Sen. Tim Scott Wants to Deregulate Manufactured Housing
Tim Scott versus the Chassis Requirement
Recently, a group of Republican senators led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) introduced the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act. which proposes a grab bag of reforms to federal housing programs.
Unlike the slew of federal YIMBY (Yes in my backyard) bills that have been introduced in recent years, Scott’s bill doesn’t try to poke, prod, or bribe local and state governments into liberalizing their zoning codes. “Housing policy is inherently
local, and federal legislators should encourage local solutions to local problems,” reads the press release on the bill.
Nevertheless, the bill does include at least one idea to increase housing supply.
That includes a repeal of the federal regulation requiring that manufactured housing be set on a permanent steel chassis.
Residential building codes for traditional, site-built housing are set by state and local governments. Manufactured housing, which is built off-site and shipped to its destination, which is regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Housing wonks have long singled out HUD’s requirements that manufactured homes sit on a permanent steel chassis. Even once they’re delivered, as a major headwind on manufactured home productions.
There’s some debate about whether HUD’s chassis requirement is primarily responsible for a massive, post 1970’s drop in manufactured home production, or whether it’s a slightly less ruinous but still unnecessary, costly regulation.
Where one lands on that debate, everyone would seem to agree that repealing the chassis requirement will reduce the cost of building the cheapest form of housing on the market.
