A bill making its way through the Oregon Legislature would prevent new planned communities from banning manufactured and modular homes.
House Bill 3144 would not impact existing communities, only new communities moving forward. Manufactured units would still be subject to the same design requirements of other homes in a community.
“While successfully addressing the crisis will take many types of creative solutions, frankly, this bill is an easy one,” bill sponsor Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, told the Senate Committee on Housing and Development on Monday afternoon.
Marsh is the chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness. She represents Jackson County, one of the areas hardest hit when high winds during Labor Day in 2020 contributed to the spread of five megafires. The 2020 Labor Day fires spread across more than 1 million acres, and thousands of homes burned down in Marsh’s district — ultimately exacerbating the existing affordable housing shortage.
The fires destroyed 18 mobile home parks in the Rogue Valley, wiping out more than 1,500 manufactured homes in Marsh’s district. Before the fires, Marsh’s district had the highest number of manufactured homes of any House district.
There are more than 140,000 manufactured homes in Oregon, according to Bill Van Vliet, the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing executive director.
“Oregon has both a housing crisis and an affordability crisis,” he told the committee. “To solve those, we need to remove barriers that unnecessarily prevent the use of existing lower-cost solutions such as manufactured and modular homes. “
Oregon bill would extend grants for mobile home park, marina tenants
House Bill 3144 also extends the date that manufactured home park tenants and marina residents can receive grants meant to help them receive legal representation during a dispute with a landlord to January 2031. Mobile home park residents in Oregon fund these grants through a $10 annual fee which supports the Manufactured and Marina Communities Resource Center.
“These programs are paid for by manufactured park tenants, and there is enough money in the fund to pay for at least another two years,” Marsh said. “Finding a tenant lawyer is difficult, and this program allows them access to critical representation.”
Lane County legal aid attorney and Oregon State Tenants Association vice president John VanLandingham testified in favor of the bill.
VanLandingham said most people living in mobile home parks across Oregon own their homes but rent the land. They pay property taxes, but they’re tenants, he said. Individuals living in floating homes operate similarly.
The bill already passed the House in a 49-7 vote. To become a law, the Senate committee must vote to advance the bill to the Senate floor during a work session at a later date. If passed by the Senate, it would head to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk where she may sign the bill into law, allow the bill to become law without her signature or veto the bill.
There would be no financial impact to the state, Marsh said.