(Photo) The Red Cross Shelter at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena is shown Thursday. People are being moved from the Pasadena site to a new shelter in Duarte. Keith Birmingham — Staff photographer
Feb. 15, 2025, The Daily Breeze in Torrance, a newspaper of Southern California News Group
By David Wilson dawilson@scng.com
The American Red Cross intends to move people sheltered at the Pasadena Convention Center to a different location starting Friday, according to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office.
A new shelter at Pamela Park gymnasium in Duarte will take people in, Barger’s office said. As of Tuesday night, 149 people were living at the shelter, according to the American Red Cross. At its peak, the shelter housed about 1,140 people.
“After a one-week extension to our original facility agreement with the City of Pasadena, another extension will not be possible, the Red Cross said in a Friday afternoon statement. “We continue to work with households to ensure a smooth transition. The Red Cross will continue to address each household’s unique needs to ensure a comfortable transition to their next emergency shelter location.”
On Thursday, shelter residents received a letter from the Red Cross saying they would be transitioning people from the Convention Center to “one or two new locations” by the end of the day Friday.
The letter said it was due to accommodating prior commitments for the Convention Center and to meet the needs of people in the emergency sheltering program.
Community organizer Adriana Bautista has been in contact with people staying at the convention Center shelter, who relayed that Red Cross employees had been making verbal announcements before the letter was distributed that the shelter would be closing. “I think they know that their actions are being observed by the community here and that the community does care about the residents at the shelter and the community members there,” Bautista said.
Last week, the Red Cross announced that the shelter would remain open for another week after worries from residents and local officials that it would be closing. The city of Pasadena and Red Cross said from the beginning that the facility would be returned to the city shortly after the first week of February.
The Red Cross said all residents would continue to have sheltering options until all had a plan in place to get to the next housing solution.
The move comes as the region scrambles to secure housing for those displaced by the fire, which destroyed more than 6,000 homes.
The American Red Cross was also working with the L.A. County Development Authority to and one- and two-bedroom rental units within a 10-mile radius of the Eaton fire footprint, Barger’s office said.
Barger on Thursday called on property owners with available rental units to help house people displaced by the Eaton fire. She called the need “urgent,” with many who still need "We have an immediate need to support wildfire survivors who have been displaced from their homes and want to remain close to their communities,” said Barger, whose district includes Altadena, where the fire did most of its damage.
“Many of these families are struggling to rebuild their lives while ensuring stability for their children. I urge property owners with available units to partner with us and provide a lifeline for those in need.”
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is the lead agency working with people experiencing homelessness, Barger’s office said.
According to LAHSA, there are 28 people in the shelter working with the agency who were homeless before the disaster and are being matched with available resources.
“American Red Cross has told us that everyone is able to move to the new site, regardless of pre disaster housing status, so participants will not be exited to the street because of the move,” a LAHSA statement read.
Housing and homelessness advocates in Pasadena warned that the fire will only exacerbate the city’s crises.
Sonja Berndt, a retired state prosecutor, has been working in Pasadena for several years advocating for the homeless population in Pasadena.
Berndt said the city has “grossly underfunded” the homeless population and this crisis only magnifies that problem. She said the concern is that assisting fire victims with housing will leave the previously unsheltered behind.
Bautista added that while California in general has a shortage of housing units, the city’s budget reflects a reluctance to fund programs that could address the problem locally. “Our unsheltered will go to the bottom of the city’s priorities,” Berndt said. “They’ve always been there but they’re going to be even further down.”
Bautista’s concerns include not just the immediate solutions for people but about long-term housing options.
“There’s a variety of housing needs that need to be met and I’m concerned that our local agencies like the county and city and the different housing departments and housing authorities won’t step up in a timely enough manner to prevent people who have been
living here for generations from being displaced to other counties and even other states,” Bautista said.
