Summary
Senate Bill 329 would increase access to affordable housing by ensuring that all state and local programs that facilitate home ownership include manufactured housing.
Background
California has an affordable housing crisis. Manufactured homes provide a more affordable alternative to conventional single-family housing. As noted in the Department of Housing & Community Development’s draft report entitled California’s Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities,“[a] advances in technology and regulation have resulted in high-quality homes, with greater energy efficiency than past generations, and at cost that is 10 to 20 percent per square foot less than conventionally built homes.”
Currently, California has over 500,000 manufactured homes that house 1.5 to 2 million residents. In 2015, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 manufactured homes were produced in California and the manufacturing and retail sales of factory constructed homes contributed over $1 billion to the California economy.
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Problem
Prospective homeowners and residents should have an opportunity to apply to state and local housing programs regardless of whether they seek to purchase a manufactured or traditional single family homes. To the extent that state and local programs fail to include manufactured housing, those programs may effectively prevent some applicants from purchasing an affordable manufactured home within their community. That lack of inclusion disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations, including low- and moderate-income persons as well as seniors.
Solution
SB 329 ensures that prospective homeowners and residents are not subject to neglect based upon housing type by requiring all state and local programs designed to facilitate home ownership or residence to include manufactured housing.
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