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In a move to increase housing supply, the city of Rochester Tuesday said it is seeking proposals for the design, manufacture, delivery, and installation of up to nine units of modular, HUD-certified housing.
“Quality housing is the foundation of strong families, thriving neighborhoods, and a prosperous city,” says Mayor Malik Evans.
Modular homes are prefabricated units that are largely constructed off-site, then shipped in for final installation. They typically have lower building costs, are considered more durable, and must have factory-controlled quality. There are some additional costs related to electrical, plumbing, ducts, and foundation work associated with them as well, however.
Rochester’s pilot program will explore its effectiveness at lowering construction costs, accelerating development timelines, and providing high-quality, energy-efficient housing, and aims for nine total homes to be built. Each 1,000 square-foot home will have a minimum of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a driveway, and an open front porch.
Wilder, Davis, Lewis and High streets each have three lots set aside for the single-family home builds. Current records indicate that the city owns 41 vacant residential lots on those streets.
These locations are close to another homeownership program Evans has been focused on, Buy the Block. So far, the program has created about 20 homes in vacant lots in the Northeast with another 32 planned in the Southwest.
City Council President Miguel Melendez recently spoke about using manufactured housing for cost-efficiency measures. Evans’ mayoral challengers, Mary Lupien and Shashi Sinha, have both criticized perceived resource inefficiencies with the Buy the Block program.
In reaction to the RFP announcement, Sinha noted the similarities between the pilot program and his own proposed housing plan which would build 4,000 units of modular housing on Rochester’s vacant lots.
“One important difference, my plan will not hand a single dollar to a private developer, with our building through the largest public works program in nearly a century,” he said. “I’m glad Mayor Evans has finally come around to thinking about building more housing for ownership, but it is unfortunately yet another example of his reactive style of governance. Mayor Evans is not a visionary – he copies whatever is popular, including my policies.”
Lupien also criticized the mayor’s pilot for its small scale and pricing. She says that the average median income requirements would still place income levels at $66,000 to $91,000 a year, double what she earns as a City Councilmember.
“It’s not not a real plan,” Lupien said about the mayor’s pilot. “I am running to rapidly scale housing that’s actually affordable to us not just make headlines with pilot programs that don’t meet the moment.”
The mayor has defended his approach on housing, citing $1 billion in affordable rental and homeownership investments since 2022. This includes $300 million in market-rate housing development, he notes.
For the modular housing program, proposals that create affordable housing for households earning between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income will be prioritized. The RFP also mentions optional collaboration opportunities with state agencies to increase affordability.
Evans says the program will expand homeownership and housing equity, and foster more equitable neighborhoods, adding that income-qualified homebuyers will also have access to the city’s Home Purchase Assistance Program, which provides down payment and closing cost assistance to first-time homebuyers.
“We are working every day to make Rochester a city of opportunity for renters, first-time homebuyers, and everyone in between,” says Evans. “Testing the feasibility of modular and manufactured housing is just one more way we’re creatively and strategically working to increase homeownership in the city.”
The city will hold an informational meeting on June 12. RFP applications must be submitted by July 9.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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Criticism of Mayor Evans for “steeling” a contenders idea is nonsense. Commissioners in the City administration are very familiar with past modular housing built in the City over the past 50 years. Now they are moving ahead with a program that hopefully will provide affordable home ownership with no public moneys. Criticism by the other contender that it is too small a program is also nonsense. There are a sufficient number of lots offered to test the feasibility of going forward with vacant lots elsewhere, of which there are over a hundred. Why should we criticize a cautious approach to innovation, when there is, unfortunately, evidence of modular housing both here and elsewhere that did not hold up, including a large rental townhouse development that has since been demolished at Plymouth Avenue and Clarissa Streets. Our City needs to innovate, but must also protect us from scams that are too good to be true. I was the architect on some modular singles and doubles built on Rochester city owned lots, three and four decades ago. With normal maintenance, they are beautiful today, and fit in with their neighbors seamlessly.