Do modular and manufactured homes have a place in Newton? The Metropolitan Area Planning Council thinks so, and the federal government is giving them some money to find out.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $3 million to MAPC in a Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Affordable Housing (PRO Housing) grant, to help MAPC with its new multi-community modular home project.
What are modular homes?
MAPC—a regional urban planning agency—has launched a partnership with Newton, Cambridge, Everett and Boston on a project to research and potentially bring a modular housing manufacturing facility to Greater Boston.
Modular homes are planned and built in a factory that can be transported to a property for quick construction. The practice of pre-fabricated modular home installation has risen in popularity around the country.
“The Greater Boston region, despite its reputation for innovation, has not fully embraced modular and manufactured housing,” MAPC executive director Marc Draisen said in a statement announcing the grant. “We are seeking to change that curve with this grant and hope to achieve two things that are equally important: more homes and good jobs. It’s important for our homes to be developed quicker, at a lower cost, and with exceptional quality. And we want people who live and work in this region to build and install those homes, which are currently imported from other states and provinces.”
MAPC was one of only 21 PRO Housing grant awardees nationwide. Massachusetts has a dire housing inventory shortage, and in Boston the average time it takes to complete a multifamily construction project is about three years, according to MAPC.
“Newton is excited to be on the cutting edge of driving down the cost, increasing the speed and providing high quality modular housing. We have top notch, collaborative partners in Boston, Cambridge, Everett and MAPC in untying the Gordian knot of pre-manufactured housing and the modular housing industry in Massachusetts,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said.