Title
Approval of Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies Recommendation
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Move to approve the Land Use & Environment Committee recommendations for Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies.
City Manager Recommendation:
Move to approve recommendations for Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies.
Report
Issue:
Whether to approve the recommendations for Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies.
Staff Contact:
Christa Lenssen, Senior Housing Program Specialist, Community Development, 360.570.3762
Presenter(s):
Christa Lenssen, Senior Housing Program Specialist
Background and Analysis:
Manufactured housing landscape and displacement impacts
Manufactured home tenants are uniquely at risk of economic and physical displacement. Manufactured homes comprise between 2 and 3% of the city’s housing units but represent an important affordable unsubsidized housing option. There are twelve known manufactured home communities in Olympia city limits with an estimated total of 800 housing units.
Manufactured housing may be rented or owned by the resident. Residents rent the lot space for the underlying land where the home is located. Some residents rent both the home and the lot. These tenancies are covered under the Washington State Residential Landlord Tenant Act and Olympia Rental Housing Code, like other apartments and dwellings. Residents who own their home and rent the underlying land are covered by the Washington Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord Tenant Act and not covered under Olympia Rental Housing Code. Because many residents own their homes and homes are difficult to relocate, they face unique challenges compared to other types of residential tenancies.
Economic displacement can occur when lot rents are increased beyond what residents are able to afford and residents must relocate. Residents may face physical displacement if a community is closed due to redevelopment. When a manufactured homeowner is forced to relocate, it can be very difficult (if not impossible) to relocate their home and may be cost prohibitive. As a result, residents lose not only their housing, but the value of their investment if they are not able to relocate their home elsewhere.
Alignment with City Plans
Olympia’s Comprehensive Plan identifies the following goals for manufactured housing community preservation:
• PH10.5 Evaluate the possibility of supporting a program that would allow low income tenants of manufactured home parks to jointly purchase and renovate permanent sites for their manufactured homes. Consider funding programs to subsidize the interest rates, loan origination fees, or other costs of acquiring the land.
• PH1.6 Allow manufactured homes on individual lots, promote preservation of existing manufactured home parks, and enable these parks in multi-family and commercial areas, all subject to design standards ensuring that the units are appropriately scaled and designed to integrate with surrounding housing and land uses.
Preservation of manufactured home communities is also included in Olympia’s Housing Action Plan. The Housing Action Plan identifies the following strategy for preserving MHCs:
• 2.d. Consider a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPO) Ordinance (as a tool for preservation of manufactured home parks and multifamily uses)
Exploration of preservation options
Olympia City Council’s Land Use & Environment Committee (LUEC) has discussed preservation of manufactured housing communities multiple times over the past two years. Staff organized two community meetings for residents in manufactured housing communities in September 2024 and February 2025 to learn more about the challenges, needs, and priorities of residents.
At community meetings, residents expressed a desire to learn more about their rights and staff organized a training provided by legal aid attorneys about their rights under the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act that was well-received.
In March 2026, staff were directed to research options for preservation, including: costs to construct a new manufactured housing community and potential land for development, transfer of development rights, infrastructure funding and assistance that could be provided, acquisition of small communities, and potential funding sources. Staff summarized the research findings and presented recommendations for LUEC in August 2026.
Staff has attached a report that outlines:
• Background on challenges and manufactured housing in Olympia
• Community Engagement efforts
• Recent efforts at the state and local level to prevent economic and physical displacement
• Staff research on options for LUEC
• Existing and potential funding sources for work in this area
• Staff recommendations for future work in this area
LUEC recommendations
Recommendations presented consider the current City resources, broader funding landscape and legal risk. Staff recommends four strategies to advance this work in the next 12 months:
1. Pursue outreach and engagement opportunities (3-9 months)
• Staff will develop and share with MHC residents a new resources section on the City’s website for manufactured homeowners.
• Explore training opportunities with community partners (such as legal aid attorneys, ROCNW, Washington State Attorney General’s Office, or others) to offer education on manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant rights, rent stabilization, right to compete to purchase, etc. This could be done in collaboration with other jurisdictions.
2. Current funding options, particularly for infrastructure upgrades, are limited. Continue monitoring of funding opportunities and policy change (6-12 months/ongoing)
• Monitoring existing funding opportunities.
• Track new sources of funding developed.
• Track new legislation.
• Track litigation.
• Advocate for additional funding sources.
• Track City of Lacey and other efforts to identify opportunities for collaboration.
• Explore whether Olympia Public Works has an interest in reinvigorating a septic to sewer revolving loan fund.
• Explore whether RHC Opportunity Fund could be utilized for infrastructure upgrades (in particular, for privately owned communities in exchange for public benefit).
3. Engage in strategic work with manufactured home communities on an ongoing case-by-case basis, as needs and opportunities arise (6-12 months/ongoing)
• Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all policy or approach, engage in creative problem-solving on a case-by-case basis.
• Utilize information from Washington State Department of Commerce to develop a prioritization matrix that guides when staff will provide additional support and resources, and the nature of the assistance. For example, staff could take a more active role in strategy and support when there is a higher likelihood of success in transitioning to resident ownership.
• Connect communities with existing and new resources (for example, Commerce’s new grant funding for infrastructure repairs for cooperatives.)
4. Continue work to expand affordable homeownership opportunities (3-12 months)
• Acknowledging manufactured homes are one of few forms of affordable homeownership, staff will continue to explore ways the City can support access to affordable homeownership opportunities.
• Monitor statewide starter home efforts and funding.
• Explore potential for land banking to create more supply.
o Rather than only exploring land banking for development of a new resident-owned manufactured housing cooperative, explore any and all forms of permanently affordable homeownership.
• Affirmative marketing to manufactured housing communities when new homeownership supply is developed or for homebuyer education opportunities.
• Research financing options and grants to help residents upgrade their RV/park model to a new manufactured home to enable more parks to access ROC-USA lending.
Climate Analysis:
The recommended actions are not expected to have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Preserving existing housing may have a long-term reduction on greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating need for replacement of housing units. However, many older manufactured homes are not energy efficient. Most manufactured home communities in Olympia are located along major transit corridors where residents have access to public transit. Preserving these housing units from commercial redevelopment will keep housing that is already accessible to transit routes.
Equity Analysis:
Households in mobile homes are over twice as likely to live in poverty (DeLuca, Stefanie, and Eva Rosen 2022) and manufactured housing is the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ‘Manufactured Housing Finance: New Insights from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data’). Adults over age 65 are more likely to live in a manufactured home than the general population, according to the Thurston County Housing Needs Assessment. About 12% of seniors countywide live in manufactured housing or mobile homes compared to 9% for the county population as a whole. Nearly 17% of adults over age 65 in Olympia have income below the federal poverty level, which is about 1.5% higher than the general adult population. Staff was not able to locate the racial demographics of Olympia residents who live in manufactured homes. Enacting protections that increase housing stability and reduce risk of displacement will benefit lower-income households and older adults, who are more likely to live in manufactured housing.
Staff was not able to obtain demographic data on manufactured home community owners. Park owners would be burdened by additional requirements or restrictions put in place by the City but may benefit from capital investments or incentives offered.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
The primary concern of manufactured home residents raised at the community meeting held in September 2024 was increasing lot rents, which was addressed by enactment of HB 1217 in 2025. Residents were also most concerned about being displaced if the owner sells or redevelops the property.
Financial Impact:
Staff recommendations will require existing staff time, but no additional resources at this time. If the City pursues assisting manufactured home communities on a case-by-case basis with acquisition or activities to support preservation, those actions may incur costs. A funding source will need to be identified to support any additional work in this area.
Options:
1. Move to approve recommendations for Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies.
2. Move to approve, with modifications, recommendations for Manufactured Home Communities Preservation Strategies.
3. Take no action.
Attachments:
MHC Recommendations Report
Existing Funding Sources
Potential Funding Sources