HUD announces major manufactured housing code updates in Elkhart

 

ELKHART, Ind.-- Wednesday, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the largest update to their HUD code in 30 years, and they did so in Elkhart.

"Elkhart, Indiana, is the home of the Manufactured Housing and RV hall of fame," making it the perfect city for the announcement, said Federal Housing Commissioner Julia Gordon.

"The big announcement is that we have 90 different updates to this code," she said. "It's so big we had to give it two names, it's the 4th and 5th set of updates."

Gordon is referring to updates to the HUD code, the federal guidelines for all manufactured housing.

"What it means to have a federal code is you can build these anywhere and ship them anywhere without having to worry about local building codes," Gordon said.

HUD is also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the HUD code, part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974.

In the middle of a national housing shortage, HUD is essentially expanding the types of homes manufactured housing builders can create to meet demand.

"It is absolutely imperative on the federal government to be paying attention to this," Gordon said. "I mean, it's not by accident that you hear more talk of housing in the presidential campaign than we've heard for decades."

One of the biggest highlights, for example, is multi-unit housing.

"The demand for the multi-plex type units is so strong and we're hearing about it from so many places," Gordon said.

The demand is so strong, she said, those types of builds are exempted from the regulatory wait period and can be built immediately.

A representative from Clayton Homes said those will come to market within 30 days.

"Our industry is innovative, and we're able to produce homes that can go in a lot of different settings around the country," said Lesli Gooch, CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute. "The challenge is we need to have our code to be able to provide for that. So, it needs to be updated."

Industry experts are thrilled with the updates, but say they needed to be made years ago, and they want to see the HUD code updated more regularly.

"It's really important that that code stay to date with innovation, that it allows for the products and designs that today's consumers are seeking," Gooch said.