Tonight we have the first of two reports looking at low-income housing in Maine -- in particular, mobile homes. At least 20,000 Mainers are estimated to be living in a mobile home built before 1976, the year in which the federal government introduced certain minimum standards for mobile, or manufactured homes, as they're now called. These dwellings, according to some housing advocates, are often leaky, moldy, drafty, and dangerous.

Hartland resident Joanne Elwell says maintaining her old, deteriorating mobile home is a losing battle.

"Well, the conditions of that housing are extremely poor," says Greg Payne, co-ordinator for Maine Affordable Housing Coalition. "They're, for one thing, highly unsafe -- they're basically regarded as firetraps, and the electrical wiring is poor. Beyond that the sheer conditions of the property are in such disrepair that it's not even weatherizable at this point, it's too far gone."

These homes, says Payne, are also extremely energy inefficient. "We asked an energy consulting firm to take a look at that for us and they found that the typical pre-1976 homeowner has to spend a little over $4,100 a year between heat and electric costs."

This, he says, is more than twice the cost of heating and maintaining a modern-day manufactured home. There are estimated to be at least 7,500 of these older mobile homes in Maine, according to Payne, who says efforts are underway to help move people out of them.

At the state level, the Legislature last year passed a bill which will provide about $3 million in bond money to help replace some of this older manufactured housing, either with newer, more efficient mobile homes, or with slightly more expensive factory-built modular homes, which sit on a permanent foundation.

Meanwhile at the federal level, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Home Star program, which provides rebates to families wanting to make their homes more efficient.

It includes a provision written by Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree offering a $10,000 rebate to help families move out of pre-1976 mobile homes and acquire a new, Energy Star qualified modular home.

This is now about to go before the U.S. Senate, says Greg Payne. "What we're excited about is that if that passes the Senate next, that rebate can be used on top of the state resources that the Legislature appropriated last year, and federal loan funds so that we can reach a much larger number of people through this program than we could before."

This expanded program, says Payne, would help around 200 families across Maine replace their mobile homes -- that's about five times more than have been helped over the last two years -- but still, he admits, only the tip of iceberg.

One person who'd be keen to take advantage of the program is mother of six Joanne Elwell. She lives in Hartland, near Bangor, in a manufactured home -- she calls it a trailer. "I live in a 1969 Parkhurst trailer. I have been here 23 years. We bought it for $4,500."

The trailer is long and narrow, with five bedrooms, most of them closet-sized. It's tidily maintained, but much of it is clearly in need of further repair, despite the fact that two years ago Elwell secured a $10,000 loan from the USDA to carry out essential upgrades, including new windows, new flooring, new plumbing, and some re-wiring.

It may seem like a lot of money, says Elwell, but it didn't go as far she thought it would. The new windows have bought down her heating costs slightly, she says, but Elwell still pays about $3,000 a year in heating and electricity bills.

All in all, she feels it was short-sighted of her to get the USDA loan. "Although it looks nicer, it probably didn't help me that much because the trailer just depreciates in value, so it's not going to help the value of the trailer at all. And even though it helps with leakings and stuff like that, even two years after putting the plumbing in the bathroom, the bathtub is leaking again. So it's an ongoing problem, it's not something that I think can be fixed, I think that's the problem with a trailer."

Tom Porter: "There is a possibility of a replacement program which would enable you to upgrade to a modular home and give you access to $10,000, which would basically be yours to dispose of this and also get a loan on an energy-efficient modular home. Is that something that appeals to you?"

Joanne Elwell: "Yeah, it definitely appeals to me. It appeals to me not to have to keep putting money into something that's not going to, in the long run, be able to withstand it."

Elwell does not want to sink any more money into her trailer, which has been valued at around $20,000 - although much of that value, she says, is probably in the lot size, which is nearly one acre.

Elwell works hard. She has three jobs and earns around $21,000 a year. She's also enrolled at the University of Maine at Augusta, where she's studying to be a librarian, and her goal is to be a full-time children's librarian after getting her Masters degree.

Her other main goal is to move out of the mobile home she's lived in since 1987. "I would definitely like to have a house where I can actually have people over and to have a place the kids can come and say 'this looks nice' and be proud of it."

Tomorrow, we travel to western Maine to talk to two modular housing manufacturers who are hoping demand for their products will revive the economy in one of Maine's hardest-hit regions.