Are Manufactured Homes the U.S. Key to Affordable Housing?

Congress is reviewing proposed legislation that would remove HUD’s requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent chassis.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance considered a proposal from U.S. Rep.John Rose of Tennessee as it held a hearing entitled “Housing Affordability: Governmental Barriers and Market-Based Solutions.”

According to a press release from Rose, the hearing focused on “the continuing affordability challenges that many currently face in both the single-family housing and rental markets.” Witnesses discussed the factors that have contributed to those challenges, particularly government-created barriers such as restrictive land-use and zoning policies, and various market-based solutions.

Rose’s legislation, H.R. 5198, the Expansion of Attainable Homeownership Through Manufactured Housing Act of 2023, was one of the pieces of legislation that became a topic for discussion among witnesses and lawmakers. The bill, which Rose introduced in August, would amend the definition of “manufactured home” in the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 by striking the wording that says. “built on a permanent chassis.”

“The growing scarcity of affordable housing in this country for both homeowners and renters is a serious crisis,” Rose said.”Helping to alleviate this crisis will require, as our hearing title suggests, knocking down government barriers that are standing in the way of helping to supply more affordable housing.One such government barrier to more affordable housing is HUD’s outdated requirement that manufactured housing be built on a permanent chassis.”

According to Rose, a permanent chassis allows manufactured housing to be more easily transported.

This is helpful if a manufactured home will be moved multiple times during its lifetime,” he said. “However, many manufactured homes are now built with the intention of being permanently place in one location and thus do not need to be built with a permanent chassis.

“Eliminating the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured housing from the federal construction code administered by HUD will help potentially save thousands of dollars on new manufactured homes made without a permanent chassis.”

Sources: FloridaRealtors/News & Media