MFH News and Views: Fannie Mae Says YES to $1 Billion MFH Deal, San Jose Officials Look at Manufactured Housing for the Homeless

Causing optimism within the manufactured housing community, Fannie Mae has announced a transaction that will maintain and preserve affordable housing in rental communities across the nation, while the city of San Jose looks at fiscally responsible ways of helping their homeless community.

Those are two of the more interesting manufactured housing headlines from the past seven days…now let’s get to the facts!

According to FannieMae.com, ‘YES’ communities and the customers they serve will benefit from a recently agreed upon deal between Wells Fargo and KeyBank to underwrite loans for manufactured homes in YES communities. Helping 29,000 families, across 13 states, last week Fannie Mae agreed to move forward with a $1 billion deal that will benefit 120 MHC (Manufactured Housing Communities) – thereby facilitating a greater inventory of affordable workforce housing. Fannie Mae, in an August 17, 2016 news release announced a transaction that they maintain will preserve affordable housing in rental communities across the nation. Unfortunately for all concerned, this stellar piece of news does not represent a policy pivot for Fannie Mae – as they remain reluctant to endorse individual manufactured home transactions sited on raw land or in lease communities.

And in Central California…

Per KTVU Fox 2 San Jose, a project to house the homeless in San Jose, California that received serious scrutiny initially was just approved by city officials. The controversial project will be located in a neighborhood that some say already suffers from crime. But with 4,000 homeless in the city of San Jose, the Mayor, and the other council members voted to go forward with building a community for the homeless full of manufactured homes. Provided all goes according to plan, the community would be built on a six-acre plot of city-owned land on Evans lane, near highway 87 and Curtner. There would also be a dog park and community garden on the property. Homeless advocates praised the project, but people who live in the neighborhood have been fighting against it for months saying it going to make things even worse. Adobe Services is the non-profit that will manage the community, providing 24-hour security and on-site case management for the homeless. The community would house 102 homeless people, and it could open early as next summer.

MFH NOTES:  Based upon information derived from various sources with knowledge of the community plan, the manufactured homes utilized in the project will be approximately 1800 square feet (double section) with six private bedrooms with single door exterior access and two bathrooms (one to be A.D.A. approved). Each bedroom will be approximately 12’ by 12’ including clothes closet. There will be a large communal living room and a full kitchen with an elongated eating bar to accommodate at least 6 diners.

MFH estimates that there will be 15 to 18 manufactured homes within the six-acre community parcel. Allowing for the community garden and pet park there will be about 4 homes per acre. Considering that a typical manufactured home community has a density of 6 to 8 homes per acre, the homes in the homeless community will not be closely bunched, as some detractors have supposed.

Learn more about today’s current finance options for a manufactured home