The Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC) Housing Task Force has recently released an issue brief on the role of mobile and manufactured housing in housing insecurity and instability in the United States. The brief compiles pertinent research and provides experts’ insights into the unique issues that owners of manufactured homes face. Legal aid interventions, public policies and other protections that can help these homeowners are also highlighted in the brief.  

The popularity of manufactured housing has surged in recent decades. Today, roughly 1 in 16 Americans live in manufactured housing.  

The affordability of these homes makes them a preferred option for many underserved populations, including seniors on fixed incomes, immigrants, low-income families, people of color and persons with disabilities. The median income for manufactured homeowners is about $38,000, compared to nearly $80,000 for owner-occupants of other forms of single-family housing. 

While manufactured housing is often viewed as an accessible avenue to home ownership for low-income Americans—the cost of a new manufactured home averages $122,500—it can also create acute vulnerabilities for these homeowners. Millions of manufactured homeowners live in “parks” where they own their house but rent the land that it sits on, leaving them subject to rent and fee increases.  

These types of homes are popularly referred to as “mobile,” but more than 90% of manufactured houses never move. Relocating these homes would often destroy their structural integrity and can cost upwards of $5,000 to $10,000—a cost that is prohibitive to most of these homeowners.  

If their landowner raises the cost beyond what the homeowner can afford, they are usually stuck without options. Facing eviction means losing their home—and their equity in it—when they are unable to relocate it off the plot. Instances of scenarios like these are rising, as out-of-state investors increasingly purchase mobile home parks and seek to boost their profits.  

The brief identifies several policy changes that can protect manufactured homeowners from predatory conditions and losing their homes. Many of these focus on creating fairer leases, preventing egregious rent increases and giving homeowners the opportunity to purchase their lots.  

Civil legal aid organizations also play a significant role in advocating for proper enforcement of state and local policies, providing “know your rights” trainings to vulnerable communities and representing those facing eviction.  

The brief also includes state profiles of Washington, where a Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act provides relatively significant protections, and Delaware, where a Manufactured Home Owner Attorney Fund supports legal representation and advocacy for owners of manufactured homes in disputes with park owners.  

“Through our Housing Task Force briefs, LSC is recognizing patterns that exist across the country that repeatedly disadvantage low-income people and create increased housing insecurity and instability,” said LSC President Ron Flagg.  

“Housing is a fundamental factor in the health of the nation and in the ability of every person and family to prosper—so we must heed the warnings of these experts and listen to their calls for more resources, attention, and leadership for policy changes,” Flagg continued.  

LSC launched the Housing Task Force in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly increased demand for civil legal assistance with housing issues. 2021 was the first year that LSC grantees handled more housing cases than any other legal problem area. The Housing Task Force is documenting challenges that low-income tenants and homeowners experience and sharing its findings about housing insecurity and the role of civil legal aid in helping low-income individuals and families achieve stability and security in a four-part series of issue briefs. The first brief on illegal evictions is available here, and the remaining two briefs will cover long-term (extended stay) motel rentals and contracts for deeds.