Mayor Romero and HUD Announce City of Tucson Awarded PRICE Grant Funds

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero was joined by HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs, Kera Package and HUD Regional Director for Region IX, Rufus Wilson to announce a highly competitive $11.5M grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help the City of Tucson create long-term housing affordability and make investments in energy efficiency to benefit families living in manufactured homes. The City of Tucson is among 17 applicants out of 175 in the U.S. that received funding to help families invest in improvements to create housing affordability and make their homes safer. 

The Tucson Mayor & Council adopted the Housing Affordability Strategy for Tucson (HAST) in December 2021 identifying manufactured housing as the single-most affordable type of housing and prioritizing preserving and rehabilitating aging manufactured housing. The strategy’s focus positioned the City of Tucson as one of the top applicants in the country, successfully winning a Preservation and Reinvestment Initiatives for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grant.

Today’s award marks a major step forward in our goal to preserve manufactured housing as an affordable, resilient housing option for Tucson residents. The PRICE grant funding will be used to rehabilitate or replace aging and unsafe housing, aiding residents living in mobile homes to acquire and manage a local mobile home park and provide eviction prevention and legal assistance.   

“This $11.5 million dollar HUD grant will help the City of Tucson create housing affordability in communities that are most vulnerable to displacement,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. “Manufactured housing is the single-most affordable type of housing available in Tucson. I want to thank the Biden-Harris administration and HUD for investing in resources to help us create affordability for Tucson families to make improvements to their homes so they can remain safe, stable and housed. Tucson is one of the fastest warming cities in the country, and this investment will also help us weatherize housing to bring relief to families facing the financial burden of extreme utility bills,” added the Mayor.  

The PRICE funds will allow City of Tucson Housing and Community Development and its partners to develop climate-resilient solutions to improve the living conditions for residents earning low- and moderate-incomes living in manufactured housing and mobile homes. The team will achieve its goals by: 

• Providing gap financing and technical assistance to support residents of a local mobile home park located in Tucson to acquire their park and form a resident-owned community with shared governance and park management. Grant funds will support acquisition, infrastructure improvements, rehabilitation/replacement of aging and unsafe housing units, and technical assistance throughout the acquisition and management process.  

• Rehabilitating or replacing manufactured and mobile homes with a focus on people living in areas of the City and County, including the Thrive in the 05 area of the 85705 zip code, Flowing Wells area, Benson Highway area, and the area between I-19 and South Mission Road. 

• Providing emergency eviction prevention and legal assistance for Pima County residents within and outside the City of Tucson limits to prevent displacement from leased manufactured housing/mobile home lots.  

 “Manufactured homes are a critical component of our community’s housing supply. Many of these homes provide shelter for vulnerable families and individuals, who, if they didn’t have safe and adequate manufactured homes, could become homeless. The deterioration of aging manufactured homes is an overlooked aspect of the housing crisis.” said Tucson Housing and Community Development Director Ann Chanecka.

City of Tucson HCD secured this grant through strong collaboration with Pima County Department of Community and Workforce Development, Poder Casas Móviles, Resident Owned Communities USA, Tucson Industrial Development Authority, Innovation for Justice, the University of Arizona, and the State manufactured housing residents’ association. Tucson HCD will administer the funds.  

Manufactured housing and mobile homes account for roughly 10 percent of the housing stock in the metro Tucson area, more than twice the percentage found in other Western U.S. cities. 

According to a 2019 University of Arizona report, 35 percent of Pima County’s manufactured homes are pre-1976, many of which were built with hazardous materials, poor insulation, and fire-prone aluminum wiring. Lot rental increases, limited equity, and aging energy-inefficient structures threaten the long-term affordability and livability for people in these homes.  

Biden-Harris Administration Awards $225 Million To Preserve and Revitalize Housing | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)