Drafter
Clerk 6/21/2007
Title
A MOTION directing the King County executive to review options for the preservation of affordable housing opportunities within manufactured home park communities.
Body
WHEREAS, the lack of affordable housing is very often a key factor in communities with persistent poverty, and
WHEREAS, manufactured home park communities are usually overlooked as the single largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country and are not appreciated as a community asset until they start disappearing, and
WHEREAS, nationwide, about fifty-five thousand manufactured home park communities are home to roughly ten million residents or three million five hundred thousand families, of which seventy-five percent are considered low-income, and
WHEREAS, in many markets, homes in manufactured home park communities tend to remain affordable, compared to homes on fee-simple land, and
WHEREAS, new manufactured homes generally sell for about a quarter of the price of new single-family units, with median sales prices for new manufactured homes at fifty-one thousand dollars compared to two hundred twenty thousand dollars for new single-family units, according to the 2005 United States Census, and
WHEREAS, preserved resident-owned communities can remain accessible to low-income families as homes in these communities gain acceptance as a homeownership asset from low-income mortgage programs like the American Downpayment Dream Initiative and the dozens of other demand-side programs, and
WHEREAS, although manufactured home park closures and resident displacement is not a new threat to their residents and families, an ever-growing number of manufactured home park communities are coming under threat of closure as cities, suburbs and outlying areas expand and the underlying property becomes increasingly valuable for development, and
WHEREAS, manufactured home park community residents are vulnerable to displacement because, although they ow...

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