Supervisors Approve Recommendations
for Affordable Mobile Home Housing
by Joe Naiman

The Board of Supervisors approved three recommendations to preserve and protect affordable housing for mobile home residents.

The Dec. 3 vote approved modifications to the existing Home Repair Loan Program to allow grants for home repairs and relocation to owner-occupied mobile homes. It also approves modifications to the Urban County HOME Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program to allow priority preference for rental assistance to qualified low-income mobile home owner-occupants.

The action also authorizes the director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community and Development to negotiate and execute necessary contract amendments for the
federally funded programs.

The recommendations stem from a May 21 board directive for the county’s Chief Administrative Officer to work with the Mobile Home Issues Committee (which consists of one park owner and one mobile home resident from each supervisorial district) on recommendations to preserve and protect affordable housing for mobile home residents.

HCD staff also met with committee members to consider possible solutions. Although lack of a quorum prevented an official committee recommendation, members of the committee and the general public agreed with HCD’s recommendations.

The Home Repair Loan Program is funded by Community Develop-ment Block Grant funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The
program provides money to help revitalize lower-income communities and develop affordable housing for low-income, elderly, or disabled residents. The program allows for 30-year deferred loans of up to $8,000 at 3 percent simple interest, and the loan must be used for health and safety repairs or for accessibility upgrades.

The modification will allow a one-time grant of up to $8,000 per mobile home unit to assist low-income elderly or disabled owner-occupants to improve the health and safety condition of their mobile homes.

The existing Home Repair Loan Program does not provide funding for the relocation of owner-occupied mobile homes, but the CDBG program permits the movement of a mobile home from one park to another in conjunction with the rehabilitation of the relocated mobile home. The modification will allow a one-time grant of up to $15,000 per unit for relocation assistance in conjunction with rehabilitation to allow low-income owner-occupants to relocate their units to lower-rent mobile home parks within the urban county.

The participant will be required to secure a lease from the mobile home park where the unit will be relocated, and the lease must demonstrate that the participant will benefit from a substantial savings on monthly rent after relocation.

Relocated mobile homes also must undergo the maximum amount of rehabilitation necessary to ensure the long-term livability of the unit.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also provides HOME Investment Partnership funds for the development of affordable housing for low-income and disabled residents. The existing Urban County HOME Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program is funded by the HOME program and provides 24 months of rental assistance to low-
income households based on the HOME regulations criteria. The modification will allow for a priority preference to qualified low-income mobile home owner-occupants.

The one-time grants will result in current year costs of up to $450,000 and the rental assistance program will result in up to $1 million of current year costs. Both costs are budgeted in the Housing and Community Development Multi-Year Project Budget or the county’s Housing Authority Budget, and all costs are reimbursed by HUD.