Manufactured Housing News: Texas Zoning, FEMA Units, and Displaced Homeowners
A quick review of last week’s manufactured housing news indicates zoning changes for manufactured homes in Kilgore, Texas, will go before the City Council. On the FEMA front, fewer than 1,000 families are still residing in emergency trailers. And in Colorado, residents of Denver Meadows Mobile Home and RV Park are facing forced relocation.
Manufactured Housing news for April 15th – 23rd indicates two things: manufactured homes play an important role in providing affordable housing, and this type of affordable housing remains under threat.
Proposed Zoning Changes For Manufactured Housing in Kilgore
The Kilgore Planning and Zoning Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend several changes to the zoning ordinances regulating manufactured housing within city limits. The proposed zoning changes governing manufactured homes in Kilgore will be heard by the City Council at 5:30 PM on April 24. Per Ordinance Number 1708, the proposed changes would affect existing manufactured homeowners: “Manufactured Home Age. Any Mobile home or Manufactured home in existence at the time of the passage of this ordinance can be replaced one time as long as the structure is the same size or larger than the previous structure and is no older than five years old at the time of permitting.” Additionally, the ordinance will amend the existing “Single-Family Manufactured Housing Districts” to “R-3,” also known as a “Single-Family Residential District.”
Nearly 1,000 Louisiana Flood Victims Still In FEMA Units
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency is warning residents of Louisiana to purchase flood insurance for the spring rainy season, FEMA has also reported the number of Louisiana’s displaced families living in emergency trailers fell to below 1,000. FEMA explained that “Four hundred thirty of those families are in East Baton Rouge Parish. Most of the rest of the families living in the manufactured housing units are in Ascension and Livingston parishes,” according to the Associated Press.
Zoned Out at Denver Meadows
Residents of the Denver Meadows Mobile Home and RV Park are afraid they’ll face the same fate as 460 families that have already been displaced in Fort Collins, Colorado. Forced out by a growing economy, five mobile home parks have closed in the last 20 years, according to the Herald Carrier. Addressing the issue in 2017, Colorado State Sen. John Kefalas (D-14th District) proposed a bill that specifically addressed mobile home parks by encouraging any sale be made to similar entities. Killed off during a senate committee, Kefalas’ legislation would have protected 10,500 mobile home owners in 66 parks in Adams County. Still under threat of forced relocation, residents of Denver Meadows Mobile Home and RV Park were temporarily saved by the Aurora City Council. By placing a 10-month moratorium on rezoning applications for existing mobile home parks, the City of Aurora will study how they can best preserve affordable housing.
Congress Grills Head of CFPB Over Regulations and Manufactured Homeownership
Motivated by the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), on April 12, members of Congress were compelled to ask Mick Mulvaney, the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), some rather probing questions. Before the United States Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Mulvaney was asked to examine the negative ramifications caused by the agency’s regulations of manufactured home loans.
