Members of the Workforce Housing Needs in SD Interim Study Committee toured both manufactured housing communities and a retail dealership in Sioux Falls. The tour focused on how manufactured housing could be an option to address the workforce housing needs in the state. Lawmakers toured homes and had their questions surrounding manufactured and modular housing answered from industry members. Executive Director Jasper Diegel and Board member Jeff Scoular of Jimsco both testified before the entire committee the following morning.
During the 2021 Legislative Session 478 bills were introduced not including resolutions or commemorations. The 2021 Legislative Session was dominated by discussions on Initiated Measure 26 (legalization of medical marijuana – passed in November with just under 70% voter support) which will be enacted on July 1, 2021, Amendment A (legalization of recreational marijuana, which is currently being appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court) and $300+ million one-time money that came to the state, in part, from federal COVID-19 relief funding. Highlighted below are a few of the issues SDMHA focused on during the 2021 Legislative Session.
HB1046 protects South Dakota businesses from people filing liability lawsuits against business where they work or visited and accusing them of responsibility for their contracting COVID-19. There were 38 other organizations working on the passage of HB 1046 along with SDMHA. One of the key sections of HB 1046: “A person may not bring or maintain any action or claim for damages or relief alleging exposure or potential exposure to COVID-19 unless the exposure results in a COVID-19 diagnosis and the exposure is the result of intentional exposure with the intent to transmit COVID-19. In alleging intentional exposure with the intent to transmit COVID-19, a party shall state with particularity the circumstances constituting intentional exposure with the intent to transmit COVID-19 including all duty, breach, and intent elements and establish all elements by clear and convincing evidence”. This bill has been signed by Governor Noem.
This bill changes the requirement of a dealer or manufacturer to keep a record of the purchase, sale or exchange of any mobile or manufactured home. The law formerly required these records kept for 3 years but would increase this requirement to 5 years. This is being pushed from the Department of Revenue as a clean-up to make the records keeping more uniform across the board. As the IRS already requires records to be kept for seven years, this change does not impact members negatively.
The Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) is our watchdog at the national level. We work closely with MHI to ensure the industry is adequately represented at the federal level. Below is a list of industry issues MHI is working on in Washington DC. Visit the MHI website for more information.
MHI is making manufactured housing a part of Administration and Congressional discussions about improving access to credit for affordable housing. MHI is building support for and advancing its legislative and regulatory priorities, which include clarifying and modifying CFPB financing rules, requiring the Government Sponsored Enterprises to support chattel lending and improving FHA mortgage insurance programs for manufactured housing.
MHI is focused on ensuring that regulatory initiatives undertaken by the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs foster uniformity, ease of compliance, and minimize discrepancies and overlap with state and local codes. This includes revisiting and revising HUD’s on-site completion rule, ensuring HUD’s installation guidance memos are in line with regulatory parameters, and encouraging HUD to exercise preemption when local regulatory construction standards and zoning policies adversely impact manufactured housing, communities and the supply of affordable homes.
MHI is working to ensure that the energy tax credit is extended and also seeking opportunities to increase the tax credit. In addition, MHI is advocating for HUD to retain regulatory authority over manufactured housing standards and working with the Department of Energy to ensure that energy standards are clear and appropriately balance efficiency with affordability.
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