U.S. bill would create tax benefit for manufactured housing community owners who sell to certain groups
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
A bill introduced by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in Washington last month aims to take a homegrown approach of counteracting the housing crisis nationwide.
The Manufactured Housing Community Sustainability Act of 2024, which is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), creates a tax benefit for owners of manufactured housing communities, also called mobile home parks, when they sell the community to a resident-owned cooperative or nonprofit.
“Residents of manufactured communities often own their homes but don’t own the land that their homes sit on, increasing their risk of displacement when parks close or rents rise,” said Shaheen.
Manufactured homes make up 6% of the American housing stock and are found predominantly within rural areas.
Nationwide, only around 2% of manufactured housing communities are owned by the residents, but within New Hampshire, the rate is 40%. This is largely due to a state law that requires community owners to notify residents when they plan to sell the community, giving residents an opportunity to purchase it.
Seven other states have similar laws, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine.
Granite State organizations like the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, which provides financial services to residents of manufactured housing communities and helps manage cooperatives, help to create a stable and replicable framework for resident ownership.
Resident-Owned Communities (ROC) is a national organization based out of Concord that helps resident owners manage communities that range from a handful of houses to hundreds. It was established by NH Community Loan Fund employees who wanted to take the model nationally, something that the Manufactured Housing Community Sustainability Act could help facilitate.
Despite the moniker of "mobile," moving one’s home if site fees rise is often prohibitively expensive.
Site fee increases average 5.9% annually in commercially owned communities compared with 0.9% annually in resident-owned communities.
