Are there future opportunities to use manufactured housing for affordable senior living solutions in the future? Maybe but there are millions existing of manufactured homes in America and those homes built before 1976 can be inefficient and unsafe in many cases. New legislation is being drafted in Washington to encourage those manufactured home owners to trade up or retrofit their existing homes with energy efficient features.
The Energy-Efficient Manufactured Housing Act of 2009 authorizes state agencies to provide owners of dated manufactured homes (manufactured homes constructed before January 1, 1976) to provide rebates of $7500 to use toward the purchase of new Energy Star qualified manufactured homes. The proposal restricts rebates to owners of dated manufactured homes that are used on a year-round basis as a primary residence that will be destroyed (including appropriate recycling) and replaced in the same general location with an Energy Star qualified manufactured home. Limits to the rebates include:
(1) one owner per household;
(2) households with total incomes not exceeding 200% of the federal poverty level in the applicable area; and
(3) $7,500 per manufactured home.
In addition, the bill would allow home owners to receive grants of up to $2,500 to cover the additional cost of removing and recycling the old home.
For more information on the legislation, visit S.1320 – Energy-Efficient Manufactured Housing Act of 2009
