AUGUSTA - The Legislature's Joint Select Committee on Housing unanimously voted last week to advance legislation sponsored by Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Harpswell, which would amend zoning ordinances to allow manufactured homes on single-family lots.
"This bill would increase affordable, unsubsidized housing opportunities for low-to-middle income Mainers," said Golek. "Today, not only are manufactured homes indistinguishable from site-built homes in quality, but they are much quicker to build. This bill would amend current lot restrictions and provide folks with more accessible housing options in the community of their choosing."
Several advocacy groups supported the bill at its public hearing, including the Maine Association of Planners, the Maine Center for Economic Policy and the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future..
"I am especially grateful to Eli Rubin and Shelley Norton of the Maine Planners Association for all of the work they put into this bill, said Golek."
"Manufactured housing appreciates at roughly the same rate as site-built housing when sited on owned land," said Josie Phillips, policy fellow at the Maine Center for Economic Policy. "Purchasing a manufactured home not only provides housing stability to the purchaser, but also an opportunity to build wealth."
The bill faces additional votes in the House and Senate in the weeks ahead.
Golek, a member of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee and the Joint Select Committee on Housing, is serving her first term in the Maine House and represents Harpswell and part of Brunswick.
Contact:
Brian Lee [Golek], c. 305-965-2744