JPMorgan Chase reopens branch in fire-ravaged LA community

Amid the devastating L.A. wildfires, the mountainside suburb of Altadena lost many resources. Among them were its only two bank branches: one operated by JPMorgan Chase and another run by Bank of America .

As of this week, the Chase branch is back in business. It reopened its doors at 9 a.m. on Monday.

"Chase is really committed to the Altadena community," Maria Garcia, JPMorgan's consumer bank divisional director for California, told American Banker. "Regardless of what else is going on around us, we thought it would be important to make sure that the Altadena branch is there for the community."

The branch had been closed since Jan. 7, when the Eaton Fire tore through the area. The fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures in Altadena and neighboring Pasadena, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In Altadena alone, an estimated 40% of all homes were lost.

Among the businesses destroyed was Bank of America's local branch, which had stood next door to the Chase branch on Lake Avenue. As Bank of America safe deposit box holders have been waiting to learn whether their prized possessions survived the fire, the bank has been working with structural engineers and others to make determinations, according to a BofA spokesperson.

After the fire, Altadena was suddenly a bank desert — at a time when residents badly needed financial resources.

Joy Chen, a former deputy mayor of L.A., has been unable to return to her Altadena home since it lost power and water a month ago. Since then, she's been keeping in touch with other displaced community members through WhatsApp, and she said many of them are struggling with an array of financial challenges.

"Maybe we're not in the news anymore, because the initial shock is over, but I would say that people's journey navigating this in many cases is just beginning," Chen said.

Having the Chase branch back open could make a difference, Chen said, especially for people who have been unable to work as they've struggled to find housing.

"It's just incredibly time-consuming to deal with all of these logistics," Chen said. "And we're suddenly in a whole new world of understanding insurance, remediation — so many topics that we've never had to study before."

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Such residents can now bring their questions to Chase. Since reopening, the Lake Avenue branch is offering the same services it did before the fire.

Practically speaking, the branch's reopening means that Chase customers will have local access to their money, Garcia said.

"Obviously, we have many branches surrounding Altadena," she said. "But now they have local access in their community as they're trying to solve for their own personal situations. And I think it's important to have convenience."

In addition to reopening the branch, JPMorgan has installed new ATMs in the building's parking lot, which non-Chase customers can use free of charge.

In the first few days after the fire, Garcia said, JPMorgan was under the impression that its Altadena branch suffered "catastrophic damage." But after the smoke cleared, photographs revealed that the building was still standing — unlike much of its surroundings.

"If you were to take a look at Altadena, specifically where the branch sits, everything around it, unfortunately, is gone," Garcia said.

Because the building was relatively unscathed, reopening it was less a matter of making physical repairs and more about cleaning the facility and checking to make sure that everything was safe.

"We came in and we did a full-on scrub of the branch and cleaned it out to make sure that it was not only able to open, but safe for all of our clients and our employees," Garcia said.

For much of the rest of Altadena, the work of rebuilding remains to be done. Thousands of homes and businesses still lie in ruins. West Altadena, in particular, faces an identity crisis: Many of the diverse, working-class families that gave the neighborhood its eclectic charm have fled the area, and it's not clear whether they're coming back.

"What I fear, just based on the housing market in California, is that we're going to see gentrification in that area," James Chang, president of Pasadena Federal Credit Union, said earlier this month. "People are going to be forced out, because housing is just so expensive."

As the community recovers, Garcia said, JPMorgan hopes that reopening its doors will help with the "healing process" — not only by providing financial resources, but by sending a signal that the nation's largest bank has not given up on Altadena.

"I think it says a lot," Garcia said. "There is that will to rebuild, and having Chase come back, I think, is really going to motivate more folks to do the same."