Juneau Assembly doubles loan amount available to residents purchasing a mobile home

Manufactured homes successful Lemon Creek connected Monday, June 17, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

Housing is tight successful Juneau, and that tin make it difficult for debased aliases middle-income families who want to settee down. To thief reside that, nan Juneau Assembly is expanding nan backing successful a city indebtedness program for purchasing mobile homes. 

Since 2016, nan metropolis has collaborated with True North Federal Credit Union to supply low-interest loans for up to 50% of nan down costs of mobile homes, besides called manufactured homes. Loan recipients are connected nan hook for nan different 50% and person 5 years to salary it back.

Assembly personnel Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is nan chair of nan Assembly’s Lands Housing and Economic Development Committee. She said offering programs for illustration this is conscionable different imaginative measurement nan Assembly is trying to thief group spend housing. 

“I deliberation it’s ace important that we supply a assortment of tools, truthful it’s conscionable biting astatine nan pome each measurement we can,” she said. 

The loans were antecedently disposable for up to $10,000 astatine 1% interest. But, astatine a gathering connected Monday, nan Assembly bumped that up to $20,000. 

Hughes-Skandijs said for galore group and families, purchasing a accepted location successful Juneau conscionable isn’t financially imaginable anymore. But, purchasing manufactured homes tin beryllium a coagulated alternative. 

According to a city appraisal report, the median income value of a mobile location connected onshore successful 2023 was conscionable nether $172,000. The income value for a single-family residence was much than double astatine astir $530,000.

“It’s a measurement of group getting into homes that they’re really owning, truthful if there’s thing we tin do to make it easier for personification to get into a home, we’d emotion to thief connected that front,” Hughes-Skandijs said.

The programme is funded pinch money from nan city’s Affordable Housing Fund. City Manager Katie Koester said since nan program’s inception, it’s been underutilized — only 14 loans person been taken out. She said she hoped that changes and much group return advantage of it. 

“A batch of times a manufactured location is simply a young personification aliases a family’s first introduction into location ownership,” she said. “So we’re really willing successful being capable to make judge that they’re capable to execute that, and thing has gotten immoderate little expensive.”

The Assembly besides changed nan sanction of nan programme to beryllium called nan Manufactured Home Down Payment Assistance Program. It was antecedently called nan Mobile Home Down Payment Assistance Program. Hughes-Skandijs said nan word “mobile home” tin person a antagonistic stigma attached to it.