Proposed law mandates mobile homes come equipped with weather radio

[June 19, 2024]  By Catrina Petersen | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The governor is expected to sign House Bill 5238, which will mandate developers and operators of mobile home communities to provide and install a weather radio in each mobile home.

The bill goes further and encourages operators of mobile home communities to provide a written reminder to owners to the homes to replace the batteries in the weather radio. The operators are encouraged to provide reminders during National Fire Prevention Week. Opponents argue the unfunded mandates will make the popular, affordable housing option more expensive. State Sen. Terri Bryant expressed opposition to the bill on the Senate floor.

“Almost everyone has a cell phone and cell phones have weather alerts on them, and that’s important to keep in mind because what this bill does is it mandates new construction requirements on all new manufactured homes in Illinois and it makes this very popular, affordable housing option more expensive,” said Bryant. “We should be encouraging affordable housing and this bill actually discourages it.”

State Sen. Mike Simmons said the bill is necessary because a lot of people who live in mobile home parks might not have cell phones or cell phone reception to alert them when a tornado is in the area.

“The argument that this legislation makes affordable homes more expensive ... it couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Simmons. “Folks that live in manufactured homes often have no clue when a tornado is coming. They may not have phone service, they may not have a cell phone to alert them there is a weather disaster. They may not even have the towers [siren towers] to alert them that there's a tornado in the area.”

The bill is expected to be signed by the governor and in both chambers mainly Republicans voted against the measure.

State. Rep. Kelly Cassidy carried the measure in the House and said similar legislation was passed in Indiana. State Rep. Patrick Windhorst asked questions of the sponsor on the House floor.

“Do we know of any other states besides Indiana that are doing this?” asked Windhorst.

Cassidy said several other states have passed similar legislation, Indiana more recently. "C.J.'s Law" became law in 2007 and was named after 2-year old boy C.J Martin after he was killed from a tornado. Many residents in Evansville, Indiana, were unaware of the storm because it occurred around 2 a.m. while they were sleeping.

Cassidy explained on the House floor that the catalyst for the measure was her chief of staff’s concern surrounding a news story about sirens not going off in a Chicago neighborhood when a tornado ripped through.

“This [legislation] came about because my chief of staff Torrence Gardner saw a story about it and the story reminded us of the people in Rogers Park who didn’t hear the sirens because they malfunctioned and thought about how much worse that would be if one was living in a mobile home,” said Cassidy.

In 2020, a total of eight tornadoes touched down across the greater Chicago area. An EF-1 tornado touched down in the West Ridge and Rogers Park neighborhoods. Opponents argue that perhaps improving weather siren infrastructure is a different solution rather than imposing a construction mandate on private developers.