In Petersburg, Virginia, a scattered-site development is placing factory-built homes on permanent foundations in several historically Black neighborhoods, including Delectable Heights. Backed by federal low-income housing tax credits, the project is intended to deliver lower-cost rentals and ownership opportunities while trying to counter persistent stigma around manufactured housing.
Petersburg, Virginia, is adding factory-built homes to vacant, previously city-owned lots as part of a small, scattered-site affordable housing development that includes sites in Delectable Heights and other predominantly Black neighborhoods.
The development—known as Homes in the Heights—is led by EquityPlus, with MH Advisors as a development partner, according to a case study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The Pew/Harvard case study describes the project as an 18-unit effort that combines single-family CrossMod-style homes and duplexes, and says the lots were individually selected for the project.
The project has also been described by the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) as pairing manufactured housing with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). NCSHA reported that Virginia Housing supported the plan and that the structure was designed to allow certain rental units to be sold to tenants after an initial rental period.
Local officials have linked the effort to broader neighborhood stabilization goals in Delectable Heights, an area long recognized for its history as a community of free Black residents in the 19th century. Howard Myers, a Petersburg City Council member who represents the area, has discussed Delectable Heights’ historic legacy and the city’s ongoing revitalization work in local reporting.
More broadly, housing researchers and policy groups say factory-built housing—an umbrella term that can include HUD Code manufactured homes, CrossMod homes and modular construction—can cut construction time and reduce costs in some circumstances, but its adoption is often constrained by zoning rules, financing practices and community opposition. Pew has documented how zoning and titling rules can limit where manufactured homes can be placed and how they are financed.
On the policy front, federal lawmakers have been evaluating changes to how manufactured homes are defined in federal law. A recent Congressional Research Service report notes that some observers have argued the longstanding federal requirement that a manufactured home be built on a permanent chassis is outdated, and it discusses proposals that would allow homes to be treated as manufactured housing “with or without a permanent chassis.”
Industry marketing and related coverage have also highlighted efforts to modernize design and broaden consumer appeal. Clayton Homes, one of the country’s largest manufactured-home builders, has promoted models priced at $250,000 or below in many markets and has participated in HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase, according to company materials and trade or lifestyle coverage.
Because NPR’s story cited in the provided source list is not directly accessible for text verification in this review (due to technical and access restrictions), specific details attributed in some versions of the narrative—such as the exact number of homes being installed “dozens,” the per-square-foot cost comparison, a claim that homes can be completed “in days,” and the quoted remarks attributed to individual residents—could not be independently confirmed here from the available primary text. The verified elements above are based on accessible documentation from Pew/Harvard, NCSHA, local reporting, federal research from CRS, and published materials from Clayton Homes.
