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Executive Summary
Report
Solutions and Recommendations
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Downtown Housing Improvement Corp.
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Homesight Sidebar
Homebuyer Sidebar
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Organizing Tenants Sidebar
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HOMESIGHT
HomeSight, located in Seattle,
Washington, completed the first manufactured homes in Noji Gardens in
March 2000. Since then, over 50 homes have been completed. Several publications
- including Modern Homes, a publication of the Manufactured Housing Institute
(a trade group), and a recent report by Neighborhood Reinvestment entitled,
"An Examination of Manufactured Housing as a Community and Asset-building
Strategy" - feature HomeSight as a model for non-profit manufactured
home development.
Tony To, Deputy Director of HomeSight, rated the home designs a perfect
ten. He notes, "We redesigned the homes based on our own research.
We spent about a year researching manufactured housing. We went to a conference
in D.C. with HUD and the Manufactured Housing Institute. We went to visit
New Colony Village in Maryland and Wilksburg, Pennsylvania and got into
it with a great deal of research. We also have a lot of development capacity
in our organization, which is very helpful." HomeSight talked to
several companies before settling on a manufacturer.
To reported little resistance to the project from the community, but a
great deal of skepticism. "We went to the building department, inspectors,
and all city agencies. We . went through a neighborhood design review
and held public meetings." He said they saved between 10 to 19 percent
in savings and in the future expects to save up to 30 percent over site-built
homes. To said the project took less time to complete than site built
homes, and in the future HomeSight expects to reduce the time to three
months from the start of development. Now, with the project in its third
development phase, To has already seen the homes appreciating in value
for the homeowners.
Lessons learned:
- Background research and
development experience are key to a successful program
- Savings can increase over
time as development gets into swing.
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