TITLE: Title
Discussion of Manufactured Home Communities in Carrboro
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Town Council to discuss manufactured home communities in Carrboro and consider the possibility of creating a regionally unified manufactured home strategy.
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DEPARTMENT: Housing and Community Services & Planning, Zoning, and Inspections
CONTACT INFORMATION: Rebecca Buzzard, Housing and Community Director, rbuzzard@townofcarrboro.org <mailto:rbuzzard@townofcarrboro.org>; Patricia McGuire, Planning, Zoning, and Inspections Director, pmcguire@townofcarrboro.org <mailto:pmcguire@townofcarrboro.org>; Anne-Marie Vanaman, Management Specialist, amvanaman@townofcarrboro.org <mailto:amvanaman@townofcarrboro.org>
INFORMATION: Manufactured home communities, which are an existing source of affordable housing for many, have become a County-wide topic of discussion in light of recent development pressures. The Town Council has requested an agenda item on this topic for discussion. To facilitate the discussion, staff has provided background and resource information.
Manufactured homes are factory-built, prefabricated homes built on a permanent chassis that adhere to HUD construction standards <https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/rmra/mhs/mhshome> established in 1976. Prior to 1976, these homes were called “mobile homes” and the term is often still used today. Manufactured homes are not typically moved once they are placed on the home site, unlike “trailers” which are designed for travelling. According to a 2017 study by the Urban Institute <https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/new-evidence-shows-manufactured-homes-appreciate-well-site-built-homes>, new manufactured homes are estimated to be 35-47% cheaper than site-built homes and have an annual appreciation rate of 3.4%.
On November 20, 2017, the Orange County Board of Commissioners received a presentation and recommendations from the Mobile Home Park Work Group. This group consisted of local government staff, for-profit developers, and non-profit housing staff and was formed to discuss and evaluate the opportunities and obstacles in redeveloping existing mobile home parks and developing new affordable housing to address the needs of mobile home park residents at risk. The agenda item also provided a survey conducted by Orange County that showed manufactured home owners appreciate their tight-knit communities and the proximity to good schools, public transportation, and employment which their manufactured home parks provide. Although some residents noted that they would like to move into site built single-family homes, most could not afford to do so, and they did not know where they could afford to move to if their community was redeveloped. The agenda item and survey are provided in Attachment A.
Carrboro has four manufactured home communities: Rocky Brook and Pine Grove - located within the Town’s Limits; Calvander and Homestead Acres - located in Carrboro’s Transition Area 1. Most of the homes in these communities are older and many are in need of repair. The Orange County Home Preservation Coalition (OCHPC) reported to Council on April 13, 2021 <https://carrboro.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4908512&GUID=3A24EF05-0B35-4A6E-9386-E7542FE0DE3C&Options=&Search=> that 79% of their Carrboro applicants seeking critical repairs owned detached houses. However, OCHPC received a disproportionate amount of applications from manufactured home residents (10.5%) compared to Town supply (1.5%). Attachments B and C provide location and information about the Carrboro manufactured home communities.
The County and Towns are in various stages of developing manufactured home policies for their respective jurisdictions. Carrboro staff began working on this issue with the AHAC prior to the pandemic and revisited the creation of a policy at their March, 2021 meeting. County and Town Housing staff, local nonprofits such as EmPOWERment and Justice United, the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition, and the Orange County Affordable Housing Coalition have also been working on manufactured home preservation, including resident engagement, streamlining funding assistance and exploring expanding eligibility parameters to include manufactured home renters.
For background, a copy of the Town of Chapel Hill’s presentation for a January 2021 Town Council work-session is included in Attachment D, Chapel Hill’s Manufactured Home Park Strategy is included in Attachment E, and Orange County’s Mitigation and Housing Displacement Fund Policies and proposed Rapid Response Protocol are provided in Attachments F and G respectively. One of the strategies explored in the Town of Chapel Hill’s work session was Resident Owned Communities <https://rocusa.org/> (ROC). Attachment H is their summary of the ROC model. The ROC model was also presented <http://orange-nc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1454&meta_id=37042> to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners on April 6th.
There is a movement for all jurisdictions to collaborate to develop a unified strategy that can be implemented County-wide. It has been suggested that the Collaborative, made up of housing staff and one elected official from each jurisdiction, could work on a unified manufactured home strategy. In 2017 <https://carrboro.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3161767&GUID=D1E21369-58F6-4BC3-A039-9B68069D5516&Options=ID|Text|&Search=HOME>, the elected officials voted to expand the scope of work and rename the HOME Consortium Program Review Committee as the Orange County Local Government Affordable Housing Collaborative. The revised scope includes broader discussions about affordable housing issues, including to:
-strategize about funding options; provide updates on projects and affordable housing efforts, as well as code or policy changes;
- provide oversight of performance measures and expenditure rates (to be developed by the staff for review by the Collaborative)
- help tell the story of the impact of our affordable housing initiatives; develop shared targets and goals for affordable housing preservation and development and track progress over time; and serve as advocates for affordable housing in Orange County (elected officials)
During the most recent Collaborative meeting, on March 25th, the elected representatives requested to meet more frequently and indicated they would like to discuss the creation of a regionally unified manufactured home strategy.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: Fiscal and staff impact will vary based on specified follow-up action.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends the Town Council discuss this item and provide direction to staff.