Laguna Slide Victims to Get a Mobile Solution

Four Laguna Beach households that lost their homes in the June 1 Bluebird Canyon landslide will be allowed free use of mobile homes for 18 months, thanks to $75,000 in donations, city officials said Thursday.

“This gives them some stability,” said Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider, who spearheaded the arrangement.

“They’ve been going from home to home, living on the generosity of all these people who have let them live for free for two or three weeks at a time. This will give the kids some sense of consistency.”

The used mobile homes are being donated by the state Department of Parks and Recreation. The agency took possession of them when it closed El Morro Village Mobile Home Park to develop a public campground at Crystal Cove State Park, between Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar.

The trailers will be relocated to a vacant lot in Laguna Canyon, which the lot’s owner is providing for the 18 months at no cost. The move to Canyon Acres Drive was approved by the city Planning Commission on Wednesday night as a temporary relief to the families as they rebuild their homes.

The families will be responsible only for the cost of utilities.

City officials hope the homes will especially help the three families with children get settled before school starts.

Diane Stevens, whose family has spent the summer house-sitting a few weeks at a time, said she was relieved they could finally settle down for a year and a half. “We’re thrilled,” she said. “By the end of the summer we will have moved 10 times.”

For Stevens, finding a low-rent or rent-free residence was one of two major hurdles to overcome.

“The other is to get a moratorium placed on our mortgage [on the wrecked home] so we can just save as much money as we can so we can rebuild,” she said.

Most of the 15 remaining families whose homes were either severely damaged or destroyed have found housing, Pearson-Schneider said.

“These [four] families are some of the last ones that had not found a place,” she said.

After paperwork is completed, city officials hope to get the mobile homes ready in the next two weeks.

Officials previously suggested that the slide victims be allowed to move into vacated mobile homes at El Morro Village.

But state officials, who are evicting residents so the park can proceed with its campground plans, said allowing use of the mobile homes and vacation trailers could undermine the state’s efforts to evict remaining residents, who are suing to stop the process.

The leases expired in December, but about 250 of the 295 mobile homes are still occupied.

Use of the homes by Laguna Beach slide victims also could delay the campground plan, said Crystal Cove State Park Supt. Ken Kramer.

Dismantling the mobile homes, transporting and setting them up again with utilities in Laguna Beach will cost about $75,000.

Some of the trailers are missing appliances and others need new carpeting, painting and plumbing -- improvements that will be provided for the new occupants.

The mobile homes will be put on top of platforms because the property is in a flood plain.

Pearson-Schneider had called on the community to help the displaced residents. The Laguna Board of Realtors raised $45,000, MTV donated $20,000, and residents David and Holly Wilson donated $10,000.

The city is still struggling to find $6.5 million to stabilize the landslide area before winter rains begin.

“I was quite daunted at first when I learned how much it might cost,” Pearson-Schneider said.

“But I put my hat in my hands and the people I approached were all very enthusiastic about helping.”