Richmond-based nonprofit project: Homes received $500,000 in funding from Virginia Housing’s new Innovative Demonstrations Program. The nonprofit’s mission is to challenge the misconceptions of what defines affordable housing through production and preservation of high-quality affordable homes, large-scale home repairs and improved accessibility and energy efficiency for existing homes.
The proposal: Bermuda Estates
With help from the innovation grant, nonprofit project:Homes will place six modified modular homes in Richmond’s Bermuda Estates Manufactured Home Community, a park recently acquired by the organization.
“Our team is designing a new type of manufactured housing,” said Madeline Petrie, Director of Marketing and Communications for project:Homes. “They will fit on the same footprint as a traditional mobile home but be designed at a much higher quality and will last much longer.”
These hybrid homes will be HUD-certified, built to building code and have the ability to be placed in a mobile home park or on a private lot. The idea is to transform the traditional mobile home into something that will prevent residents from purchasing a depreciating asset and rather allow them to invest in a home that at the very least holds its wealth, while maintaining the strengths of the community itself.
Petrie said they have also partnered with the Virginia Center for Housing Research (VCHR) at Virginia Tech to analyze the process and create a report comparing the building efficiencies of the new manufactured homes to that of stick-built homes.
Interested in applying for a grant? The Innovation Demonstrations Program offers an open submission process, and inquiries can be made to: Chris.Thompson@VirginiaHousing.com