New research published by the Urban Institute, “Building a Climate-Resilient Manufactured Housing Stock,” found that manufactured housing is a vital piece of the puzzle for addressing America’s housing crisis, if done in a forward thinking and resilient manner. The report examines the hazards the manufactured housing stock is exposed to, the challenges in making manufactured housing more resilient, and the actions elected officials can take to ensure communities have access to long-standing, affordable housing.
This research adds to the mounting evidence that manufactured housing is a critical source of affordable housing and that it provides a pathway to home ownership for low-income families who could not afford to do so otherwise. Additionally, manufactured housing is scalable, meaning the stock of affordable housing can be increased at a faster and more efficient rate. To even have a shot at tackling the housing crisis, scalable solutions are needed.
However, like other types of affordable housing options, low-income households are often most at risk because government policies have forced the location of their homes in environmentally high-risk areas and policymakers have failed to invest in the infrastructure needed to prevent harm. According to the report, five million manufactured housing units are located in the areas most exposed to one or more hazards.
Low-income people did not choose to place themselves in areas with high risk of disaster. Often, these communities of low-income people were forced into their current location by federal, state, and local policies designed to enforce segregation and inequality. More and more low-income households may be pushed into harm's way as developers and the housing market overall react to the increasing threat of worsening weather and rising seas.
More inclusive zoning practices should be adopted in order to broaden access to private financing and federal programs that assist manufactured homeowners in making their houses more resilient. In addition, HUD’s manufactured housing construction and installation standards should be updated to account for resiliency practices. In doing so, the manufactured housing stock can be made more affordable and more resilient.
Read the full report here.
Learn more about the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition’s (DHRC) resilience work here.