Post-Disaster Interim Shelter Using Manufactured Housing Units: Analysis of Systems and Supply in the United States

The frequency and magnitude of natural disasters have increased over the last decades, putting more demand on the local, regional, and national emergency agencies to provide much needed response to affected populations. Temporary housing constitutes a major portion of the post-disaster recovery effort, which take the form of light shelters for immediate housing followed by interim housing that extends up to 18 months before the victims move to their permeant housing. In the U.S., the traditional and main form of interim housing is manufactured housing (MH) units, which are federally-regulated modular homes. As such, this paper presents a systems-level retrospective analysis of the use and deployment of MH units in post-disaster recovery effort in the U.S. The analysis focused on: (1) studying the different interim housing systems, including HUD-code manufactured housing; and (2) examining the supply logistics for procuring, maintaining, deploying, and recovering MH unit. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed to study current practices and systems of MH units in post-disaster recovery, and identify potential improvements that can improve the agility and cost effectiveness of interim housing using MH units.