Jacksonville is now part of a first-of-its-kind partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to bring affordable manufactured homes to the Northside – making it the first community in the country to launch this kind of initiative.<\/p>\n
The project site sits east of Sibbald Road and northwest of Soutel Drive, near Charles Boobie Clark Park and Pool, in a part of town that includes neighborhoods like Brentwood, Sherwood Forest, and Grand Park.<\/p>\n
City and federal leaders have been working on this project for about a year. On Tuesday, they made it official, signing a Letter of Intent formally launching the Jacksonville Starter Home Initiative.<\/p>\n
Mayor Donna Deegan said the timing couldn’t be more urgent.<\/p>\n
“And that growth has a cost. Housing prices have climbed faster than a lot of families’ paychecks have,” Deegan said. “We want to make sure the people who love this city can afford to live here.”<\/p>\n
Unlike a traditional house built piece by piece on a lot, a manufactured home is built entirely inside a factory, then transported to its final location. The process cuts down on construction time, waste, and cost, making it one of the most accessible paths to homeownership available today.<\/p>\n
And despite what many people picture when they hear the term, HUD officials say today’s manufactured homes look nothing like the ones from decades past.<\/p>\n
“The fact is manufactured housing has evolved significantly over the years through innovation and modernization,” said Paul Olean, Acting General Deputy Assistant Secretary of HUD’s Office of Housing.<\/p>\n
In fact, HUD said modern manufactured homes can feature higher roof pitches, open floor plans, attached garages, and finishes that make them visually indistinguishable from a conventionally built home. They also meet rigorous federal safety and quality standards.<\/p>\n
The homes will be targeted toward first-time buyers, veterans, seniors, and working families. Residents will own their homes outright, not rent them, giving families a real opportunity to build long-term wealth. The project spans 17 and a half acres, with five acres dedicated to this first phase.<\/p>\n
For Councilmember Pittman, this project represents something bigger than just new housing.<\/p>\n
“To have new affordable housing that people can afford and they don’t have to live in an area or live in apartments where slum landlords are \u2014 we don’t want that in our neighborhood. This will be an opportunity.”<\/p>\n
HUD officials said if Jacksonville gets this right, other cities across the country could follow the same model.<\/p>\n
The city has not yet released details on how much the homes will cost or the city’s total financial commitment to the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville is now part of a first-of-its-kind partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1571,5890,116,118,117,47704,28314,43081],"class_list":["post-325920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-affordable-housing","tag-donna-deegan","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-manufactured-homes","tag-sherwood-forest","tag-u-s-department-of-housing-and-urban-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}