Help Palisades Bowl Residents: Sign the Petition

There are gates that prevent people from going back to their properties in the Palisades Bowl.

The remains of the Palisades Bowl, a once thriving mobile home community of about 350 residents, continue to rust across from the Pacific Ocean.

The Palisades Fire torched the homes along Pacific Coast Highway between Temescal Canyon Road and the Bel Air Bay Club.

The property at one time belonged to Eddie Biggs, who was married twice. He died and the property was split between his ex-wife, Loretta and second wife Charlotte. This past December Charlotte died and there appear to be legal issues over the property.

Stuck in the middle of the mess are Palisadians who called this area home.

There is hope with proposed legislation.

California SB 749 would allow Bowl residents a chance to make a fair and competitive offer on the property.  The bill has passed the Senate and will go to the Assembly  in just a few weeks.

The residents are seeking signatures for their petition. chng.it/T9YDyMJrTz

They write:

We are the residents of Palisades Bowl—a tight-knit group of Californians who found home in this unique mobile home community in Pacific Palisades, now burned down and fenced off.

Hundreds of us lost our homes in the January 7 fire. Half of our community is made up of seniors, but we are also teachers, nurses, veterans, and young families with children in local public schools. We built lives here. And when the fire happened, the park owners gated off the property, stationed 24-hour security, and blocked us from even returning to search for burned belongings or properly grieve what we lost.

Seven months later, we remain displaced—with no plan, no answers and no right to return. Property we loved and cared for has been reduced to ash, and now park owners are using a legal loophole to try to profit from our devastation.

And it’s not just us. Thousands of mobile home residents across the state are in similar positions, and millions more are vulnerable.

These communities are one of the last truly affordable housing options in California. Some of our neighbors bought their small homes 40 years ago for just $20,000—giving them a path to homeownership they otherwise never could have achieved. Even last year, residents purchased newer homes for hundreds of thousands—a fraction of any other alternative in all of Los Angeles. We’ve all invested our personal savings into these homes. Now we just want a chance to rebuild—and go home.

With your help, new legislation can ensure park owners do the right thing—while still preserving their rights. Everyone could win here. But instead, the owners are resisting even the most basic protections for residents—refusing to support even the most basic protections for residents, even in the wake of disaster.

These park owners don’t live here, don’t work here, and have never been part of our community. They are not required to rebuild or include us in future plans. They’ve made no commitment to help us return—or even communicated what their plans are. Instead, they’re trying to pass cleanup costs onto FEMA and taxpayers, despite having insurance and the financial means to do it themselves.

Meanwhile, they stall, delay, and quietly explore options to redevelop and profit—while our land still sits as it did in January: piled with burned homes, ash, and debris, threatening the safety of public beaches just across the street. The photo in this petition is a recent image of how 14 acres of land still sits—untouched—along one of California’s most beautiful public beaches.

It is wrong. It is heartbreaking. And, as of today, it is legal.

SB749 would change that.

It gives residents and park owners a path to work together. It says: if you’re going to close or redevelop a mobile home park, give residents the opportunity to make a fair and competitive offer—and give them the dignity of a path home. That sounds reasonable, right? Yet some park owners resist even a balanced, constitutional law that respects both property rights and the rights of residents to remain in their communities.

And keep in mind, this isn’t just about our situation. SB 749 protects every mobile home park resident in California—over 1.5 million people!

This law already exists in over a dozen other states—including Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and more. It works—and more states continue to adopt it because of its success. It prevents displacement. It builds stronger, more stable communities. Without SB 749, homelessness will rise. Our housing crisis will deepen.

This law has already been approved by four legislative committees and passed by the California State Senate. In just a few weeks, it will go to a full vote on the Assembly floor—and we need California lawmakers to hear from all of us.

We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for a chance.

Help us go home. Support SB749.

—Palisades Bowl Community Partnership