No federal funds for slide victims

Alicia Robinson and Lauren Vane

State and federal officials have at least temporarily dashed the

hopes Laguna Beach landslide victims had of moving into El Morro

Village and getting federal funds.

Nearly two dozen families rendered homeless by the June 1

landslide won’t be receiving individual assistance funds from the

Federal Emergency Management Agency, the agency’s Washington office

decided Friday.

The slide victims also won’t be moving into vacant mobile homes at

El Morro Village in Crystal Cove State Park, California Resources

Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman told Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck

DeVore last week.

El Morro Village is at the center of an ongoing legal battle

between the state, which owns the property and plans to convert it to

public parkland, and mobile-home residents, who have been fighting

eviction for years.

Some who lost their homes in the landslide have nowhere to live

while the land is stabilized and homes are rebuilt, which could take

up to three years. At the request of Laguna Beach Mayor Elizabeth

Pearson-Schneider, DeVore had proposed that landslide victims be

allowed to live in about 26 mobile homes left vacant by residents who

have moved out.

The state parks department has opposed the plan, and in a June 15

letter to DeVore, so did Chrisman.

“The ongoing litigation with the El Morro Village management

company and individual residents eliminates any new habitation of the

mobile-home park as a housing option for these landslide victims,”

Chrisman wrote in a June 15 letter to DeVore.

On Tuesday, DeVore was undaunted by the rebuff ,and he criticized

officials for being “more concerned about a lawsuit over a parking

lot than they are over people with real, human needs.”

The governor has power to decide the issue, and he still could

step in, DeVore said.

“We have to continue to keep the pressure on,” he said.

A call to the governor’s press office was referred to Eric

Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency

Services. Lamoureux said he hadn’t seen the request from DeVore.

Although the state owns the El Morro property, he said, it’s still in

dispute whether the homes on it also belong to the state.

“If that request comes through to us, we’ll certainly look at

that,” Lamoureux said. “But I think we’ll also want to look at other

options that may be more viable and perhaps closer to the victims

themselves.... This is nearly three miles from where the victims were

living.”

His biggest concern right now is FEMA’s denial last week of

individual assistance funds to homeowners, he said.

FEMA has granted some money for repairs in connection with winter

storms around Southern California. The agency rejected a request for

individual assistance to homeowners who suffered damage from storms

between Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 -- which officials hoped would include

the landslide victims.

“We are working with FEMA right now to appeal that decision,”

Lamoureux said.

When deciding to grant assistance to individual homeowners, FEMA

considers whether they have insurance that covers their losses, and

how well the local community can respond to their needs, agency

spokesman James McIntyre said.

“If those things remain in place, then we can’t duplicate the

benefits and therefore we would deny it, but insurance is the largest

factor,” he said.

Bob Burnham, who is directing landslide recovery efforts, said the

slide victims probably don’t have insurance.

He’s cooperating with state officials to ask FEMA to link the

landslide with a disaster declaration for earlier winter storms, for

which FEMA already has approved individual assistance.