Los Angeles County supervisor Lindsey Hovas said on Tuesday that residents of the Tahitian Terrace Mobile Home Park, which had the fire in Palisade, Pacific Ocean, faced deep uncertainty about whether their communities will be rebuilt.
Mobile Home Parks will be included in a federally funded debris removal program after being initially ruled out, Horvath said in a statement. Residents “Now we are making sure the government clears their property.”
The announcement follows weeks of Limbo for Mobile Home Park owners and residents of 158 homes, all but one of which were destroyed in the Palisade fire on January 7th.
The Tahitian Terrace had an eclectic mix. There were wealthy residents, including “Shark Tank” star and investor Barbara Corcoran. But there have also been crushing many elderly people and young middle-income families with fixed incomes that had been paying homes decades ago.
At Hillside Park, just across from Beach, Rogers, residents own the home but leasing lots of land where rent is controlled. The park has long been owned by a small, family-owned company that has made little profits from the property.
In a letter to residents on March 21, the park’s owners decided who to pay for the removal of debris was a major factor in determining whether to rebuild Tahitian terraces.
Ruthi Muñoz, the manager of the mobile home park, who reached the Times on Tuesday, did not comment on the announcement, saying she was still learning more.
Phase 2 of cleanup, debris removal in federal civil properties, is carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers and is provided free of charge to eligible homeowners who opt in. This follows the first phase in which contractors from US environmental agencies removed potentially dangerous household items.
Several types of multifamily homes with units occupied by at least one owner, such as duplexes and condominiums, are subject to phase 2 cleaning of the Army.
However, multi-family rental properties owned by commercial institutions and do not include units occupied by one owner, such as apartment complexes and mobile home parks, are generally not eligible.
Street signs melted in the January 7th fire at Tahitian Terrace Mobile Home Park.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for summarizing fund allocation and cleanup procedures, says the owners of these commercial property are expected to use insurance and hire licensed contractors to remove debris.
However, these property owners are permitted to apply for removal of Army Corps fragments, and their eligibility is considered on a case-by-case basis.
Robert Fenton, FEMA Region 9 Administrator, says these property owners need to justify the use of federal funds in cleanup, including that property debris poses public health risks and that commercial owners are unable to complete the removal of debris independently.
In a letter Monday to Nancy Ward, director of the California Governor’s Department of Emergency Services, Fenton wrote: [Private Property Debris Removal] program. ”
On April 2, Los Angeles County officials requested the inclusion of a mobile home park, according to Fenton’s letter.
The EPA removed potentially dangerous materials, but “the immediate threat to public health and safety remains due to the unique properties of the property,” Fenton writes.
The Army estimates that 50% of property sites contain fragile asbestos,” he wrote.
The mobile home lot is “on a steep, fire-covered hillside overlooking the Pacific coast highway,” he wrote. Comprehensive debris removal from Tahitian terraces is “necessary to eliminate any immediate threats to health and safety” of those commuters.
Fenton also laid out why Azul Pacifico Inc., a family-owned business that owns and operates its main asset since 1960, the Tahitian Terrace, struggles to complete debris removal independently.
He cited their monthly income as an obstacle. He said the business’s average pre-fire gross rental income was approximately $240,000 per month, excluding utility and operating expenses.
Additionally, Fenton said the owner’s insurance would pay $1,000 for catastrophic debris removal at the $50,000 limit.
Fenton writes that Los Angeles city officials who support the county’s demands saw Tahitian terraces as a rent-controlled plot and “an important source of affordable housing in Pallisad, the Pacific Ocean.”
“We believe that, based on the city’s guarantee, including Tahitian terraces in the PPDR programme will accelerate the reopening of evacuated tenants’ parks and ensure that the community will retain this affordable residential enclave in otherwise wealthy areas.”
In a March letter to residents, the park owner wrote, “We cannot make a decision regarding reconstruction until the debris removal process has finished and a full analysis of all variables has been completed.”
He added that if Tahitian terraces were rebuilt, the process could “take years.”
Chris Russo, who closed escrows at a Tahitian terrace home a day before the Parisades fire burned out, said she and other residents were confused by the removal of the park from federal cleaning and spent hours calling and writing to government agencies, suing to clear their lot.
“Without FEMA’s assistance, the fate of the ability to return home depends on the insured landowner who is likely not able to financially take charge of the full cleaning burden,” she wrote to FEMA last month. “The situation is disastrous and your decision will determine whether our community can be reconstructed from the Los Angeles landscape or erased forever.”
On Tuesday, Russo said the Times had been delighted with the news and described the issue as an unforgettable “squeaking wheel.”
“We’re all very organized as a community because we want to go back,” Russo said.
“We’ve had a lot of fights. It’s tired. It’s a bit of a win. That’s big news. …We feel hopeful because we were in Limbo, without knowing what the future is.”
The Westside district includes Malibu and Palisade, Hovasu advocates the inclusion of nonprofits, churches, mobile home parks and commercial properties in its federal waste clearance program.
In a statement Tuesday, she said in addition to the Tahitian terrace, the county requested that the Palisade Bowl, an adjacent mobile home park with about 170 homes.
As of Tuesday, a spokesperson for her office said the county’s request had not been answered.
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