18 MONTHS TODAY. Grief Doesn't End. Neither Does Our Fight To Get Families Home.
My personal story of loss, where we are 18 months in, and how we're building a path home together.
The Pacific Palisades July 4th Parade. (Photo by Rich Schmitt/Palisadian-Post)
July 7, 2026
Dear friends,
On this, our 18-month fire anniversary, today's newsletter is a little more reflective. My own story of grief, where our recovery stands 18 months in, and how we're building a path home together.
Coming Home to the Palisades Parade
Sometimes grief arrives through loss. Sometimes it arrives through joy. This week, it arrived when I saw photos from the Palisades Fourth of July parade. Every photo filled me with gratitude. And longing.
That's because I used to attend the parade most years.
In the summer of 1991, just after I moved to L.A. straight out of college without knowing a soul, a Palisadian named Maureen Kindel took me under her wing. She had no reason to take in a nobody like me. But she did, and for more than thirty years, she was my second mom. I even lived with her on and off: in Rustic Canyon during grad school at UCLA, and later in the Palisades Highlands after I broke my leg on a work trip to Singapore.
Maureen passed away in October 2024. I miss her every day. It still feels inconceivable to me that less than two months later, fire came for both places I considered home: the Palisades, where Maureen made me family, and Altadena, where I built my own.
Another then-young person Maureen mentored was Miguel Santana, who's now CEO of the California Community Foundation. How extraordinary that two people she chose to invest in are now helping lead pieces of our recovery.
Maureen taught us to love fiercely, with generosity, and to be powerful. That she isn't here to see her legacy carried forward is one of the quieter griefs of this past year and a half.
Life is precious and fleeting. The people who change our lives rarely get to see the full impact they've had.
I would have loved to be at the parade this year, remembering Maureen while making new memories with all of you. Somehow, seeing the Palisades come together again made me feel a little closer to her.
Thank you to Daphne Gronich and everyone who made the parade happen.
Spectacular Alaska. Find Me on Instagram!
Before New York, we joined my mother-in-law on my first-ever cruise, to Alaska. The photo above is my family in front of Hubbard Glacier, where a single snowflake takes 200 years to travel from top to bottom.
We stood among trees thousands of years old. It was a place that reminded me of both the vastness of the universe and the smallness of our own time here
My daughters have been telling me it's time I finally learn to post on Instagram instead of just approving collabs. If you'd like to see more Alaska photos, click here, and feel free to follow along as in the coming weeks, this old dog attempts to learn social-media tricks!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaVz_idlmkz/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&img_index=7
And for all our latest recovery updates, follow EFSN on Instagram and LinkedIn.
18 Months In: Survivors Facing Deep Financial Distress
The 18-month survey from the Department of Angels is out, and it confirms what we already feel: insurance delays are driving families deeper into financial distress.
Two in three survivors are still displaced.
Nearly half have already run out of insurance housing coverage, or will lose it within the year.
Of those losing coverage, 4 in 10 say they could afford six months or less of housing on their own.
Just 28% of survivors who lost their homes entirely feel confident they'll fully recover.
One survivor put it plainly: "We survived the fire. Surviving insurance and recovery is worse."
We're now tracking the same grim trend as every major California fire before us. Per a Los Angeles Times investigation, of the tens of thousands of homes lost in the state's most destructive wildfires between 2017 and 2020, only 38% had been rebuilt eight year later.
The single biggest factor in whether a family rebuilt? Whether their insurance paid fully and on time.
That's where EFSN comes in.
Where EFSN Stands, 18 Months In
In a year and a half, EFSN has grown to more than 10,000 Eaton and Palisades survivors and allies, with over 2,000 firsthand accounts of insurance problems submitted by you through our site. Here's where each front of our fight stands.
Legislative. With Consumer Watchdog and Senators Pérez and Allen, we introduced a huge four-bill package to expand insurance accountability and availability. The insurance industry made one of them, SB 1076, their number one target to kill this year. It took just four votes out of a seven member Senate Insurance Committee to do it. Three of our four bills are still alive and moving.
Law enforcement. We took the data you gave us straight to law enforcement. L.A. County Supervisor Barger ordered a State Farm investigation, and the money started moving: over $100 million in delayed insurance payouts, unlocked. And we've filed a historic petitionto intervene directly in the state's own enforcement proceeding against State Farm.
Legal education. We wrapped our three-part webinar series on underinsurance, and we'll be back soon with a series on bad-faith claims practices with some of California’s leading bad-faith insurance litigators.
These fights have been David vs. Goliath, and that's the seamy underside of our still-imperfect democracy. The insurance industry is one of Sacramento's most powerful special interests, and with tens of billions in payouts on the line, they're not taking this fight lying down.
But neither are we.
National disaster recovery experts are now pointing to EFSN as a new model for survivor-led recovery as disasters become more frequent. What we're doing here in Los Angeles on insurance accountability and availability is becoming a blueprint every future disaster survivor community can build from.
Next Week: We Build the Record Ourselves
Next week, we start building the public record insurance companies never wanted to exist: the nation's first survey of how insurers actually perform after disaster, company by company.
Who underinsured.
Who paid what they owed.
Who delayed.
Who denied.
Who underpaid.
If insurance payouts are the single biggest barrier to disaster recovery, transparency is how we create the accountability that gets families home.
Get ready to take part and share.
"Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands" Act
Congratulations to Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and the community leaders who pushed SB 1090 through two key legislative committees this week. The bill takes aim at speculative hyper-development in Altadena. It's exciting to watch the Altadena Town Council, under Chair Nic Arnzen, step into even greater leadership.
More info: altadenarecoverywatch.com
How to build a home that's safer, stronger, and more insurable
Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 7 to 8 pm.
A free EFSN webinar, led by Alexis Pelosi of The Resiliency Company.
If you're rebuilding, you're wrestling with questions none of us ever expected to ask. Which upgrades actually matter for fire resistance? What can you do today to improve your odds of getting insured tomorrow? Join us for a practical conversation on the design choices and home hardening measures that protect both your family and your investment.
We have 1,000 seats available. All Eaton and Palisades survivors are warmly welcome.
Who Taught You to Love?
This is the last picture I ever took of Maureen, at dinner in early 2024, before she got sick. It's a little blurry, almost like a premonition.
But look how full of light she is.
Maureen loved with abundance.
The extraordinary thing about love is that it compounds.
The people who shape our lives rarely get to see how far their kindness reaches.
Maureen isn't here to see thousands of survivors standing together or families refusing to leave one another behind.
But I see her legacy everywhere.
I think that's the gift the people we love leave us: they change who we become.
And then we carry that forward.
The Next Chapter
Recovery isn't built only through insurance fights and rebuilt homes.
It's built through community. Shared meals. New memories. Kids laughing together. Moments that remind us we're more than what happened to us.
That's why I hope you'll join us on Saturday, August 22 for Rally for Recovery.
Come spend the day with survivors and allies from across Los Angeles. Bring the family. Enjoy great food, live DJs, pickleball, and, most importantly, time together.
The strongest thing we've built over these past 18 months isn't an organization.
It's each other.General admission is $25. Kids are free.
Sign up now: rallyus.org
With gratitude,
Joy
The Every Fire Survivor's Network (EFSN) connects 10,000+ fire survivors and allies across Eaton, Palisades, Malibu, and Topanga. Together, we remove barriers and help families get home. Join us: efsurvivors.net
