Recovery Starts Here: Helen Lam

Helen Lam built a life and business from the ground up in Altadena, CA, after fleeing the Vietnam War as a Vietnamese and Chinese-American refugee. She worked as an esthetician, steadily gaining experience and earning the trust of her clients. It was those very clients who encouraged her to open her own shop. And when she did, they followed her. For 15 years, Helen’s Facial and Waxing has been a fixture of the Altadena community.

Helen navigated the world of entrepreneurship largely alone, with few connections to the resources and networks that established business owners had. Language barriers to English-only systems made grant applications and official processes especially difficult. But Helen was resourceful and determined, and over time, her business grew.

Disaster preparedness, however, was never part of her plan.

Helen was aware of high winds and occasional power outages in the area, but wildfires felt distant, unlikely, even impossible. She knew to call the authorities in an emergency, but she had no formal disaster protocol in place. There was no reason, it seemed, to have one.

“It [disaster preparedness] was never on her radar. It was never a thought, because there wasn’t any recent history of a wildfire in that area. . . I think the main concern that she had was keeping the business sustainable and afloat, and then just the day-to-day worries about burglary and such.” — Anna and Laurel, Helen’s daughters

Then the Altadena Fire came.

Helen’s business burned completely. She couldn’t rebuild in place because she rented her space and the landowner ultimately chose to sell. The question of returning to Altadena, to the community that had sustained her for a decade and a half, quickly became uncertain.

“As you know, there are a lot of people who want to rebuild Altadena and make sure that it doesn’t fall into the hands of wealthy real estate investment groups. But, unfortunately, it seems kind of bleak right now, because there’s already been a lot of people who have had no choice but to sell and relocate, either out of the county or out of state entirely. And even if our mom were to go back to Altadena once everything gets settled, there’s no guarantee that it would be as affordable as it used to be.” — Anna and Laurel

As the sole breadwinner for her family, Helen poured everything into her business. In 2024, the year before the fire, Helen’s Facial and Waxing had its highest-grossing year ever. In the aftermath of the fire, revenue dropped by 60%.

Helen launched a GoFundMe to begin rebuilding. Grants from the Altadena Chamber of Commerce, Paris Hilton’s 11-11 campaign, and the Pasadena Women’s Business Center also offered some relief. But significant structural barriers limited how much formal support she could actually access. Past experiences with bankruptcy made her wary of loans. Without renters’ insurance, which was too costly for her to maintain, she had no safety net. And applying for disaster recovery grants, including one through Los Angeles County, was frustrating: documentation requirements were exhaustive, and with fraud rampant in wildfire relief programs, the verification process was burdensome for applicants trying to prove legitimate losses.

As with opening her business years before, Helen navigated recovery largely on her own – through word of mouth, community connections, and tips shared on local Facebook groups. There was no centralized hub guiding her. 

Today, Helen’s Facial and Waxing has relocated to a small booth inside a strip mall in Pasadena. The new space is easy to miss. It is tucked away from the street with little visibility to passing traffic. Yet, rent is significantly higher than before, squeezing a business already stretched thin. It took three months for 50% of her original clientele to find her again.

Local officials like Judy Chu and Catherine Barger have acknowledged the difficulties facing small business owners in the wake of the fires, but Helen’s specific struggles — the renter’s vulnerability, the language barriers, the documentation maze — have yet to be directly addressed. NewsNation gave her a platform to share her story and reach new customers, but media coverage alone doesn’t pay the rent.

Helen is clear about what she and others like her need: stronger protections for Altadena’s land against real estate investors, and sustained, accessible funding; not one-time grants, but a reliable stream of support that lets small businesses actually recover.

“The most important thing that would help her rebuild to what it used to be, so that she can be self-sufficient again, is making funds continually available. The main thing that she said would be having enough funds so that she’s not so constrained where she is right now, because even though she wants to grow the business, she’s kind of stuck, because she’s renting a small booth.” — Anna and Laurel, translating for their mom 

She advises other small business owners to keep a rainy day fund and make duplicate copies of every important document before disaster strikes. The grant application process demands evidence, and having that paperwork ready can make the difference between accessing help and falling through the cracks.

Helen also has a message for policymakers: the fires may feel like last year’s news, but for the people who lived through them, the aftermath is far from over. Recovery is a years-long process, and aid needs to reflect that.

She hopes to bring Helen’s Facial and Waxing back to what it once was: a thriving, community-rooted business that she built with love, care, and grit.