


Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton criticized the benefit concert FireAid for not getting enough donations directly to the Los Angeles fires victims.
FireAid was a concert held in January, days after the Palisades and Eaton fires were active for 24 days as it burned a combined 37,000 acres, damaged over 16,000 structures, and resulted in 17 deaths. While the concert raised $100 million and has distributed $75 million to date, Hilton appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime to lament that the money went to organizations over victims.
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“It’s like a parody of California corruption and craziness except it’s all true,” Hilton said Tuesday night. “One of the organizations that they gave money to is in Sonoma County, nowhere near LA. Another one says that it spends its money on multigenerational power building. We don’t need power building in Los Angeles, we need housebuilding.”
According to FireAid, at least two of the 120 organizations that received donations gave the funds directly to victims by way of check or prepaid cards. The Change Reaction provided 2,500 cash assistance checks and Inclusive Action issued $500 prepaid cards to 5,000 workers.
However, some 10,000 residents were displaced as they evacuated the fire’s path of destruction. According to Gov. Gavin Newsom last week, thousands of residents remain displaced.
“Everything in California is like this,” Hilton said. “They don’t care about the results, they just say some grand thing, make themselves feel good, have good intentions, but the results don’t matter.”
A member of FireAid’s grant advisory committee, Lisa Cleri Reale, reported the stark gap between need and funds to the Los Angeles Times.
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“The reality is we don’t have enough money to rebuild every lot that was lost,” Reale said. “What we can do is wrap ourselves around tools or ways that a lot of people can benefit from when they’re ready to rebuild, and that could be the sustainable models.”
Newsom allocated $101 million in taxpayer funds for “multifamily low-income housing development.” A California bill that would have funneled another roughly $500 million in philanthropic donations is on pause until next year due to public outcry.