Conversing with Mark Labberton

“I’m one of the thousands and thousands of people in Altadena who have lost our homes to the fire and are trying to pick up the pieces and find out what to do next.” (Megan Katerjian, from the episode)

What is it like to lose your house in a fire?

The Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County started on January 7, 2025, and within twenty-four hours had burned over fourteen thousand acres of Altadena, California, and surrounding areas. Thousands of people have lost their homes (some without any guarantee of home insurance or FEMA aid), thousands of schools have closed, and life in this beautiful city has been completely transformed.

Today’s guest, Megan Katerjian, went from helping local homeless families find housing to experiencing homelessness herself, when her family’s northwest Altadena home burned down in the Eaton Fire. She is CEO of Door of Hope and has a twenty-year career in fundraising, policy advocacy, program development, volunteer engagement, and pastoral ministry.

In this episode, Mark Labberton welcomes Megan to discuss her experience and perspective. Megan courageously and vulnerably opens up about the pain of losing a meaningful space of care and comfort, and shares about the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual realities of what this traumatic experience has been like.

Together they discuss:

• Megan’s story of losing her house in the Eaton Fire
• The insights Megan gained about homelessness through experiencing her own version of it
• Megan’s work and ministry as CEO of Door of Hope, a Christian non-profit, based in Pasadena, serving Los Angeles County. From their website: “One of the only homeless providers that can shelter any kind of family together in their own private unit, including single moms, single dads, and two-parent families together with their children.”
• The meaning of a social safety network
• The effect of trauma on decision-making
• What approach to self-care and restoration she is pursuing
• The social and economic impact of homelessness
• The difference between financial and relational poverty
• And how you can help those affected by the Eaton Fire

If you are unhoused for any reason, including having lost your home in the Los Angeles fires, visit DoorofHope.us for reliable information and practical resources. For additional information, visit Fuller Seminary’s Wind and Fire Resources page.

Additional links:

Summary of Eaton Fire

City of Pasadena Eaton Fire Updates

About Megan Katerjian

Rev. Megan Katerjian is CEO of Door of Hope, and has a twenty-year career in fundraising, policy advocacy, program development, volunteer engagement, and pastoral ministry, working for non-profits in Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Africa, as well as churches in California.

Megan holds two master’s degrees from Fuller Seminary, a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and a certificate in non-profit management.

Megan lost her Altadena home in the Eaton Fires in east Los Angeles County in January 2025.

Show Notes

• Learn more about Door of Hope: Empowering families facing homelessness to transform their lives
• Megan Katerjian shares about what the past month has been like after losing her house in the Altadena fires
• Temporary housing to transitional housing
• “I’m one of the thousands and thousands of people in Altadena who have lost our homes to the fire and are trying to pick up the pieces and find out what to do next.”
• Integrating Jesus and justice
• How Door of Hope works with Pasadena homeless
• The power-control cycle single mothers face
• A mother’s story of going from brokenness and despair to hope and empowerment
• Altadena’s fires
• Megan Katerjian tells her story of finding and then losing her home in northwest Altadena
• “It’s about the meaning of the home rather than the physical space.”
• Trauma-informed design: colors and arrangements bring the feelings of safety and comfort
• “I don’t think I’ve ever sobbed that hard in my life.”
• Losing a life-giving environment of comfort and peace
• How to pray for the devastation of the fires in Southern California
• Self-care
• “I can’t watch the news right now. … The fire coverage is really triggering.”
• Taking time off to grieve and pick up the pieces
• Being with people who went through the same experience
• Leaving town for respite in Goleta, California
• “I talked to God in very distracted conversations.”
• “The sun rises and sets every day, and God is present every day. And just that steadiness and that calm and that reminder was really, really important for me.”
• Expanding empathy and understanding of homelessness
• The irony of learning about homeless
• The impact of trauma-brain on the ability to make important decisions; slower processing
• “What the world might interpret as laziness or lack of motivation could just be the impact of trauma.”
• The “Social Service Shuffle”: good leads, bad leads, time wasted, etc.
• FEMA and “a sea of cots”
• “If I had nothing in my bank account and didn’t have a friend who had set up a GoFundMe page, I would be panicking right now.”
• “Homelessness is not just about financial poverty, it’s about relational poverty.”
• The benefits of a thick social safety network
• Walking through Asheville, North Carolina, after the hurricane flood
• Impact on the housing market for renting and buying homes
• Will any landlords be willing to take a Section 8 voucher?
• Multi-generation black homeowner families who have lived in Altadena for many years after redlining moved them out of Pasadena
• “The economics look a little different.”
• Three families in the same home—”what does their social safety network look like?”
• Door of Hope pivoting to create  the Eaton Fire Housing Assistance Program
• Working with FEMA and home insurance
• Working with the church to respond to the crisis and provide a family of care, support, and love
• Self-care as restorative rather than selfish
• A call to action: Please act and help those impacted by the fires in Southern California

Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.