When Robert Meade noticed a storm had blown a number of shingles off the roof of his four-room manufactured home several years ago, his heart sank. Meade, who is in his 80s, didn’t know how they would fix the roof until his granddaughter told him she had found a county program that would help.
“We don’t have a lot of money and we can’t do it ourselves,” said Meade, when interviewed by Arizona Luminaria in the summer of 2025. “They did such a good job, I would recommend them to anyone.”
The county repair program that helped make a $10,000 investment in fixing the roof on the Meade family’s manufactured home will now receive an infusion of money to help keep manufactured homes in several targeted areas livable and affordable.
The initiative, named Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grant is an $11.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, awarded to Tucson to help preserve manufactured housing in Southern Arizona as a key form of affordable housing.
On Wednesday the Tucson City Council approved the first disbursement of those funds through two intergovernmental agreements between Tucson and Pima County — one to invest in mobile home repairs and the other to offer emergency legal services to mobile home residents.
In a region with an ongoing gap between the housing need and what is available, the PRICE grant’s investment in Pima County and Tucson’s mobile homes highlights the crucial role that this type of housing plays in keeping southern Arizona affordable.
“Manufactured housing is the single most affordable type of housing in Tucson, and throughout the country,” Mayor Regina Romero said at the meeting. “As one of the fastest warming cities in the country this investment will also help weatherize housing.”
The grant investments will focus on residents living in areas with high manufactured home density as well as parts of Tucson that have been identified for additional investment. Those are Flowing Wells, the Benson Highway area, between I-19 and South Mission Road and the Thrive in the 05 area.
“The PRICE grant will help the city of Tucson create affordability in communities that are most vulnerable to displacement,” Romero said.
The council voted to approve two intergovernmental agreements with Pima County bodies.
One agreement directs $2 million to the Pima County Home Repair Program to support up to 75 households with home repairs.
That work will include energy-efficiency and weatherization upgrades, accessibility improvements and home-system repairs. Mobile home residents are disproportionately at risk of heat-related deaths inside their homes as the region experiences rising heat.
Both Tucson and Pima County already run home repair programs that support low-income homeowners with repairs and cooling technology, and both have waitlists for the support they offer.
The second agreement is for the Pima County EELS, an emergency eviction legal service, to receive $976,399 to assist up to 250 households at risk of eviction in the grant’s service area.
Tucson was among 17 of 175 applications nationwide that won the competitive federal grant.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Ward 6 council member Miranda Schubert applauded the people whose work, over more than three years, had made the PRICE grant possible.
“Residents often face compounded challenges with their housing, especially in extreme weather and complicated legal rules around ownership,” Schubert said. “I’m extremely proud to see this initiative getting underway in our community.”
The funding approved Wednesday is just the start of the impact the grant will have, said Tucson housing and community development director Ann Chanecka.
“We anticipate preserving over 150 homes, creating one resident-owned community, protecting up to 250 households from eviction, and providing education and outreach to 480 residents,” she told Luminaria in an email. “Maintaining a home they own also helps residents protect an important family asset and supports long-term financial stability and generational wealth.”
The grant funding comes amid an ongoing effort by Tucson and Pima County to build more affordable housing, including for low- and middle-income communities. This week the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved an $8.7 million investment toward affordable housing and helping people stay in their homes.
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