Tim Scott Wants to Deregulate Manufactured Housing
Happy Tuesday and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week’s stories include:
- The federal government has given a “tenant empowerment” grant to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which just settled a lawsuit filed by its own tenants about the “inhumane” condition of its properties.
- Seattle’s affordable housing mandates are leading to less housing getting built.
- Affordable housing in D.C. is in financial crisis, thanks to rising operating costs and a court process that takes years to remove nonpaying tenants.
But first! Our lead story about Senate Republicans’ new housing bill.
Tim Scott Versus the Chassis Requirement
On Thursday, 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 sit 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, is regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Housing wonks have long singled out HUD’s requirement 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-1970s drop in manufactured home production, or whether it’s a slightly less ruinous but still unnecessary, costly regulation.
Wherever 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.
Scott’s bill would also repeal the cap on the number of public housing units that can be “converted” to other types of subsidized affordable housing under HUD’s Rent Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.
RAD is intended to address the massive backlog of capital improvements needed at public housing complexes by shifting these units into other programs where funding is more dependable and private capital is available.
Current law caps the number of public housing units that can be converted using the RAD program at 455,000 (or close to half of public housing units).
Nonprofit Accused of Operating Slum Housing Gets $10 Million ‘Tenant Empowerment’ Grant
This past week, I reported that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), along with the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, a $10 million grant which they will jointly distribute to tenant associations at privately owned, federally subsidized multifamily housing. The tenant groups will use that money to ensure their landlords maintain their buildings and provide habitable living conditions.
HUD’s decision to giv
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