Seattle Weighs Protections for Mobile Home Parks

"The Seattle City Council has passed another six month development moratorium for the city’s two remaining mobile home parks," reports Natalie Bicknell Argerious for The Urbanist, giving residents a reprieve from potential displacement before the City Council votes on new housing protection legislation next week.

As Bicknell Argerious writes, the proposal before the council would create a 'mobile home overlay district' that would limit new construction and redevelopment to mobile homes, mobile home parks, and affordable housing owned by government agencies or non-profits. The zone includes other requirements such as relocation assistance and right of first offer to current residents.

While mobile home parks may offer lower density than multi-unit buildings could, housing advocates note that single-story manufactured homes provide suitable housing for people unable to use stairs—unlike much of Seattle's non-ADA-compliant housing stock—and provide low-cost housing for around 22 million Americans. But, as the article points out, about half of the nation's 8.5 million mobile homes sit on leased land. "While mobile homes are an important source of affordable housing, they can be a risky bet for owners, especially when they do not own the land on which their property is located." Enacting legal protections for mobile home park residents, such as those being considered by Seattle, could guard against displacement and profit-driven redevelopment in one of the last bastions of affordable housing.