Mobile Homes Los Angeles County

Following a recent long-awaited decision by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, residents of Top o' Topanga Mobile Home Estates now have the opportunity to purchase the lots on which their mobile homes sit. The residents have been involved in a six-year effort to convert Top o' Topanga from a rental to a resident-owner park.

Following a recent long-awaited decision by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, residents of Top o' Topanga Mobile Home Estates now have the opportunity to purchase the lots on which their mobile homes sit. The residents have been involved in a six-year effort to convert Top o' Topanga from a rental to a resident-owner park.

An early-morning fire and explosion in a Santa Clarita trailer park Friday destroyed two mobile homes, Fire Department officials said. The blaze, which broke out about 2:40 a.m. and caused an estimated $81,300 in damage, was caused by an electrical short in the wiring of one of the mobile homes, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mike Brownlie said. The explosion was touched off when flames ignited some gunpowder used in an antique gun, Brownlie said.

Gov. Pete Wilson this week signed a bill requiring new mobile homes in California to be tied to the ground, in an effort to help prevent the type of wreckage at mobile home parks experienced during the Northridge earthquake. "This bill will help reduce the damage and destruction that occurs to mobile homes during earthquakes," said Wilson, who signed the bill late Wednesday night.

The city will hire a private engineering firm to right hundreds of mobile homes shaken from their foundations during the Northridge earthquake. A month after the temblor, as many as 1,500 residents remain displaced from their homes, which cannot be reconnected to gas or water supplies until they are placed back on their supports. The city has intervened because officials believe that it is taking too long for private contractors to get the job done, city spokeswoman Gail Foy said.

City officials are having difficulty finding hundreds of mobile home residents displaced by last month's earthquake who are now eligible for free repairs to their damaged dwellings. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will spend between $4 million and $6 million to restore up to 800 mobile homes that were knocked off their foundations in Santa Clarita during the Northridge quake, city officials estimate. But in order for the work to be done, residents must first approve it.

Six months after the Northridge earthquake bounced thousands of mobile homes from their foundations, Gov. Pete Wilson is considering a bill passed by the Legislature which would require the structures to be bolted to the ground for safety. Long opposed by owners, the measure reflects a broad new consensus inspired by the extraordinary toll the quake inflicted on mobile homes.

Nearly 10% of all mobile homes in Los Angeles County have been declared uninhabitable as a result of earthquake damage, sparking renewed interest over whether costly safety measures should be required by the state. Of 51,062 mobile homes in parks in Los Angeles County, 4,947 were damaged by the magnitude 6.

When Beth Lopez and her husband, Henry, separated two years ago, they decided to sell their three-bedroom, three-bath family home in east Palmdale. Lopez knew she had to downsize. But the search for a new residence led her to a dwelling she had never before considered: a mobile home. "It was not something I had ever thought of," said Lopez, who is 52 and unemployed. "But of course things change in life." As do perceptions.