By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Mobile and manufactured homes account for roughly 5% of housing in Maricopa County, but they were linked to one in four indoor heat-related deaths last year, according to the county’s latest heat report.
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Maricopa County’s most recent heat report found that 27% of last year’s heat-related deaths occurred indoors — the highest share since 2018.
Kath Noble, president of the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners, said these homes are becoming some of the most affordable options in the Phoenix metro, drawing more full-time residents.
“The numbers of us full-timers is increasing,” Noble said.
But the homes present serious cooling challenges. “It’s almost impossible to lower the temperature inside more than about 10 or 12 degrees below what it is outside,” Noble said.
Aging infrastructure, rising bills
Noble said many mobile home parks were built in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, leaving residents with deteriorating infrastructure and unreliable power.
“A lot of the infrastructure in many of the mobile home parks that were built back in the 60s and 70s, even 80s sometimes, is decaying and crumbling and not good anymore, and there are frequent power outages,” Noble said.
Many of these older homes were built before modern construction standards, leaving them with little insulation and aging electrical systems.
For residents on fixed incomes, unexpected spikes in electricity costs compound the danger. “If people are living on fixed incomes, and they expect that their bill is going to be a certain amount and suddenly they get a bill for two or three times that amount, it can be devastating,” Noble said.
Barriers to assistance
Noble said many residents pay electricity through their park rather than directly to a utility, which can cut them off from some assistance programs.
“It’s really hard to get resources because we do not own the land. We only own the home,” Noble said.
State lawmakers recently banned park owners from restricting the types of air conditioning units residents can install. Advocates said that measure is only part of the solution and plan to return to the legislature to push for additional protections.
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