Iowans Now Moving More Quickly Into FEMA Manufactured Housing

Iowa residents that have been displaced from their homes by the recent flooding are now moving into manufactured housing units supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But has the agency solved its mold problems?

According to an article on the Macro*World Investor website, FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released new mold inspection and occupancy standards, and is now applying them to mobile homes.

The new procedure defines how manufactured housing is to be inspected for mold and the criteria for safely allowing people to occupy those inspected units. Last week, FEMA offered 13 families mobile homes in Linn County.

Under the newly-developed procedure, FEMA officials in Iowa expect to be able to continue moving households into safe manufactured housing units as quickly as possible. The procedures state that if there is no visible mold and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are functioning properly, the unit can be certified for occupancy.

If any units are found to have minor surface mold in the inspection, they can be cleaned by commercial mold remediation contractors following accepted industry standards and re-inspected. They also would have to have properly functioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to then be certified for occupancy.

The article says that these mobile homes now being provided for temporary housing are of a different design than those originally found to have mold. The original units had exterior water heater compartments that were susceptible to trapping moisture from precipitation.

To read the full article, click here: http://macroworldinvestor.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=316695511