appreciated them needing to vet the recipients, but some of the information required felt very invasive.
I applied for the LA county grant. The application was very clear that the amount of applications may exceed the available funds. I never heard anything more from them.