Affordable but marginalized: Study provides first comprehensive look at Houston’s mobile home parks

Blog post by Esther Sullivan, Carrie Makarewicz, Andrew Rumbach, Natasha Albert
October 7, 2021

Kinder Institute for Urban Research   (Houston)

Mobile homes are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the United States and many are within mobile home parks—unique communities that are poorly understood by planning researchers and many practitioners. A recently published study in the Journal of the American Planning Association has resulted in the first comprehensive mapping and assessment of mobile home park housing in the Greater Houston area. These parks face distinct challenges—its households typically have lower incomes, insecure tenure, less access to transportation and urban amenities and have higher rates of exposure to environmental hazards.