The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports a joint letter dated April 17, 2012 from the chairmen of the House Financial Services Committee and the Housing, Insurance, and Community Development Subcommittee to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan seeks follow-up from HUD regarding its implementation of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000. MHProNews.com understands the letter stems from a field hearing Nov. 29, 2011 in Virginia and a subsequent oversight hearing by the Subcommittee Feb. 1, 2012, both of which saw witnesses from various parts of the industry highlight HUD’s failure to implement certain provisions of the Act of 2000. The letter says, in part, ”The 2000 law is intended to benefit both the manufactured housing industry and homeowners by providing a more timely method of establishing the standards to which manufactured homes are built.” Noting the role of the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) in advising HUD, the letter questions why HUD has not taken action on 135 of the 185 recommendations made by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee since 2004, and asks for a written explanation. MHARR says, “The letter is a clear indication to HUD, the program management and regulators that the oversight hearing was not only not the end of this matter, but that Congress is serious about compliance with all of the reform provisions of the 2000 law that finally would definitively and officially identify manufactured homes as ‘housing’ for all purposes.”The letter is signed by Spencer Bachus of the House Financial Services Committee and Judy Biggert of the Subcommittee on Housing, Insurance and Community Development.
