Put your help where it's needed, not with me
The people who need help are the families and the small businesses the fire hit. Here's how to reach them directly, and who's already on the ground doing the work.
Please don't donate to me
What we do, and what we don't
We do
Point you to the real helpers, send customers and attention to community businesses, share plain-language information, and help neighbors find relief that already exists.
We don't
We are not collecting or holding money, not running an SBA or any relief program, and not creating a parallel fund. We run nothing official; we assist where we can.
Help reaches in circles, not a line
The smoke and the runoff didn't stop at the neighborhood line, so neither does help. We work outward in three overlapping circles, and no one in the harm zone is left out:
The immediate blocks: businesses shut, smoke-choked, runoff-adjacent.
The surrounding Boyle Heights corridors hit by closures and lost foot traffic.
The wider footprint (East LA, Commerce, north Boyle Heights) where harm is still unfolding. We keep extending outward.
We focus on community, locally owned businesses: the taqueria, the meat market, the family shop. Not chains, warehouses, or corporate operators.
Two ways to help a business
Storefronts you can visit
Restaurants, markets, shops: just show up. Order, buy a gift card, leave a review, give to their fundraiser. The simplest help there is.
Businesses you can't walk into
Manufacturers, suppliers, services: the public can't "shop" them. Their path is insurance, the County claims process, and recovery resources. We help point them there; we don't run it.
▸ See our featured local businesses & the full listing →
Neighbors helping neighbors
Some of the best help has come from the community itself. A few efforts worth joining:
- Midnight Books LA, with DAWA (Dawah Delivery) are building DIY air purifiers with proper filters for homes in the smoke, and delivering groceries to neighbors sheltering in place. They need volunteers, especially drivers. Reach DAWA on Instagram at @dawahdelivery.
- Operation Healthy Hearts assembles air purifiers and delivers them to neighbors who signed up. They need hands and transport.
- Coyotl + Macehualli build Corsi-Rosenthal box purifiers and need masks, materials, and funds.
This is the neighborhood protecting its own air. Running a community effort? Tell us and we will add it.
Where to give & who's already helping
- Affected a small business or street vendor? The Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund (Inclusive Action for the City, with the BH Chamber of Commerce & Hustle & Heart) gives rapid emergency grants in ZIPs 90022/90023/90033/90063. Find it at inclusiveaction.org/boyleheightsfirefund.
- A resident who needs help? The California Community Foundation is distributing relief at calfund.org. And call 211 (county) or 311 (city) for free masks and air purifiers.
- Need supplies or a clean-air space? Alma Youth & Family Center (3218 Wabash Ave), the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory resilience hub, and K.A.U.S.E. LA are open with masks, food, and supplies.
- Want to give supplies or time? Coyotl + Macehualli is building air purifiers for neighbors and needs masks, materials, and hands.
- Care about the air & the long fight? Support the groups who've been at this for years: East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Communities for a Better Environment, Unión de Vecinos, InnerCity Struggle, Promesa Boyle Heights.
Helper details change daily, so we keep this list current. Full directory and sources on the data site.
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