People online talk so much about the need for affordable, small-footprint, community focused housing that goes against conventional zoning laws. Well, they’ve literally just described a trailer park, but those same people will use the term as a classist insult.
Not a whole lot to expand upon here, but if there are any good counterpoints or questions in the replies, I’ll respond there or edit my post body.
Trailer parks suffer many of the same pitfalls that “the projects” do. Economic opportunity and mobility is largely impacted by who your neighbors are. If all your neighbors are low income and struggling to get by, you’ll have a hard time making connections that land you a better paying job. Large concentrations of struggling people also attracts exploitative companies to set up shop nearby and pull laborers from the marginalized community.
Some cities have achieved measures of success in requiring luxury condo and apartment buildings to include a certain number of low income housing units. Maybe you could do something similar to require a variety of price tiers in new housing developments.
Trailers and manufactured homes also use the worst of building materials available. Lots of formaldehyde containing material, super thin walls, poor ventilation, etc. Do you remember the fema trailers after hurricane Katrina? Trailers are better than being homeless, but i would much prefer that we focus on getting people into small affordable housing that doesn’t carry health risks.
We shouldn’t shame people for living in trailer parks, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to live in one either.