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Like most high desert towns, Madras, Oregon, is no stranger to extreme temperatures.
Located about 2,250 feet above sea level in a dry valley surrounded by central Oregon’s Cascade Range, summers in Madras can reach triple-digits, and winters below freezing.
Homes outfitted for both hot and cold days are necessary in this rural community – but never guaranteed. That’s because within Madras city limits, there are eight mobile home parks with 276 housing spaces total, according to Oregon’s manufactured dwelling park directory.
Many of these manufactured homes are outdated and lack the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)...
Read MoreOur thoughts on this story:
Energy Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit, runs a manufactured home replacement program that provides funding to replace homes built prior to 1995 with new builds. The program provides eligible applicants up to $16,000 to help pay for a new single or double-wide mobile home, and connects them with other agencies that can provide funding to pay for the replacement. Energy Trust also provides a program navigator to help applicants throughout the process.
Here's the math. You can’t possibly make sense of trading in a paid-for home to get a new $80,000 one, get a rebate check of $16,000, and have a $64,000 mortgage to service. The payment on that new mortgage is more than ten times a month what the energy savings are. This is just plain stupid and this non-profit is literally ruining peoples’ lives by even suggesting this idiocy.

