In an editorial, MH aficionado Crystal Adkins said that in her opinion, journalists are a significant part of the image problem manufactured home owners and professionals face daily. “There are so many great benefits and advantages of manufactured homes.” Adkins said. She writes that manufactured home owners ought to be celebrated for living within their means, but instead are stigmatized by the media. As evidence that this isn’t a “conspiracy theory,” Adkins observes that on one week using Google alerts, she had “34 of those articles are about fires. There’s only 45 total articles.” She continued” “Out of the 45, only 6 were articles that were not negative. 2 of those weren’t even about real mobile homes and 1 was an ad on Craigslist. The craziest thing about all this is that Foremost Insurance Company shows that site-built homes are more than twice as likely to experience a fire than manufactured homes. According to this study, the number of home fires is 17 per 1,000 for site-built homes, while only eight per 1,000 for manufactured homes.” Adkins makes important points. As regular MHProNews readers know, we see it similarly and realize it is up to professionals to work daily to improve our image, celebrated daily on the new MHLivingNews.com website. Image building will also be one of the many topics that are part of the commentary in Florida Manufactured Housing Association Executive Director’s upcoming exclusive interview here, A Cup of Coffee with…Jim Ayotte. ##

(Image credit: Crystal Adkins/Mobile Home Living)