MHARR is an acronym that means Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform. Documents filed with the federal government indicate that MHARR has the mission “To improve relations between government and the industry engaged in the production of manufactured housing.” In a recent communique from one of MHARR’s president’s – Danny Ghorbani – email addresses, the employee of MHARR suggests the organization may send an ad to the Washington, DC publications such as The Hill or Roll Call, to catch the attention of Congress. “This is like MHARR effectively saying, we don’t have the kind of relationships or lobbying resources on Capitol Hill needed to get their attention directly,” an informed source told MHProNews.
Documents filed with the federal government by Danny Ghorbani also suggest there is not a sufficient budget at MHARR to do more than pay his salary – which a recent report suggests is over half their budget – and other basic office and legal expenses.
So unless there is a special assessment on their members or they recruit new members willing to pay substantial dues, the cost for advertising on Capitol Hill may deter MHARR from doing what their memorandum says is being considered.
Will manufactured housing personal property lenders join MHARR?
Tim Williams, CEO at 21st Mortgage stated to MHProNews, “No, 21st would not consider joining MHARR.”
Scott MacFarlane at US Bank indicated they were open to attending a meeting with MHARR, but there are no plans at their firm at present to join that organization.
No other major personal property lender contacted by MHProNews indicated they would consider joining MHARR.
Tim Williams went on to say, “An association has two major benefits. The most important purpose is to speak with a united voice on public issues that affect the industry.”
“Currently based upon membership, MHI represents over 80% off the industry’s production, about 50% of the industry’s lending, 10% of the higher quality communities, and through its relationship with the Federated States Division, almost all of the Industry’s retailers.”
Even pro-MHARR retailer, Doug Gorman, admitted when pressed that he would not join MHARR, although he believes their organization has merit, as does MHI.
Alienation
Marty Lavin – a respected community owner, industry lending expert and attorney – commented that Danny Ghorbani had alienated the very people he was tasked to improve relationships with, which made it highly unlikely MHARR could achieve their stated mission.
Bill Matchneer, formerly with HUD’s Manufactured Housing Program, and more recently having retired from the Consumer Financial Protection Buruea (CFPB), seemed to confirm Lavin’s observation. Matchneer is on record saying;
“MHI leadership has always respected HUD’s responsibly for public safety and consumer protection, even when we’ve had to agree to disagree on a particular issue. As a result, we’ve collaborated successfully with MHI to resolve many issues during my years at HUD.”
Matchneer added, “MHARR takes a different approach. MHARR treats the HUD manufactured housing program as an adversary and reflexively attacks just about everything the program says or does. As a result, I don’t remember collaborating with MHARR to resolve any issue during my years at HUD.”
Another industry veteran added, “Some things never change…He (Danny) had issues with Thayer (Long) and now (has) issues with Dick Jennison. The only way to combine and work as one on select issues would probably require that Danny exit the picture.”
Industry Associations
21st Mortgage’s CEO also said, “The other benefit of association membership is the relationships with other members and the opportunity to see the industry’s issues from the vantage point of other members. Having two national associations hurts our opportunity to interact with non-member entities.”
In a recent Masthead blog post, Manufactured Housing’s Pogo, the following comment was shared by an industry veteran:
“Isn’t it amazing how many thousands of peoples’ lives in this industry have been upended by the unwillingness of so few people to get along?”
Remarking about that comment, Marty Lavin told MHProNews, “I’m not sure Danny (Ghorbani) has to get along. Rather his very combative style of lobbying has set a measure of the whole MH industry as combative, inflexible and unreasonable.”
“I suppose if he represented the AFL/CIO he could get away with it. Representing a very small industry already in disrepute in the general population, the battering ram style of lobbying seems to lack something. If not, how do we explain the almost absolute absence of positive results garnered by MHARR?”
While millions respect and appreciate manufactured housing for offering quality affordable living, as evidenced in the recent positive comments by members of the House Financial Services Oversight hearing with CFPB Director Richard Cordray, certainly there is a widespread misunderstanding of our industry’s value, as Lavin’s comments suggests.
How can MHARR’s president, Danny Ghorbani, seriously believe that he can successfully lead the regulatory and political engagement of our industry, given his problematic relationships with regulators and industry members alike?
How can long can Ghorbani espouse contradictory views or counter-productive actions, such as those referenced in this recent Masthead analysis?
How long will MHARR’s mission to “improve relations” continue in the absence of positive results from their current president? ##
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Footnotes:
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1) Under the fair use principle, the courts have ruled that even copyrighted materials may be quoted at length or even in their entirety for the purposes of analysis, without risk of copyright infringement. So just as MHARR quoted in the attachment below from an MHProNews.com interview (which they referenced as MHMSM) without permission, so too we are able to quote or reference their documents, which in many cases are sent out as a kind of press release.
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2) Download of cover letter on so-called MHARR Washington Update, Report and Analysis, dated 2-25.2014.
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4) Meanwhile, the MHARR analysis fails to mention that MHI and key industry lenders had already met with Senate Banking Committee members on issues related to GSE reform. “What Danny (Ghorbani) postures and proposes to do if given more financial resources, MHI is already doing.” a source close to the action told MHProNews.
- Kevin Clayton – Clayton Homes,
- Tim Williams, 21st Mortgage
- Barry Noffsinger, CU Factory Built Lending
- Paula Reeves, CIS Financial and
- Cody Pierce, Cascade Financial were among the industry’s leadership under the MHI banner with the Senate Banking Committee.
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5) By contrast, Danny Ghorbani and MHARR had…? – only the above attached memo, sent out days after the meeting took place.
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6) It should be noted that Danny not only is “combative” with regulators but also with those who take a differing view than his. As evidence of that, please see this report, MH Industry Trade Publisher Threatened.
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8) It should be noted that MHARR’s president has been offered a number of opportunities by MHProNews to reply to questions, but Danny Ghorbani has not done so.
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