Manufactured housing and climate mobility

Manufactured (and mobile) housing, or housing that is wholly prefabricated elsewhere and then transported to the installation site, provides permanent housing for approximately 20 million individuals in the United States, especially low-income and rural households. Manufactured housing is generally highly vulnerable to damage from natural hazards including hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires, and also poor at providing insulation from temperature extremes. As a large and particularly vulnerable population, it is important to better understand how residents of manufactured housing make decisions about moving or staying in high disaster risk areas. Critical questions remain about mobility for manufactured housing residents including (1) How does the rate of migration from manufactured housing compare with the rate of migration for other residents within a county?; (2) How do the rates of migration vary for manufactured housing residents versus other residents after a natural hazard event, and does the type of hazard matter?; and (3) When manufactured housing residents do migrate, where do they go and how do their destinations compare to their origins in terms of affordability and hazard exposure?

To address these questions, we use data from DataAxel on residential mobility. The student researcher will help with data processing and analysis to begin to address our research questions.