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A Message From the Affordable Homeownership Team
The Year No One Expected
As the end of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large on the horizon, your work in the manufactured housing space has become more critical than ever. Even prior to the pandemic, our country was undergoing a housing affordability crisis. As the pandemic progressed, that crisis worsened dramatically, with millions of Americans suffering the consequences of a drastic loss of wages and jobs, aggravated by the racially and socioeconomically disparate health impacts of the virus itself. With the federal eviction moratorium due to be lifted at the end of June, an unprecedented number of households will face the possibility of displacement or homelessness. In the face of this urgent dilemma, we must be hypervigilant in our efforts to protect residents, preserve communities and advocate for the value that manufactured housing contributes to the affordable housing arena.
As I’M HOME Network partners, you strive to make homeownership more accessible to a broader, more diverse swath of the American population. However, limited access to affordable financial products, the shortage of affordable starter homes and other barriers keep too many low- and moderate-income Americans at risk for homelessness. COVID-19 has further exacerbated these challenges, leaving thousands of households housing-insecure.
In response to these challenges, this September, the I’M HOME Network is invited to a two-day forum focused on The State of Manufactured Housing in a Post Pandemic Economy. [[link removed]] We will bring together manufactured housing industry professionals, practitioners and homeowners to discuss the impact of COVID-19 in our communities, with the goal of identifying practicable solutions and opportunities for policy reform under the new administration and the 117th Congress.
A New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Report Sheds Light on Manufactured Homeownership Financing
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report that provides new insights into manufactured housing financing, a vital source of lending for millions of manufactured housing homeowners. The report uses 2019 data collected through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to shed light on the experiences of manufactured homeowners. The CFPB’s report is based on new information about manufactured housing that was added in 2018 to the list of HMDA data collected. This new HMDA data is the only national-level dataset that directly tracks the different types of financing options for manufactured housing. Highlights from the report include the share of mortgages in the market, the denial rate of loan applications and the lack of refinancing despite historically low interest rates. Read the findings of the report here. [[link removed]]
FHFA Releases 2022-2024 GSE Duty to Serve Plans for Public Input
In mid-May, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) published 2022-2024 Underserved Markets Plans submitted earlier in the month by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The documents comprise the second round of the FHFA’s 2016-initiated Duty to Serve (DTS) program, which mandates that both GSEs make efforts to “more explicitly service three key underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing.” The DTS program was, itself, the realization of goals set forth in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.
Final drafts of the Underserved Markets Plans are due in October 2021, following a 60-day public input period which began on May 18. Prosperity Now will be circulating its commentary submission on or around July 1. Comments are due on July 17. To view the documents or submit input, follow this link. [[link removed]] FHFA-hosted listening sessions will be held on July 12, 13 and 14, with each session devoted to one of the three aforementioned underserved markets.
A Bittersweet Goodbye
After almost four years, this is a bittersweet moment—it’s time to say goodbye to Prosperity Now. I am grateful for the opportunities that I have received over the last few years at Prosperity Now. I am also grateful that I got to learn from and work every day with passionate and dedicated people like you all. I am beyond grateful for the insights, laughs and partnerships with so many of you. Thanks for all the good times, the learning moments and the successes we’ve celebrated together. Best wishes to you all and stay safe. – Pamela Agava
Introducing a New Team Member
Chadwick Reed, a master’s in urban planning student at Harvard University, will be joining us this summer for a ten-week fellowship. At PN, he’ll be working primarily on manufactured housing-specific projects, including some independent research focused on the racial equity implications of displacement resulting from private-equity buyouts of MH communities. Chad grew up primarily in Charlotte, NC, but lived in Minnesota’s Twin Cities before moving to the Boston area for graduate school. He is excited about having the opportunity to learn from – and contribute to – our team.
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