Written by Lindell John Kay | Source
Rocky Mount Telegram | July 8, 2018
Often overlooked, manufactured homes are America’s No. 1 source of unsubsidized affordable housing and remain a vital option in Rocky Mount, according to a recent study and city officials.
Of the 22,000 residences in Rocky Mount, slightly more than 2,000 are manufactured homes, meaning 9 percent of the city’s households are manufactured homes, according to information from the city’s Geographic Information System and the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Manufactured housing is an affordable, structurally sound, alternative in a range of housing choices available in Rocky Mount,” said JoSeth Bocook, the city’s interim director of development services.
Manufactured homes are an important element in helping make available affordable housing in the city, Bocook said.
Roughly 18 percent of new residential permits issued over the past three years have been for manufactured homes, according to the city’s permitting data.
“With a growing gap between the supply and demand of low-cost housing, mobile homes may be one of the faster and cheaper ways to provide housing for lower-income households,” said Sydney Bennet, a senior research associate at Apartment List, which tracks economic trends in the housing market.
One in 18 American households — 17.7 million Americans, or 5.6 percent — live in manufactured homes, commonly referred to as “mobile homes” or “trailers.” The number of trailer parks and mobile homes took off in the 1980s when the federal government slashed funding for affordable housing. Now, despite the growing gap between the supply and demand of affordable housing, the manufactured home stock has been decreasing, according to Bennet’s research.
The median monthly housing costs for families living in manufactured homes in Rocky Mount is $517, compared to $750 for non-manufactured home households. Manufactured homes also provide an easier path to ownership. Nationwide, an estimated 71.1 percent of manufactured home households own their homes, while 28.9 percent rent, Bennet said.
With only 11 percent of low-income households receiving government housing assistance through Section 8 vouchers, manufactured homes remain a key source of low-cost housing. Manufactured homes can be built faster and cheaper than traditional homes. Yet, even with a growing gap between the supply and demand of low-cost housing, manufactured homes are rarely viewed as a solution to the affordable housing shortage, Bennet said.
Rocky Mount has about 15 manufactured home parks or subdivisions within its city limits. All of them are located on the outskirts of the city’s jurisdiction.
Don’t look for too many manufactured homes to crop up downtown. The city’s Land Development Code limits the zoning districts that permit manufactured housing. However, the current standards that apply to these developments are nearly uniform with those for subdivisions of traditionally constructed residences, Bocook said.
Since 1978, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has regulated manufactured homes to ensure their durability.
Manufactured homes began as car attachments in the 1920s and were primarily used for vacations or moving to new cities to look for jobs. During World War II, private and government developers built manufactured homes on unoccupied land near factories to house workers in war-related industries. The U.S. experienced a massive housing shortage when the troops returned from war, and more manufactured homes sprang up in order to meet the need. The number of manufactured homes continued to grow through the end of the 20th century, with mobile homes comprising 7.6 percent of the housing stock in 2000.
Manufactured home sales suffered during the housing bubble because loans for traditional homes were readily available. Manufactured homes remain concentrated in the South and Southwest.