A Door is Opening for Manufactured Housing Across Texas

The Texas Legislature has passed the most significant expansion of manufactured housing rights in decades. Senate Bill 785, which TMHA supported and takes effect September 1, 2026, will require most Texas cities with zoning regulations to permit new HUD-code manufactured homes as a by-right use in at least one residential zoning district. An estimated one third of Texas' 1,200+ cities need to update their zoning codes to comply with the new law.

As cities learn about the new legal mandate, some will begin to review and write new ordinances to change their zoning maps to comply with the law.

Others might not become aware until the language of SB 785 is presented to them.

Passage of SB 785 was a major state-level legislative victory and finally fulfilled the key legislative priority that TMHA has advocated for decades. But the state-level law was just the start, the outcome depends on how cities choose to implement the law. That's where manufactured housing needs your help.

What You Can Do

Manufactured housing professionals have a unique opportunity before September 2026 to advocate for the allowance of new manufactured homes in the areas of a city that make sense, and where they were previously banned. But it will be on you, within your local communities, to seek out, engage, and advocate for more manufactured housing.

Between now and September 2026, we're asking TMHA members to:

• Know your cities. Identify which municipalities in your market do not currently have a by-right zoning district on their map.
• Check for exemptions. Does the city lack any industrial or commercial zoning? Or are all residential lots in the city subject to pre-existing deed restrictions against MH? These carve-outs are narrow, but you should verify if they apply.
• Reach out to staff. Introduce yourself as a trusted resource to planning staff and council members for all things manufactured housing and offer to work with them on SB 785 compliance.
• Bring the map. Get a copy of the city's zoning map and flag candidate districts that make sense to be zoned by-right under the new law.
• Host an open house. Invite staff and council to tour a new HUD-code home on your lot or community. SB 785's success was significantly helped by getting policymakers inside new manufactured homes.
• Speak up at council and planning meetings. Short talking points at a hearing can influence a vote, but if they hear nothing from you, they will likely do the minimum to meet the requirement.
• Find friends. Employers, realtors, bankers, developers, and community leaders all understand the need for new attainable housing units. Ask them to join you in requesting this wider expansion of property owner rights.
• Report back to TMHA. Let us know what you're hearing in your markets, and we'll help support you. We'll collect and distribute what is and what is not working to move the ball.

Be Reasonable

You know your local market better than anyone. This is your opportunity to start a constructive conversation about where specific models of our homes fit within the city where you live, work, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your neighbors. City officials will not respond well to being told the state is forcing them to do this, and they have no choice.

They do have a choice, and that is to decide exactly where they deem manufactured housing to be appropriate. It is our job as an industry to show them the quality of the homes we can provide at prices that make them attainable for the police officers, teachers, nurses, firefighters, and city employees that need homes in those cities. And unlike in the past, the decision about where a city deems manufactured housing appropriate can no longer be - nowhere. It must have a place on the zoning map designating a real area of land.

We Won't Always Win

Traditionally our industry has had to react to increased restrictions on where manufactured homes can be placed within cities, and while TMHA members have done a tremendous job of organizing and engaging in the process to fight those restrictions in places like Huntsville, Odessa, and Bryan, the votes haven't always gone our way.

Those negative perceptions against manufactured homes haven't magically disappeared, and you will run into cities who push for creative compliance. If a city puts forth a proposed map that includes no suitable lots for the placement of new manufactured homes you should provide public comment to staff, council, and the city attorney that they are violating the legislative intent of SB 785. If they move forward and adopt a map that does not allow for the placement of any new manufactured homes, TMHA needs to know this.

With your help we can identify and collect a list of cities that are doing it right and those that are doing it wrong.

It's a Long Game

An additional opportunity that SB 785 provides for manufactured housing professionals is that any city that did not previously have a by-right zoning district on the map will have to enact one to comply with the law. Once the new zoning district exists, every property owner gains the right to request that designation for their land.

TMHA encourages retailers to advertise this right in their markets and to consider utilizing it on properties they might own. Previously, a protest petition could push a required super majority vote to pass a zoning change, HB 24, which TMHA also supported and which passed in 2025, removed that requirement when the proposed zoning change increases housing and a simple majority vote from council is all that is needed regardless of adjacent property protest.

Another option available to retailers and developers even before September 2026 is to exercise the current Sec.1201.008(e), Occupations Code, replacement right of any owner of a property with an existing manufactured or mobile home on it within a city. These redevelopment instances could highlight exactly what a manufactured home zoning expansion could help unlock.

Stay Positive

We must not squander this opportunity by being antagonistic or by placing homes that are not a good fit. We must be thoughtful, honest, and reasonable.

We need success stories where all parties agree that the right homes have been put in the right locations, and as these projects become reality across Texas, acceptance of our homes will spread.

We have pride in what we build; our buyers have pride in the homes they choose to live in; it's time we share this pride and bring more housing to Texans.