By Brent Addleman | The Center Square
Financial assistance is coming to manufactured home communities in Vermont.
The Manufactured Home Improvement and Repair Program, Republican Gov. Phil Scott said, is being launched in an effort to provide $4 million in financial assistance to mobile home parks, along with current and future manufactured homeowners.
Funding for the program, which will be run by the Department of Housing and Community Development, stems from Vermont’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funding. The funds are earmarked for improvements to communities, home repairs, and foundation installation.
“The MHIR program is focused on revitalizing an important part of the state’s affordable housing stock,” Scott said in a statement. “This investment will ensure the long-term affordability and habitability of several mobile home parks and mobile homes throughout Vermont.”
The program has three facets, including providing park owners with the financial strength to prepare vacant or abandoned lots for new manufactured homes; help existing homeowners with improving their homes; and supporting new and existing homeowners with the installation of new foundations, according to the release.
The state’s Housing Authority, according to the release, will process applications and the application portal is now open. Application assistance is being provided by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Mobile Home Program for those in need of repairs. Applications will be accepted through Oct. 31, 2024, or until funds are exhausted.
“Manufactured home communities represent a unique and effective form of affordable housing, particularly for rural areas,” Kathleen Berk, the organization’s executive director said. “Preservation efforts to maintain their affordability is an important policy issue as housing costs continue to rise.”
Sandrine Kibuey, who serves as directors of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, said the program will direct funding at “mobile home communities” that have been “facing a number of environmental and habitability challenges.”
“This program should significantly improve immediate areas of need such as the lack of availability and easy access to resources for home repair and maintenance and replacement or removal of old, outdated, and abandoned mobile homes,” Kibuey said in a statement.
