Committee reviews proposal to classify manufactured-housing communities as disadvantaged for SRF assistance

Department of Environmental Conservation staff told the committee they propose changes to how the state defines "disadvantaged municipality" so small, high-need manufactured-housing communities can access more favorable terms under Drinking Water SRF programs.

"Under that current definition, it means a municipality that has a median household income that is less than the state average median income and that the user rates are greater than 1%," DEC staff said, reviewing the statutory test. DEC's proposal (section d) would allow certain resident-owned manufactured-housing communities that are nonprofit and registered with the Department of Commerce and Community Development to automatically qualify as disadvantaged.

DEC staff said the intent is to remove procedural barriers such as conducting costly income surveys for small parks and to ease access to longer loan terms, lower administrative fees and possible principal forgiveness. "We have realized that we still might need to propose some additional changes to the statute in order to fully implement that because first test is like, yes, we're disadvantaged," the presenter said, noting additional technical fixes may be needed.

Committee members asked whether the proposed change overlaps with other housing initiatives and whether it would conflict with federal SRF affordability criteria; DEC replied that the Clean Water side already added manufactured-housing communities categorically and the drinking-water change would align the programs but must still satisfy EPA review in the Intended Use Plan.

Members urged DEC to coordinate with housing committees and the Agency of Human Services as the language advances. DEC said it would follow up with draft statutory language for committee review and would engage legislative counsel where necessary.