When the Eaton Fire forced Anne Marie Molina and her family to evacuate their Pasadena home, they had no idea how much it would cost simply to get their lives back.

Anne Marie and her husband, Carlos, had rented the same home for seven years, raising five children there. But when the fires came, they couldn’t find temporary housing large enough for everyone.

Their family was separated. Without renters’ insurance, they found themselves paying for both their regular home and temporary accommodations, draining their savings and maxing out credit cards just to get by.

That’s why I believe we need to rethink what meaningful disaster recovery looks like.

Even after returning to their damaged home, the expenses continued. Furniture needed replacing. Air filters became essential to protect their children from lingering dust and allergens.

The fire was over, but the financial consequences were not.

Nearly 21 months after the devastating January 2025 wildfires, Anne Marie’s experience illustrates a reality LA cannot afford to overlook: Surviving a disaster and recovering from one are two very different things.

I am executive director of the Jewish Free Loan Association (JFLA), and what has stayed with me most is how quickly people’s lives changed and how overwhelming the financial consequences became.

These were families and small business owners who, just days earlier, were paying their bills, raising their children and running their businesses. Suddenly, they were facing expenses they could never have anticipated.

I remember thinking about how difficult it must be to ask for financial assistance when you’ve always been the person taking care of yourself and your family. Many people who came to us had never imagined they would need an emergency loan.

We tend to measure disasters in acres burned, structures destroyed and lives lost. These figures matter enormously. But they don’t capture the financial aftermath that can quietly unravel a family’s stability long after the headlines fade.

A home doesn’t have to burn down to become uninhabitable. A business doesn’t have to be destroyed to lose its customers. And a family doesn’t have to lose everything to find itself facing impossible financial decisions.

Consider Sissy Keresztes-Fischer, who owns Creo Arthouse, an art gallery and home décor store in Malibu’s Country Mart. Her business survived the Palisades Fire physically intact. Yet mandatory evacuations and the prolonged closure of Pacific Coast Highway contributed to nearly 90% in lost revenues over the following six months.

What surprised me most was how many different financial challenges could arise from a single disaster, including for people whose homes or businesses had not been destroyed. It became clear that a disaster can create a financial crisis even for people who appeared financially secure before it happened.

Following the wildfires, JFLA provided 117 zero-interest, zero-fee loans totaling $1.97 million to affected individuals, families and businesses.

These loans helped cover everything from temporary housing and basic necessities to expenses required to keep small businesses operating.

But the numbers that stay with me most aren’t the dollars distributed. They’re the ones that reveal how long recovery actually takes.

In Oct. 2025, we surveyed wildfire borrowers about their ongoing recovery. Ninety-five percent were still experiencing some form of recovery, with 14% reporting that their situation had actually worsened. Nearly three-quarters were still recovering financially, while 59% reported ongoing emotional or mental strain.

These findings represent a small group of borrowers, but they underscore what we were hearing firsthand: Recovery doesn’t follow a predictable timeline, and the financial and emotional consequences are deeply intertwined.

Emergency shelters, food distribution and immediate financial assistance are indispensable. But recovery cannot be treated as a short-term project with an expiration date. It requires sustained attention to the financial realities survivors face months and years later.

No single nonprofit, government program or charitable initiative can meet every need. Lasting recovery depends on a community willing to remain engaged after the urgency fades.

LA demonstrated extraordinary generosity in the days and weeks following the fires. Neighbors opened their homes. Volunteers delivered meals. Donors stepped forward to help strangers rebuild.

That same spirit is still needed now.

For Anne Marie, a zero-interest loan helped reunite her family under one roof and begin restoring a sense of normalcy. For Sissy, it helped bridge a devastating period of lost business income.

Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned is that financial recovery means more than replacing what was lost. It means helping people regain control of their lives, restore their independence, and move forward with dignity.

The fires may be behind us. For many of our neighbors, the recovery is not. And our responsibility to them shouldn’t be, either.

Rachel Grose is executive director of the Jewish Free Loan Association.