Congressional leaders just released the FY 2023 omnibus spending bill. The bill includes significant investments in affordable housing, from aid for tenants to funding for manufactured-home owners like me. I am so grateful for Sen. Susan Collins’ leadership on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations subcommittee and for her lifelong commitment to affordable housing.

Included in the bill is $225 million for a new grant program, Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement, or PRICE. PRICE will provide grants to cooperative and nonprofit manufactured housing (or mobile home) communities to address life-saving infrastructure issues and support residents purchasing their communities.

There are 10 resident-owned manufactured housing communities in Maine. I am able to age in place and live on a fixed income because I own a manufactured home in a resident-owned cooperative. PRICE will help preserve manufactured homes as one of the last sources of unsubsidized affordable housing, a crucial measure especially as private equity companies buy up parks across the country. PRICE will ensure the health and safety of homes and neighborhoods in resident-owned cooperatives and provide the opportunity for more communities to become resident-owned cooperatives.

I thank Sen. Collins and her staff for hearing our voices and seeing the deep value of this program through our lived experiences. Addressing our nation’s housing crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. Thanks also for Sen. Collins’ working across the aisle to find diverse solutions that keep families in their homes and create safer, healthier communities.

Margaret Jones
Camden

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