Congress should prioritize the needs of low-income homeowners and ensure these manufactured housing communities receive the investment and support necessary to remain safe, stable, and affordable for generations to come.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — ROC USA urges Congress to restore the bipartisan PRICE Act to any final housing package following its exclusion from the House Financial Services Committee’s version of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act.
ROC USA appreciates the House Financial Services Committee’s broader efforts to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis and its recognition that manufactured housing must be part of the solution. But without PRICE, the bill fails to adequately address the needs of the millions of American homeowners already living in manufactured housing and manufactured home communities. This is why the full Senate and the Trump administration have endorsed PRICE’s inclusion in what may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to update our federal housing laws.
Manufactured housing is home to approximately 22 million Americans, including working families, seniors, and veterans, and accounts for roughly 15% of occupied housing in rural America. Manufactured homes also represent the nation’s largest source of naturally occurring affordable homeownership. Yet homeowners in manufactured housing communities are routinely excluded from the public investments and resources available to neighboring site-built neighborhoods. Without reinvestment in their communities, many are at risk of losing their homes to community closure or redevelopment.
The country cannot seriously talk about solving the affordable housing crisis while continuing to overlook the lowest-income homeowners in America”, said Emily Thaden, CEO of ROC USA. “The PRICE Act was designed to help manufactured housing communities preserve affordability, address critical infrastructure needs, create new homeownership opportunities, and remain viable long-term.
Congress previously appropriated funding for PRICE, establishing HUD’s first-ever dedicated investment in manufactured housing and manufactured housing communities to benefit low-income families. The program also has the potential to generate significant economic activity through infrastructure upgrades, home rehabilitation, new home placements, and construction activity in communities across rural, suburban, tribal, and urban America.
Importantly, much of the manufactured housing industry supports PRICE and recognizes that the program can help fuel small business growth, job creation, community revitalization, and the long-term stability in manufactured housing communities regardless of whether the communities are owned privately, collectively by residents, or by nonprofits.
“The question before Congress is whether the nation’s lowest-income homeowners are finally treated with the same dignity, investment, and opportunity as every other American community,” Thaden said.
ROC USA urges Congress to include the PRICE Act in the final bill and fully harness the enormous potential of manufactured housing as part of the nation’s affordable housing solution. Few federal investments have the potential to deliver such outsized impact for low-income homeowners, rural communities, housing preservation, infrastructure revitalization, and affordable homeownership at such a modest cost.
About ROC USA
ROC USA is a national nonprofit social enterprise working to make resident ownership viable and successful nationwide so that homeowners in manufactured housing communities can secure stable, affordable communities and build long-term wealth and opportunity. Learn more at rocusa.org.
For media inquiries, contact: contact_us@rocusa.org
