Former residents of mobile home park destroyed in Palisades Fire continue to fight for compensation
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. (KABC) -- More than one year after the destructive Palisades Fire, former residents of a beachfront mobile home park that was destroyed in the wildfire continue to face frustrations as they seek compensation.
Those who lived at Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates are fighting to receive fair-market value for their lost homes.
"There were laws that were passed that took our rights away," said Bonnie Kanner, who was a nine-year resident of the mobile home park when it burned down in January of last year.
ABC7 has reported multiple stories on the plight of those who used to live at the Palisades Bowl, and the owners who have refused to clean up the debris, prompting statements such as this one from Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park:
"It is absolutely inexcusable that a year after this devastation, that toxic stew of debris is still sitting right on PCH and some of the most sensitive environmental areas in all of L.A.," Park said last month.
Those owners also terminated the leases of the more than 100 residents of the Palisades Bowl. In the past, the displaced residents would have been paid in-place market value of their home. Now, all that they are required to be paid is relocation help -- which they have not received.
According to Kanner, it was state legislators who inexplicably gave the park's owner the legal right withhold compensation.
"SB 610 took our right to be compensated," Kanner said in an interview with ABC7. "SB 274 wiped out our leases, our rent control, our everything. The two together destroyed us."
Kanner said her insurance paid only about 10% of what her home could have sold for on the day before the fire. She's now living in a small apartment in Santa Monica.
She said she feels like she's the only one fighting this particular issue but does it to help the victims of future fires.
There are 450,000 mobile homes in the state of California over 1 million voters in the state of California and they don't know about this law," Kanner told ABC7. "They're the ones that I am trying to scream out to so that they understand that what happened to us can happen to them in the next disaster they should all check their insurance."
State Sen. Ben Allen, whose 24th district includes Pacific Palisades, has been working to introduce legislation to help people like Kanner. After a request for an interview with Allen, his office provided a statement to ABC7 that read in part:
"I am 100% committed to shoring up post-disaster protections for our mobile home residents, including needed clarification to maintain appropriate compensation for a mobile homeowner's leasehold interest value. These residents deserve greater transparency, user-preservation guardrails, and tenancy protections in the wake of a disaster."
