Washington, D.C., September 11, 2017 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) in a September 7, 2017 letter to HUD Secretary Dr. Benjamin Carson and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator William B. Long (copy attached), has called on both agencies to make “full and maximum” use of HUD-regulated manufactured homes as both emergency relief and replacement housing for Americans impacted by Hurricane Harvey and expected-Hurricane Irma (as well as other natural disasters).

Noting that HUD Code manufactured housing has repeatedly proven its value as safe, decent, effective and highly-efficient emergency relief and replacement housing for disaster victims that can be rapidly deployed by FEMA and other relief agencies at a cost that does not impose undue burdens on American taxpayers, the letter calls on HUD and FEMA to follow-through on a recent FEMA Request for Information concerning the availability of deployable HUD Code manufactured homes with the purchase and deployment of HUD Code manufactured homes in numbers sufficient to meet both the short-term and long-term needs of victims in all impacted areas.

In Washington, D.C., MHARR President and CEO Mark Weiss stated: “HUD Code manufactured homes provide FEMA, HUD and other government agencies at the federal, state and local level with a dependable and rapidly-deployable source of safe, high-quality housing to meet their respective missions in support of disaster victims.  In light of the unprecedented scope of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey and anticipated from Hurricane Irma, these agencies should make full use of federally-regulated manufactured housing, and all of the advantages that it offers, to help Americans recover from these storms.”