A negative perception of manufactured housing persists, though the industry has changed drastically. Winton Pitcoff tells community developers that these homes need to be taken seriously as solutions for the affordable housing crisis.
"The thought of manufactured housing conjures up images of rows of trailer-homes on wheels, and that’s just what they were through the 1960s. The manufactured home industry has changed dramatically since then however."
"HUD regulations implemented in 1976 imposed construction and safety standards on manufactured housing that ultimately moved the industry away from metal-on-metal travel trailers to today’s factory-built frame homes that conform to the same building codes as, and look much like, site-built houses, with asphalt-shingled roofs and vinyl siding and windows. These houses can often be manufactured less expensively than comparable site-built houses, and with greater energy efficiencies."
"Manufactured housing makes up the largest stock of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income homebuyers in the United States. There are more manufactured housing units than the total number of public housing units and Section 8 vouchers combined."
"But while the problems of land-lease communities and chattel loans are real, the affordable housing field’s dismissal of manufactured housing demonstrated a lack of understanding of how far the manufactured housing sector had come toward being able to provide quality affordable housing."
FULL STORY: Maufacturing Solutions
Can Mobile Homes Help Solve America's Affordability Crisis?
Homeownership is slipping out of reach for many Americans, caused largely by the lack of affordable housing inventory. There is a solution to the inventory shortage that many buyers, advocates and policymakers are overlooking: Manufactured Housing.
Poor Conditions in Mobile Home Parks Put Residents at Risk
Failing infrastructure, poor water and air quality, and predatory owners endanger the health of manufactured home residents, many of whom are elderly and low-income.
Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?
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