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← Signal: State & Power

Federal Disaster Buyout Program Excludes Mobile Homes, Leaving Flood-Prone Residents at Risk

Confirmed1 source · Sep 2, 2026

A gap in federal policy allows mobile home parks to be repeatedly flooded while new tenants move into the same dangerous plots.

Federal Disaster Buyout Program Excludes Mobile Homes, Leaving Flood-Prone Residents at Risk
Image via ProPublica

What happened

At the Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park in Haywood County, North Carolina, repeated flooding from Hurricanes Frances (2004), Ivan (2004), Tropical Storm Fred (2021), and Hurricane Helene (2024) has destroyed homes. In 2024, Helene swept one mobile home into a river, killing a resident and three dogs. Despite federal floodplain maps marking the land as at-risk and county buyouts of neighboring properties, the mobile home park itself was never purchased through federal programs. Park owners continued renting vacant lots where trailers had washed away; families now live in recreational campers on plots flooded twice before.

Context

The federal government's disaster buyout program, designed as the cornerstone of emergency management, was developed for traditional homeowners but systematically excludes mobile homes—the nation's largest source of affordable housing. Mobile homes are classified as personal property rather than real estate, meaning buyout eligibility depends on park owners accepting the program; FEMA offers them no compensation for lost rent or home values, creating little incentive to sell. Small counties like Haywood often lack awareness that mobile home park buyouts are even possible. The result is a policy gap that traps residents in repeatedly dangerous locations while allowing new families to move into plots with established flood histories, converting a disaster recovery problem into a recurring cycle of risk. State recovery programs and local officials now recognize this as a systemic problem requiring new guidance.