A Simple Way to Make Housing Cheaper Is Languishing in the GOP House |
A Simple Way to Make Housing Cheaper Is Languishing in the GOP House
A bipartisan bill passed by the Senate would make manufactured homes even more affordable by removing a single unnecessary requirement. But the House is busy trying to suppress the vote.
The House of Representatives is sitting on bipartisan legislation sent to it by the Senate that could potentially help solve the housing affordability crisis. But Republican leadership is too busy trying to make it harder for some Americans to vote.
The housing bill, which passed 89–10, aims to make home building faster and cheaper, in the hope that increased supply will drive down the costs of renting and buying. Among the provisions is one that waives a seemingly obscure requirement: Manufactured homes—as the industry refers to what are commonly known as mobile homes—would no longer have to be built on a steel chassis, an outdated requirement left over from a time when these homes were truly meant to be mobile.
Manufactured homes are already built at about half the cost of homes constructed on-site, and waiving the requirement would make them even cheaper. It could also pave the way for more multifamily projects built from manufactured homes. But first, the bill has to pass the House, where it has stalled amid pressure from President Donald Trump to pass the SAVE Act, the GOP’s desperate bid to suppress voter turnout ahead of the fall midterm elections.
“No one gives a [expletive] about housing,” Trump allegedly told House Majority Leader Mike Johnson earlier this month. Ironically, better and cheaper access to manufactured homes could help Republican voters the most.
Almost all economists and policymakers agree that the country needs more homes, both single and multifamily, for home prices and rents to become more affordable. The lack of supply isn’t the only reason housing costs are increasingly out of reach for many low-income, working-class, and even middle-class families, but it is a big one.
“Manufactured homes” refers to those built according to a national standard set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They’re built in a factory, on a........