Wilson Signs Mobile Home ‘Tie-Down’ Bill

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 law, which takes effect 60 days after signing, requires all new or relocated mobile homes to be fastened to the ground with a system of “tie-downs” used in high-wind regions of the country.

Mobile homes installed before the law takes effect will not be required to be fixed to the ground. That provision helped gain support for the bill from mobile home owners, many of whom are senior citizens living on fixed incomes who had long opposed required safety devices because of the costs involved.

More than 10% of the 51,062 mobile homes in Los Angeles County parks were rendered uninhabitable within seconds of the Jan. 17 earthquake, most of which were jolted from their foundations.

Another 184 burned to the ground in fires fueled by gas lines ruptured when the homes shifted from their supports. One blaze resulted in the death of a 92-year-old Chatsworth woman.

Six months later, more than 1,700 of the severely damaged mobile homes are still considered unlivable, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.