Stakeholder/Partners: Various Manhattan, KS Mobile Home Park Residents

Location: Manhattan, KS

Area of Focus: Mobile Home Parks

Department/Courses Involved: Regional and Community Planning Masters Thesis.

PI: Dr. Susmita Rishi

Graduate Student: Kylee Jennings MRCP 2024

Executive Summary: Today, the US faces an unprecedented housing crisis where in no State can a full-time minimum wage worker afford market-rate housing. Mobile homes or trailers are the largest and fastest-growing source of unsubsidized affordable housing and serve some of the most marginalized and disenfranchised residents. Mobile Home Parks (MHP) also occupy the most unregulated section of the housing market. While there is a growing body of literature on MHPs in the US, this literature and research have mostly focused on metropolitan areas, with a particular focus on hazards. This literature is also largely drawn from work done in the southern US, with almost no research on small and rural communities in the Mid-West and the Great Plains. In most MHPs, homeowners rent and/or lease the land and live in a state of quasi-homelessness with the constant risk of homelessness. This paper adds to this body of research by asking the question how does the urban design of MHPs in Riley County, Kansas affect its residents?

Using a mixed-methods approach-surveys and semi-structured interviews-this project focuses on how the urban design, ownership structure, and location of MHPs influence the well-being of residents. Preliminary analysis shows that MHPs in Riley County are disproportionately located in the floodplain. While residents report adequate access to public parks and grocery stores, access is based on automobile use. Few residents use their yard and neighborhood for leisure or play, due to its design. There is a lack of privacy felt both in their exterior space and the closeness of their neighbors’ homes. Residents who own their homes are restricted in yard design decisions by management. While MHPs are a current source of affordable housing for many, increasing lot rent rates will jeopardize the affordability for many in the coming years.