“It’s the Little Things”: Hollywood Charity Says Many Victims Overwhelmed With Most Basic Needs
The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF), kept busy responding to the aftermath of the pandemic and then the strikes, is turning its extensive social-service apparatus to the destructive L.A. wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena that have left thousands of homes destroyed or otherwise uninhabitable. The venerable organization’s hotline has already been fielding an increasing-by-the-day volume of calls from industry members in need of immediate, basic-needs assistance — medicine, blankets, toiletries. Entertainment unions have tallied hundreds of affected members in the early days, while circulating online lists with attached GoFundMe links reveal a wide swath of suffering across Hollywood’s creative and business realms.
Jennifer Jorge, MPTF’s director of community social services, observes that much of the most needed help is in the time-intensive practicalities of rebuilding lives. Along with providing supportive mental health counseling, the non-profit expects to be focusing in the longer term on guiding fire victims through the byzantine process of dealing with government agencies and insurance issues.
“It’s document replacement: passports, drivers’ licenses,” she explains. “It’s the little things and everything. People are completely overwhelmed. The sheer magnitude of what needs to be reinstated is so much. You need to have the knowledge of who to call and what to ask for. We’re here to help with that, sometimes making the calls with individuals or even doing it on their behalf.”
Jorge adds, “Right now, [victims] are often running on adrenaline, operating from a state of shock and grief. But it can only last so long. That’s where we come in.”
