Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday released a Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan to update development standards for the affordable housing.
- In compliance with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the agency’s action plan outlines HUD Code regulatory updates concerning efficiency standards, construction, installation and more.
- The new law’s removal of a permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes is “particularly significant” for the future of factory-built housing and offers more flexibility, according to HUD.
Dive Insight:
Starter homes are becoming increasingly out of reach for aspiring homeowners as cities and counties seek affordable housing options amid dire shortages.
Production of manufactured housing — a lower-cost housing option — has dwindled from its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s.
The drop in production has been tied in part to HUD’s permanent chassis mandate for manufactured housing that dates to the 1970s and added as much as $10,000 to the cost of developing a new unit. ROAD, which became law in July, nixed that requirement.
“Removing the permanent chassis requirement is more than a technical change. It creates an opportunity to reconsider how manufactured homes are designed, transported, assembled, and regulated, so we can increase supply for first-time homebuyers,” Joe Gormley, acting assistant secretary for the Federal Housing Administration, said in a news release.
In compliance with ROAD, HUD’s seven-step action plan updates manufactured housing efficiency standards; revises standards and technical regulations for manufactured homes built without a permanent chassis; addresses installation requirements for chassis-free manufactured housing; and calls for studying manufactured housing without a permanent chassis to better understand “how off-chassis manufactured housing works in practice.”
Removing the permanent chassis requirement also opens the door to innovation, the agency said. HUD will explore a range of housing types and designs under the new manufactured home regulations.
HUD also plans to develop a federal performance-based construction and safety code for residential structures with five or more units to address issues existing manufactured housing standards don’t fully address, including fire separation, accessibility and stairs. “Extending the HUD Code to buildings with five or more units could create a national pathway for repeatable multifamily construction under a consistent federal regulatory framework,” HUD said.
It is also developing an “on-ramp” to manufacturers with guidance and resources for the HUD regulatory system concerning factory certification, design approval, quality assurance and more. “The goal is to reduce barriers to entry and make it easier for factory-built product manufacturers to produce HUD-regulated homes,” the agency said.
