U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Holds Hearing on Rep. Rose’s Bill to Increase Affordable Housing

Washington, DC-Today, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance held a hearing entitled 'Housing Affordability: Governmental Barriers and Market-Based Solutions.' The hearing focused on the continuing affordability challenges that many currently face in both the single-family housing and rental markets. Witnesses discussed the factors that have contributed to those challenges, particularly government-created barriers such as restrictive land-use and zoning policies, and various market-based solutions.

Rep. Rose's legislation, H.R. 5198, the Expansion of Attainable Homeownership Through Manufactured Housing Act of 2023, was one of the pieces of legislation that became a topic for discussion amongst witnesses and lawmakers. The bill, which Rep. Rose introduced in August of this year, would amend the definition of "manufactured home" in the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 by striking "built on a permanent chassis and."

During the hearing, Rep. Rose gave the following remarks:

"The growing scarcity of affordable housing in this country for both homeowners and renters is a serious crisis. Helping to alleviate this crisis will require, as our hearing title suggests, knocking down government barriers that are standing in the way of helping to supply more affordable housing.

"One such government barrier to more affordable housing is HUD's outdated requirement that manufactured housing be built on a permanent chassis. A permanent chassis allows manufactured housing to be more easily transported. This is helpful if a manufactured home will be moved multiple times during its lifetime.

"However, many manufactured homes are now built with the intention of being permanently placed in one location and thus do not need to be built with a permanent chassis.

"Eliminating the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured housing from the federal construction code administered by HUD will help to potentially save thousands of dollars on new manufactured homes made without a permanent chassis.

"I am proud to have introduced my bipartisan bill H.R. 5198 the Expansion of Attainable Homeownership Through Manufactured Housing Act of 2023 along with my colleague Congressman Correa of California that will eliminate this outdated requirement.

"I thank the Subcommittee for attaching H.R. 5198 to today's hearing and look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important piece of legislation."

The Members of Congress present heard from expert witnesses: Mr. Seth Appleton, President, U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI), Mr. Norbert Michel, Vice President and Director, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, CATO Institute, Dr. Emily Hamilton, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Ms. Arianna Royster, President, Borger Residential on behalf of the National Apartment Association (NAA), and Ms. Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Watch Rep. Rose's questioning of the witnesses here.

More information about Rep. Rose's bill can be found here.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

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