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Contract for deed arrangements attract people for whom traditional paths to home ownership feel out of reach. The brief highlights the considerable risks that homebuyers face with these precarious deals, where the buyer makes monthly payments to a seller toward eventually owning the home—no bank or mortgage involved.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal, state and local governments adopted various measures to keep evictions from spiraling out of control as the country faced a surge in joblessness, infections, loss of life, and economic uncertainty. Eviction moratoria and other actions are widely credited with keeping legal evictions — those pursued through the court system in accordance with state and local laws—at low levels during 2020 and 2021.

The brief assembles research and legal aid providers’ insights into the reasons many low-income Americans reside in motels long-term and how these businesses often function as landlords without being held to the same legal standards. Legal aid interventions, existing protections and relevant case studies are also highlighted in the brief. Experts from Georgia, Virginia, Nevada, Ohio and Texas provide insights from their states. 

Despite representing more than 6% of U.S. housing (and a substantially higher portion in many rural areas), manufactured housing is, willfully or not, often ignored and overlooked as an important pathway to affordable home ownership for millions of Americans. And if the vital role of these homes in the U.S. housing mix is often ignored, so are the unique and considerable challenges facing manufactured homeowners across the country.