When the California wildfires hit the community of Altadena, just north of Pasadena, Calif., in January, Stephen Sachs, Artsci’01, wife Kate (née Isenberg also Artsci’01) and their three children were forced to flee.
While their house is standing today, the family hasn't yet returned.
"Somehow the winds blew over us, but our town looks like a war zone," says Sachs. "There's still a smell of char in the air. It was so much worse than anything shown on TV."
Now temporarily housed in an Airbnb while their home is treated for smoke damage, Sachs says he and his family continue to come to terms with what happened.
“It’s one of the most challenging things we’ve ever experienced,” he says. “We watched our community go through various levels of grief.”
Included in the more than 9,400 buildings destroyed in Altadena was the school Sachs’ daughter attended. Sachs sits on the school’s board and soon began to field questions about what could be done to rebuild at both a structural and community level. “People knew I worked with governments and hoped I would have answers,” he says.
A business development executive in both the for profit and nonprofit sectors, Sachs helps organizations do business with government. He founded his own nonprofit, the Sustainable Development Corporation, to better advocate for marginalized groups as they navigate bureaucratic processes. He’s now harnessing partners for a new and equitable approach to rebuilding the diverse community of Altadena.
Sachs is championing stabilizing practices that will ensure owners receive fair market value for their properties, should they choose to sell. The plan is underpinned by a draft bill that would allow the community to purchase land in an effort to minimize developers sweeping in to buy at a bargain. The bill is currently winding its way through California’s various legislative levels.
“The risk of speculators coming in and buying from vulnerable people is high and we don’t want to see homeowners making choices out of desperation,” he says. “We want people to have options.”
Underlying these efforts, he says, is the sense of civic responsibility he learned at Queen’s.
“As a history grad, it was almost a foregone conclusion that I would have a role in policy or community at some point. Queen’s imbues a drive to make change and it was easy for me to bring that down here.”
With the fire’s impact still fresh and prospective legislative changes yet to be determined, he remains hopeful that positive change is on the horizon – along with a proactive plan for the future.
“I hope we’ve created a model that can be used to respond to disasters going forward,” he says. “We need to turn the fear and anger in our community to hope. Queen’s showed me I need to step in and help that happen.”
