On July 20, the House approved its version of the FY2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill (currently unnumbered). The House measure provides a total of $67.4 billion in discretionary resources, a cut of $500 million under current spending and $1.3 billion less than the administration’s request. It is unclear when the bill will come up for floor consideration.
For the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the bill provides $49.4 billion in funding, an increase of nearly $2.5 billion. Within this amount, $7 million is appropriated to the Manufactured Housing Fees Trust Fund, a reduction of $2 million under current funding. A total of up to $21 million is recommended for the manufactured housing standards program.
To sustain the program, the administration is proposing an increase of the per unit label fee from $39 to approximately $49 for each transportable unit in order to raise approximately $4 million at projected rates of production.
The House measure also contains report language indicating that the committee “recognizes that the manufactured housing industry has been impacted greatly by the subprime and unemployment crises that plague the housing sector. However, this sector of the housing market has not gotten a great deal of attention from HUD, as evidenced by the lack of a proposed rule in this account, and several key vacancies in this office. The Committee urges HUD to focus on this portion of the housing market and to issue the final rule and mortgagee letter that will enable this sector of the housing market to begin recovery.”
Senate Action
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its $67.9 billion bill (currently unnumbered) on July 22. Of this amount, $46.6 billion is provided for HUD. Senate floor action the measure has not yet been scheduled.
The measure provides $14 million, equal to the administration’s request, to support the manufactured housing standards program. Of this amount, $7 million is to be derived from fee collection and $7 million from the Manufactured Housing Fees Trust Fund.
The committee includes language supporting the administration’ requested fee increase and specifically states that “the proposed label fee increase will help restore label proceeds, and the Committee expects to see data on the revenue generated by the fee increase. In addition, the direct appropriation will allow MHSP to begin to implement its new Installation and Dispute Resolution programs. As these programs are implemented, the Committee expects to receive data regarding actual and expected user fee revenue.”
The committee also included report language, supported by MHI regarding the lack of secondary market support for manufactured housing loans, specifically loans secured by personal property. The committee indicates that “manufactured housing serves as a quality affordable housing option for millions of American families. The committee is concerned that, despite strong congressional guidance in this area, there has been a lack of effort in dutifully serving the needs of the manufactured housing market, as specified in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. In its role as a lead regulator of the manufactured housing industry, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is directed to work with the Government-sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to establish a secondary market for manufactured home loans secured by personal property.”
For more information, contact MHI Vice President of Government Affairs Jason Boehlert at 703-558-0660 or jboehlert@mfghome.org.
