Mayra Chacon’s home cleaning service, Ocean Housekeeping, employs Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants who arrived in the US less than six months before. They clean dozens of houses around Los Angeles and, every Saturday, send their paychecks to loved ones back home.
But as wildfires erupted earlier this month, Ocean Housekeeping lost more than 50% of its business overnight. Fires burned down 25 homes in the Palisades that Chacon’s company cleaned on a weekly basis, and 10 homes in Altadena and Pasadena. Her employees speak little English and don’t know how to find work elsewhere, Chacon said. With the plunge in revenue, she’s offering a 25% discount to new customers so she could book more jobs to keep everyone paid.
