Hillside Task Force Returns to Pacific Palisades, Finds Encampments
Councilmember Traci Park (left) and Canyon representative to the Pacific Palisades Community Council Sharon Kilbride at the Pacific Palisades Hillside Task Force on Wednesday.
By Sue Pascoe
Reprinted with permission of Circling the News
A Pacific Palisades Hillside Task Force gathered at Will Rogers State Beach near Lifeguard Headquarters on Oct. 22.
The task force was organized by Canyon resident Sharon Kilbride, who is a past president of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness as well as the current police liaison for the PPTFH Beach detail unit and Palisades Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin.
Approximately 40 participants joined the effort, including the LAPD beach detail, L.A. City Recreation and Parks rangers, MRCA/Temescal Gateway Park rangers, LAPD’s Valley Motor Off-Road Officers, other members of the LAPD, Councilmember Traci Park, L.A. Mayor’s Representative Marian Ensley, and Palisades volunteers. The group gathered at 7 a.m. for instructions and assignments about how to find and offer aid to people who might be found in the hills.
Deputy Chief Gerald Woodyard, the commanding officer of LAPD Operations West Bureau, stressed the importance of the task force, and Councilmember Park presented PPTFH’s co-president, Cindi Young, whose home burned in the Jan. 7 Palisades Fire, with a replacement certificate that named her as 2024 Palisades Citizen of the Year. Young was teary as she accepted the surprise certificate.
Park noted that the task force, which has assembled as often as four times a year since the May 2021 Highlands Fire, is starting to bring normalcy back to the Palisades. People are building, returning, and trying to ensure public safety.
For the search, the Palisades was divided into seven areas, and law enforcement personnel were paired with volunteers to scour places where people might be illegally camping in the Very High Fire Severity Zone. Searchers were told that if they found someone that needed help, then the social workers from The People Concern, paid for by donations to the PPTFH, would be at the bottom of Temescal to provide assistance.
The areas explored were behind the wall along PCH below the Huntington Palisades, Potrero, the Via de las Olas bluffs, Temescal Canyon Park, Temescal Canyon Gateway Park, Asilomar, Castellammare area, Sunset at PCH, Palisades Drive and Los Liones.
In past years, encampments were found in the brush, but Kilbride predicted that none would be found this year because of the Palisades Fire. She was wrong. Seven were found.
Area 1 had an abandoned camp that was cleaned up. Area 2 (Temescal Road) had five, including some abandoned camps and one with a tent and belongings.
Remnants of a potentially pre-fire encampment with a burned bike were also found. Volunteers cleaned the area, and L.A. City Rec and Parks maintenance picked up the trash. One abandoned encampment was also found in the Highlands area and cleaned up.
Two large buckets of oil were found along Temescal Canyon, perhaps illegally disposed of by workers.
Some volunteers discovered debris left behind by LADWP near Los Liones State Park and contacted the utilities information center in Topanga to request a cleanup.
By contrast, during a similar event in December 2023, six abandoned campsites were found. Four were in Temescal Canyon Park, one was found behind the Caltrans wall below the Huntington Palisades, and the last was found in the Los Liones Park area.
The first task force took place after several fires were set by an arsonist in the hills above the Highlands in May 2021. After the flames were extinguished and a suspect was arrested, LAPD Capt. Jonathan Tom, who was then the commanding officer of the West Los Angeles Area, realized how valuable it could be for government officials to work together.
Tom, who is now the assistant commanding officer of the Professional Standards Bureau, attended the Oct. 22 event to offer his support and to meet with volunteers he had worked with in the past.
