by YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections
September 7, 2026
Transcript:
Last summer, torrential floods roared through central Texas, killing more than 100 people and displacing thousands of others.
Many of the residents affected by the floods lived in mobile or manufactured homes. These homes are especially vulnerable to climate disasters like floods, in part because of where they’re located.
Rumbach: “Historically, we put mobile home parks, oftentimes, on very low-value land, which was on flood plains.”
Andy Rumbach of the Urban Institute, a think tank, says manufactured homes are often stigmatized, and many communities limit their development.
Rumbach: “You’ll often find people who have gone through a disaster who are then unable to rebuild because their park is no longer allowed to exist.”
In other cases, people are permitted to rebuild, but because new manufactured home developments are not allowed, they are forced to stay in the same flood-prone location.
And that may require elevating their homes to comply with modern flood plain regulations.
Rumbach: “That’s expensive. A lot of people who have a disability or elderly don’t want to climb seven feet of stairs.”
Rumbach says modern manufactured homes can be an important source of low-cost housing, so he says zoning laws should be updated to make sure these homes can be located in safe areas.
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
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