Saving Oakridge

A majority of Oakridge Mobile Home Park residents would support a plan to allow 60 homes there to be rented as affordable housing units, based on two surveys taken recently. Daily News.

The 208-acre mobile home park in Sylmar, which lost nearly all of its 600 units in a wildfire in 2008, is now trying to lure new residents to generate much-needed revenue. Many residents who lost their homes in the fire used their insurance money to buy single-family homes outside the park, taking advantage of plummeting home prices at the time.

As a result, occupancy is very low. But a city plan to buy 60 mobile homes and use them as affordable housing units was criticized by some residents, who said it would change the owner-occupied character of the park.