NY State Giving Away Mobile Homes

I’m speechless.

The Saratogian reported:

New York state is targeting dilapidated mobile and manufactured homes for replacement with energy-efficient, affordable housing in a new $5 million initiative announced Monday.

Deborah VanAmerongen, commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), announced the Manufactured Home Replacement Initiative Monday at the Saratoga Hilton during a conference of the New York State Rural Housing Coalition.

Representatives of state and local housing agencies and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are attending the two-day conference that marks the coalition’s 30th anniversary.

In her remarks before about 220 people, VanAmerongen said New York has a great need for affordable housing.

“We have people living in unsafe, unsanitary housing,” she said, citing that about 200,000 mobile or manufactured homes are occupied by half a million people statewide. Many homeowners live in poverty and cannot afford to make repairs or build new homes, she added.

[...]

The replacement initiative is funded by federal money administered by the DHCR through its New York State HOME Program, VanAmerongen said. The $5 million is expected to be supplemented by funding from other organizations, with the aim to replace 150 to 160 homes statewide. Each home replacement has a cost cap of $50,000.

In addition to the cost of a new, Energy Star-qualified manufactured home, the replacement includes removal and demolition of the old home, site work, transportation of the new home, set-up, and temporary relocation of occupants during the process.
To be eligible for replacement, dilapidated homes must have major safety issues such as wiring or roofing problems, DHCR officials said. Specific standards used to define a “dilapidated” home are determined by individual housing agencies.

Beneficiaries of replacements must own both their home and the property it sits on. Furthermore, they must be part of a household that earns 80 percent or less of the area median income.