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Manufactured housing advocates press Legislature to protect parks, expand financing and speed preservation
Summary
North Country Cooperative Foundation and other witnesses told the committee that manufactured home communities are a major source of affordable homeownership but face investor buyouts, aging infrastructure and limited financing; they urged continued MHCR funding, a new 30‑year manufactured home loan product and faster notice enforcement.
Torrey Clark West, executive director of North Country Cooperative Foundation (NCF), told the committee that manufactured housing is “Minnesota's largest source of naturally occurring affordable home ownership,” serving roughly 80,000 residents. She described resident ownership — converting parks to cooperatives — as a tool to stabilize lot rents and preserve affordability.
Clark West said many parks were developed in the 1950s–1970s and rely on aging infrastructure (roads, water, sewer). The Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment (MHCR) program has awarded roughly $44 million since 2020, with nearly $20 million supporting resident cooperatives. She told the committee the program had far more demand than available funds: in one year MHCR received $56 million in applications and the agency had substantially less available (the testimony noted $13.3 million requested vs. $2.7 million available in a cited round).
Nut graf: Witnesses urged sustained state support for infrastructure grants, quicker access to preservation financing, and expansion of manufactured‑home specific lending so buyers can access 30‑year, mortgage‑style terms rather than personal property loans.
NCF highlighted other tools and recent laws: a $10 million 2023 appropriation to develop manufactured home loan products (to be deployed with NeighborWorks Home Partners and Minnesota Housing with a planned April rollout of a 30‑year term product) and a 2023 notice‑of‑sale law plus a 5% tax credit to incentivize sales to co‑ops or nonprofits. Clark West reported deployment of $1,150,000 from a state revolving loan fund to cooperatives in Breckenridge and Alexandria at below‑market rates to complement Minnesota Housing first mortgages.
Committee members asked how extensive infrastructure needs are; Clark West said nearly every community needs some level of rehab and cited MHCR application totals as evidence of scale. Senator Drayheim estimated a large share of parks (he suggested at least 80%) will need infrastructure work.
Ending: Advocates asked for more funding for MHCR and for faster, enforceable notice and sale processes so preservation buyers can act before properties are already under contract.
