Morehead Manufactured Housing Initiative Awarded $121,000 Grant
Frontier Housing to Develop Affordable Housing in Rural Kentucky - December 5, 2006

Contact: Cody Prater, Frontier Housing, 606-784-2131, cprater@frontierhousing.org
Kristin Lawton (CFED) 202.408.9788 x137

The funding was awarded by I’M HOME (Innovations in Manufactured Homes), a multi-year initiative that seeks to ensure that families who choose to purchase manufactured homes can reap benefits from homeownership comparable to owners of other homes. I’M HOME will be providing more than $5 million in grants and contracts to organizations across the nation seeking to address some of the inequities in the manufactured housing marketplace.

Cody Prater, Frontier Housing’s Director of Sales states:
“With I'M HOME support, Frontier will provide low interest loans designed to encourage homeownership. Our program ensures that these homes are built, set and financed to the highest standards. Manufactured Homes when properly designed and placed; offer the benefits of gaining value which results in better communities. Never before in this area has there been this great of an opportunity for the hard working people of Appalachia to achieve the American Dream! Many families’ lives will be touched by this, and we are proud to be a part of it.”

Manufactured houses are home to approximately 10 million families in the U.S. Since 1976, these homes have been built to a fairly stringent federal building code and are of generally high quality. Millions of older, substandard homes still exist, however, often fueling community resistance to all such homes. Despite their prevalence, few attempts have been made to help owners of manufactured homes realize the benefits usually tied to homeownership.

While two-thirds of all recent affordable housing starts are manufactured homes, owners often are limited in how easily they can build wealth through homeownership. This is partly due to a lending market that treats manufactured homes significantly differently than all other homes. It is also due to the fact that millions of manufactured home owners rent the land under their homes. In addition, manufactured home owners receive limited consumer protections and face a resale market that, once again, functions differently than the market for all other homes.

I’M HOME is supporting initiatives that address each of these concerns, as well as programs that demonstrate the ability to provide high-quality housing in varied communities.

“The origins of the industry are in post-war travel trailers. In the last 50 years, the product has evolved – these are permanent, and not “mobile,” homes now – but the underlying business model has not kept pace,” said David Buchholz, the director of I’M HOME. “For most consumers, the process of buying, financing, titling, insuring, and getting consumer protections looks more like buying a car than buying a home, and this needs to change. We need to show lenders, policymakers and owners that if we treat this housing stock as real estate, these homes can be high-quality, appreciating investments for millions of American homeowners.”

In support of the I’M HOME project, Frontier Housing has developed “The Community at Edgewood, a 45 –home subdivision in Rowan County, created with partners such as Clayton Homes. Homes are now available and applications can be taken at Frontiers Homeownership Center. Please call (606)784-2131 and ask for a home loan specialist. Homes can be seen at Rice Rd., 1/4 mile from Route 801. Loan and home product information can be seen at www.frontierhousing.org 

I’M HOME is an initiative of CFED, a national nonprofit organization that expands economic opportunity. CFED works to ensure that every person can participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the economy by bringing together community practice, public policy, and private markets. We identify promising ideas; test and refine them in communities to find out what works; craft policies and products to help good ideas reach scale; and foster new markets to achieve greater economic impact. Established in 1979 as the Corporation for Enterprise Development, CFED works nationally and internationally through its offices in Washington, DC; Durham, North Carolina; and San Francisco, California. www.cfed.org 

Frontier Housing is a non-profit organization providing lending and homebuyer counseling services, as well as new home construction. Frontier has been working in the community for 32 years and has provided more than 1000 housing solutions for local families. Our mission is to provide affordable housing solutions to build better communities.

Major funding for I’M HOME is provided by the Ford Foundation. More information on I’M HOME can be found at www.cfed.org/go/imhome .