Amid the parade of surreal images from the last few days, few have been stranger than this one: a FEMA disaster recovery center for L.A. fire victims inside the former Westside Pavilion.
Alongside the escalators and signs for the now-defunct movie theater in the carcass of what was once L.A.’s premiere shopping mall, dozens of government agencies have gathered to offer fire aid.
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration opened the city’s Disaster Recovery Center on Tuesday at the UCLA Research Park, which was formerly known as the Westside Pavilion.
“This is a one-stop shop,” Bass said of the services offered for fire victims at the center.
Inside a cavernous stretch of the former mall at the corner of Pico and Westwood boulevards, more than 70 government agencies and departments have set up booths.
The representatives from local, state and federal agencies will help with tasks as diverse as requesting new birth certificates, applying for disaster relief loans and turning off power and water services at now-destroyed homes.
The site is one of two FEMA disaster recovery centers in the region, with the other at the Pasadena City College Community Education Center, 3035 E. Foothill Blvd.
The University of California purchased the property last year, and it is under development to convert its commercial spaces into research facilities. When completed, it will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, among other programs.
Roughly 700,000 square feet, the site is two miles from UCLA’s main campus in Westwood. The mall closed in 2019, and Google had signed a lease on the site with ambitious plans for a new campus before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Space on the property has been donated for use by UCLA. FEMA will temporarily operate the recovery center, which is offering aid to fire victims and evacuees on documentation recovery, insurance claims, federal assistance, social services, mental health and other needs.
The center at 10850 Pico Blvd. will operate from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week for several weeks.
