An estimated 22 million people in the United States live in mobile homes, long pitched as an affordable path of homeownership to the working poor, people on fixed incomes and retirees, the New York Times reported. But banks won’t often lend to mobile home owners, partly because the loan amounts are too small to be profitable and because the federal government doesn’t typically guarantee those mortgages. Instead, the mobile home financing market is dominated by five lenders, including 21st Mortgage and Vanderbilt Mortgage — two units of Clayton Homes, a Berkshire Hathaway business. The pandemic hit owners of mobile homes especially hard. In August, the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank, reported that 35 percent of mobile home owners had worked in industries that lost the most jobs during the pandemic. But government efforts to protect them have been patchy. Early on, federal housing agencies instructed mortgage firms to defer payments for struggling borrowers, but many mobile home owners were not covered by those guidelines. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in March, included $10 billion for a Homeowners Assistance Fund, which earmarks money for the most vulnerable homeowners facing foreclosure. State officials lobbied the Treasury Department to make sure some of that money goes to residents of mobile homes. Treasury is expected to release new guidance soon on how the money can be spent. In the meantime, owners of mobile homes have had little choice but to rely on the good graces of the dominant financing firms.
