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When wildfires tore through California earlier this year, Americans came together to raise $100 million for relief through the FireAid concerts. But now victim families are asking: Where’s the money? Reports show most funds went to “community groups” instead of direct checks to burned-out homeowners like Sue Pascoe, who lost everything in the Palisades Fire. This isn’t charity—it’s red tape.
Pascoe, a local journalist, started digging when neighbors complained they hadn’t seen a dime. She found FireAid partnered with organizations more focused on “social justice” than direct aid. Imagine losing your home and then being told your help must go through bureaucrats first. That doesn’t feel like real relief.
FireAid says it’s “phasing” fund distribution to support housing, mental health, and “community building.” But victims like Pascoe call it a slap in the face. “They’re not helping the people most hurt,” one explained. Why shuffle donations through layers of nonprofits when families need cash now?
Send a dollar? Better send a lawyer. The groups getting FireAid cash mostly don’t publish how much they get or how they spend it. “It’s like throwing money into a black hole,” Pascoe says. Transparency isn’t optional when taxpayers trust strangers with their hard-earned dollars.
Worse yet, some of these “community” groups fight gentrification. Yes, they’re worried developers might build new homes where old ones stood. So instead of rebuilding destroyed communities, they want to keep the land vacant. That’s not progress—it’s practically sabotaging recovery efforts.
Victims fear they’re being priced out. The Palisades and Altadena were affordable neighborhoods. Now speculators and activists claim this relief money should block new housing. It’s an insult to families facing homelessness. Shouldn’t rebuilding come before ideological battles?
AG Rob Bonta needs to act fast. California already mishandles money—we can’t let FireAid turn into another ghost bureaucracy. Victims deserve direct aid, not flowcharts. Every dollar collected in their name should go straight to their pockets.
This is America. We unite for disasters, but we don’t trust unelected activists to decide who deserves help. FireAid donors opened wallets to save people, not fund political agendas. Until we cut the red tape and get cash to victims, this $100 million is just talk.
