“As we look for solutions to the challenge of affordable housing, we must not forget an existing source of living-wage homes for families and seniors,” said Councilmember Larry Phillips, prime sponsor of the motion and chair of the Council’s Growth Management and Natural Resources Committee. “King County has seen long-time mobile home complexes disappear to make way for condos, leaving residents scrambling for housing. We must see what can be done to protect these parks and the people living there now and in the future.”

“The price of housing in King County is putting tremendous strain on both seniors and people of my generation - young, first-time homebuyers,” said Councilmember Reagan Dunn. “With a median home price of $465,000 in King County, the bar to home ownership has been raised far above the heads of many middle class families. We are looking to protect affordable housing stock wherever it is threatened.”

“We are going to have to find immediate solutions for our citizens who currently reside in manufactured housing so that they are guaranteed access to their homes,” said Councilmember Jane Hague.

The Council motion adopted today directs the Executive to examine strategies for protecting manufactured home parks, including:

• Identifying successful examples of non-profit practitioners around the country who are preserving and creating economically secure manufactured housing for low- and moderate-income families;

• Reviewing the feasibility of using surplus public lands;

• Examining the re-establishment and implementation of the Residential Mobile Home Park (RMHP) zone, which existed in prior versions of the King County Zoning Code and has been recently enacted in Snohomish County;

• Seeking out and evaluating ideas and policies that can enhance affordable communities where manufactured-home buyers have control of the land and evaluating the need to enact state laws giving residents the opportunity to buy their communities;

• Expanding access to conventional mortgages and other financial resources essential to stemming the tide of manufactured home park closures, preserving communities and building healthy neighborhoods with engaged citizen leaders.

As one of the most overlooked sources of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, manufactured home park communities are not often appreciated as a community asset until they start disappearing. Nationwide, about 55,000 manufactured home park communities are home to roughly 10 million residents or 3.5 million families, of which 75 percent are considered low-income. 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 $51,000 compared to $220,000 for new single-family units, according to the 2005 U.S. Census.

Although commonly referred to as “mobile” homes, most manufactured homes are not easily moved. In fact, most manufactured homes are not moved again once they leave the dealer's lot, due to the high expense of moving and the potential for significant structural damage during a move, especially for older manufactured homes.

King County government actively supports low-income housing and has officially endorsed the Committee to End Homelessness in King County’s ten-year community plan to end homelessness, entitled “A Roof Over Every Bed in King County.”