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County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Town Council to consider endorsing the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan.
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DEPARTMENT: Housing and Community Services
CONTACT INFORMATION: Rebecca Buzzard, Director, rbuzzard@carrboronc.gov <mailto:rbuzzard@townofcarrboro.org> Anne-Marie Vanaman, Management Specialist, avanaman@carrboronc.gov <mailto:avanaman@carrboronc.gov>
INFORMATION: The County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan provides a plan to address the redevelopment threats facing manufactured home communities in Orange County. The Plan is a collaborative effort between the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and Orange County that outlines specific objectives, strategies, action steps, partners, and resources needed to address the redevelopment threat facing manufactured home communities.
Background: In 2016-2017, the County, Towns, and local housing partners formed a manufactured homes work group to begin to discuss and evaluate opportunities and obstacles to addressing the needs of manufactured home community residents. The report that was created by this workgroup is included as Attachment D.
On May 4th, 2021 <https://carrboro.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4930020&GUID=69F7164D-E3D1-482D-87C5-E71951206B69&Options=&Search=> the Town Council received an overview of Carrboro’s four manufactured home communities (MHC) and discussed addressing the vulnerability of residents living in these communities. While none of the MHCs were under immediate threat of redevelopment, the Council directed staff to work with Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Orange County to develop a collaborative, county-wide MHC preservation plan for the County’s 100 MHCs that are home to 2,000 households, including 95 Carrboro households. A map of the County’s MHC is included as Attachment C.
Additional Information: In 2021, staff from the Towns and County came together to form the Manufactured Home Staff Working Group to create a plan to address the redevelopment and sustainability threats facing manufactured home communities in Orange County. This plan used resident engagement and the Town of Chapel Hill’s existing Manufactured Home Strategy as its foundation.
A draft of the Plan was shared with the Affordable Housing Advisory Commission (AHAC) on September 15, 2021. The AHAC provided feedback and supported the Plan, which aligns with the Town’s Affordable Housing Goals and Strategies:
Goal 1.3 - Decrease barriers to first-time homeownership and to homeownership retention, particularly among seniors.
Goal 2.4 - Reduce erosion of rental housing quality and affordability.
Goal 2.5 - Examine the current marketplace for mobile and modular homes.
The Plan also aligns with the draft Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan’s goals and strategies for affordable housing and racial equity:
Strategy 3.3 - Preserve existing mobile home parks and identify possible locations for additional mobile and manufactured housing.
Goal 2. - Increase number of rental units that are permanently affordable to very low-income households earning up to 60% of AMI with a particular focus on those earning less than 30% AMI and historically disadvantaged households.
Preservation or redevelopment of MHCs for affordable housing can also advance the Town’s Climate Action Plan by: designing and retrofitting energy-efficient housing to reduce housing costs; locating housing in areas with high transit accessibility to provide transportation options and reduce auto-dependence, which can reduce total housing and transportation costs; and increase energy and water conservation in new construction and rehabilitation to reduce costs to homeowners and renters.
In addition to the AHAC, MHC residents, service providers, advocates, and other stakeholders were also consulted for the development of the Plan, as well as the Orange County Local Government Affordable Housing Collaborative, the Chapel Hill Housing Advisory Board, the Orange County Affordable Housing Advisory Board, the Orange County Affordable Housing Coalition (OCAHC), and the Manufactured Homes Committee of the OCAHC.
The Manufactured Homes Action Plan goals are to:
1. Preserve manufactured home communities.
2. Minimize resident displacement due to redevelopment.
3. Create a Relocation Assistance Package to provide meaningful relocation assistance options for residents facing displacement.
These goals are founded on four guiding principles:
1. Use engagement findings as a foundation for strategy selection and implementation.
2. Include a variety of strategies to fully address the different issues.
3. Manufactured housing is an important source of naturally occurring affordable housing serving diverse populations, including vulnerable community members.
4. The Plan is a living document and should be adapted based on changing conditions and resident input.
The Plan, if endorsed, may be put into action in the near future in Carrboro as staff continues to work with several nonprofits to preserve affordability in one community, and many of the strategies outlined in the new Action Plan are already underway. The Plan can be found as Attachment B.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact related to endorsing the plan. Each strategy identified in the plan has a fiscal impact, most of which require Town Council or Town Manager approval before implementation, including ongoing engagement efforts. The Action Plan includes preliminary, high-level estimates of resource needs for each strategy.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends the Town Council consider endorsing the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan. A resolution is included as Attachment A.