Dear Friend,

When the Eaton Fire tore through his apartment, Victor lost everything except his car. As an Uber driver, that car was both his livelihood and his last lifeline. But with nowhere else to go, Victor began living out of it. That meant he couldn’t keep driving for Uber. 

Without a home, unable to work, and recovering from surgery, Victor’s world had been turned upside down. That’s when he was referred to Friends In Deed. Christina, a Friends In Deed Housing Navigator, worked with him to gather pay stubs and prove his income. In 2024, Victor earned a decent wage, but the fire and his medical recovery meant his 2025 income looked very different.

A local senior housing community had an opening, but the compliance team wasn’t convinced. To them, Victor’s paperwork didn’t add up. The property management team was supportive, but the red tape was a major barrier. Most other communities had 2–3 year waiting lists, leaving few options.

Christina didn’t give up. She put Victor on the housing community’s interest list and kept advocating. On a hunch, she reached back out and asked what else could be done. That persistence paid off. The team requested a letter explaining how Friends In Deed’s Rapid Rehousing program could support Victor. Christina outlined the “step-down” approach: FID would help cover rent while Victor rebuilt his income and regained his health, with the goal of him fully sustaining the rent on his own within 1-2 years.

The letter made all the difference. Today, Victor is housed. He has the stability he needs to rest, recover, and prepare to return to work.

Our Rapid Rehousing and Time-Limited Subsidy program is an outgrowth of the tremendous generosity we received in the aftermath of the Eaton fire. People like Victor, and thousands of others, were thrown into precarious situations, some with more resources than others. We continue to receive calls and inquiries for help from fire victims. We are committed to helping today, tomorrow, and into the future as the effects of this tragedy continue to emerge. 

Finally, this past Monday, we held our 3rd annual Cooking for a Cause event—and it was a huge success! Many thanks to our sponsors, to those who purchased tickets, and to everyone who donated to our crowdfunding challenge. We achieved our fundraising goal, and everyone had a wonderful time.

A special word of gratitude to Agnes Restaurant and Cheesery, our chef judges, and the contestant teams. To our rockstar development team, led by VP of Development and Communications, Merria Velasco, with special kudos to Elyse Reed, Development Associate, for organizing and executing a stellar evening that increased awareness and raised crucial funds for our Food Pantry. And of course, to Tim Nistler, our MC extraordinaire and Director of the Food Pantry.

This was another night of truly “doing together what we cannot do alone!”

Blessings and have a lovely weekend,

Rabbi Joshua

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At Friends In Deed, we honor the dignity and privacy of every person we serve. The stories we share are real, but sometimes, we change names or minor details or use stock photos to protect our clients’ identities. Thanks for your compassion, understanding, and support.

Friends In Deed is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. We embrace and celebrate the spectrum of our employees’, volunteers’, and clients’ ages, color, ability or disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, neurodiversity, and other characteristics that make our employees, volunteers, and clients unique.