Following-up on decisions made by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) at its December 2014 meeting, the MHCC General Subcommittee — as announced in the January 13, 2015 edition of the Federal Register — will conduct a telephone conference call meeting on February 11, 2015 to begin addressing “multi-family aspects of manufactured housing.”
This MHCC activity relates back to an October 3, 2014 guidance memorandum issued by the HUD program administrator, warning of enforcement action against any HUD-labeled home designed and built for “multi-family or non-single-family residential use” based on the definition of “dwelling unit” contained in section 3280.2 of the HUD standards — which provides that a manufactured home, as a “dwelling unit,” must be “designed to be occupied by one family.”
In a November 12, 2014 communication to the program administrator – and again at the December 2014 MHCC meeting – MHARR stressed that the “single-family” restriction contained in 3280.2 exceeds relevant statutory authority in that the statutory definition of “manufactured home” states that a manufactured home is a “dwelling,” but does not otherwise define or limit a “dwelling” – expressly or implicitly — to being a “single-family” home. Thus, there is no statutory support for the 3280.2 restriction of a “dwelling unit” to occupancy “by one family.”
MHARR had also emphasized that while HUD regulatory requirements can be imposed relating to the design, construction and installation of a home based on the specific authority of the federal manufactured housing law, a HUD restriction on the sale of a home — based on its intended, actual or possible use by the purchaser — is not permissible. Indeed, based on current law, so long as a manufactured home is designed, constructed, delivered and installed in accordance with applicable HUD standards and regulations, and is not subsequently taken out of compliance, its end use by a purchaser is — and should be – of no legitimate concern to HUD. Nor should HUD, given evolving legal standards, be involved in defining or deciding who or what constitutes a “family” or, by extension, a “single-family.”
Consistent with these positions, the MHCC voted to refer the issue of multi-family manufactured homes to its General Subcommittee for further review and development of relevant recommendations. While MHARR continues to maintain that regulation of the “intended use” of a HUD-labeled home is beyond the scope of HUD’s authority under federal law, and that the use of any home or structure, once sited, is a matter for state and/or local authorities, this matter, as it relates specifically to multi-family home designs, can and should be addressed by the MHCC.
