As reflector reports, Pitt County has a large number of manufactured homes, similar to most eastern North Carolina counties. MHProNews knows North Carolina ranks fourth among the states in the number of new manufactured homes shipped.
The grant allows homeowners up to $7,000 each to replace HVAC systems, or windows or a roof, said James Rhodes, Pitt County planning director. “If we can alleviate those leaks, these houses can be preserved much longer. We want to keep folks in their houses as long as they can physically stay there,” he said.
Jonas Hill, who oversees the county’s Owner-Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program, noting increasing roof repair requests for manufactured homes, said these homes are replacement homes after Hurricane Floyd (1999). Typically, roofing materials for a manufactured home have a 15-year life span versus a 30-year for most site-built homes.
The Urgent Repair funds can also be used to make MH more handicapped accessible, including modified entryways and bathrooms. Keeping people in their homes saves taxpayers money as opposed to them living in a nursing home.
While the Urgent Repair funding in only sufficient to cover 12 homes, there are 25 approved applicants on the waiting list.
In previous years, housing funds came through the Community Development Block Grant program, but now that money can only be used for infrastructure projects.
The county also secured a $15,000 grant from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Urgent Repair program, but applicants who live in manufactured homes must also own the land in order to qualify. ##
(Photo credit: peninsuladailynews/Jeremy Schwartz–Dan Davis, left, and Tom Duce repairing a manufactured home)
