[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 169 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1130. Mrs. SHAHEEN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
to amendment SA 948 proposed by Mr. Shelby to the bill H.R. 3055, 
making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, 
Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
2020, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as 
follows:

       At the appropriate place in title II of division D, insert 
     the following:
       Sec. 2__.  It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) more than 17,000,000 people live in manufactured homes 
     and benefit from high-quality affordable homes which provide 
     stability;
       (2) owners of manufactured homes have disproportionately 
     low-income households, and in 2013, the median annual 
     household income for living in manufactured housing was 
     $28,400;
       (3) approximately 75 percent of manufactured home 
     households earn less than $50,000 per year;
       (4) more than 10 percent of veterans in the United States 
     live in manufactured homes;
       (5) in late 1990, manufactured housing represented \2/3\ of 
     the new affordable housing produced in the United States and 
     remains a significant source of unsubsidized affordable 
     housing in the United States;
       (6) in 2015, the average cost per square foot for a new 
     manufactured home was 48 dollars, less than half of the cost 
     per square foot for a new-site built, structure-only home, 
     which was $101;
       (7) in 2009, 43 percent of all new homes that sold for less 
     than $150,000 were manufactured homes;
       (8) manufactured homes account for 23 percent of new home 
     sales under $200,000;
       (9) more than 50,000 manufactured home communities, also 
     referred to as ``mobile home parks'', exist throughout the 
     United States;
       (10) more than 2,900,000 manufactured homes are placed in 
     manufactured home communities;
       (11) manufactured home communities provide critical 
     affordable housing, but receive very little Federal, State, 
     or local funds to subsidize the cost of manufactured homes;
       (12) manufactured home owners in such communities may own 
     the home, but they do not own the land under the home, which 
     leaves the home owners vulnerable to rent increases, 
     arbitrary rule enforcement, and in the case of a manufactured 
     home community owner converting the land to some other use, 
     community closure;
       (13) an eviction or closure of a manufactured home 
     community is very disruptive to a resident who may be unable 
     to pay the thousands of dollars it takes to move the 
     manufactured home or find a new location for the manufactured 
     home;
       (14) in an effort to preserve a crucial source of 
     affordable housing within the past two decades, a national 
     network of housing providers has helped residents purchase 
     and own the land under the manufactured home community, and 
     manage the manufactured home community;
       (15) nationwide, there are more than 1,000 stable, 
     permanent ownership cooperatives or nonprofit-owned 
     developments in more than a dozen States;
       (16) members of manufactured home communities continue to 
     own such homes individually, own an equal share of the land 
     beneath the entire manufactured home community, participate 
     in the governing of the community, and elect a board of 
     directors who make major decisions within the manufactured 
     home community by a democratic vote;
       (17) in New Hampshire, more than 30 percent of manufactured 
     home communities are owned by residents;
       (18) resident-owned cooperatives and nonprofit owned 
     communities have also flourished in Vermont, Massachusetts, 
     Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota;
       (19) nationwide, only 2 percent of all manufactured home 
     communities are resident or nonprofit-owned;
       (20) when the owner of a manufactured home community or his 
     or her heirs sell the community to the highest bidder, it can 
     result in displacement for dozens and sometimes hundreds of 
     families; and
       (21) Congress should endeavor to protect residents of 
     manufactured home communities by encouraging the owners of 
     those properties to sell them to nonprofit organizations or 
     to the residents themselves to own cooperatively.
                                 ______