The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Friday, February 8, 2019 over $2 billion dollars in new grants. Their full, official statement will follow below. It holds significance for manufactured housing on a variety of levels.
Why? Because there are a wide range of programs and opportunities that manufactured housing could be tapping into. One might say that there are “opportunities galore” for affordable manufactured home professionals and investors.
To set the stage of the HUD Release, it is worth noting that the over $2 billion dollars in grants would be be more than 25% of all HUD Code manufactured homes sold in 2018.
With the final 2018 production and shipment reports now in, it is known that manufactured housing finished the year with well under 100,000 new HUD Code manufactured home shipments (96,555). About a year before, the Arlington, VA based Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) had estimated the year would finish at some 107,000 thousand new units shipped.
Four years ago, MHI President Richard ‘Dick’ Jennison pledged on a video recorded statement before dozens of industry professionals at the 2015 Louisville Manufactured Housing Show that the manufactured home industry could achieve 500,000 new homes produced. More details on that are available at the linked text/image box below. But recall that in the early 1990s, in 3 years, manufactured housing production more than doubled. There is more capital, and more technology available today than there was then. There is also arguably more demand for affordable housing today than at that time.
Put differently, MHI’s Jennison was not wrong in saying that the 500,000 new home shipments total could be achieved. That would deductively imply that in markets like yours, sales could rise by over 500%.
MHI CEO Dick Jennison’s Pledge – 500,000 New Manufactured Home Shipments
In 1998, the industry hit its last high-water mark of over 372,000 new HUD Code manufactured homes built and sold. In the pre-HUD Code mobile home era, factory builders approached 600,000 new units for 2 years.
Both major trade groups – the Washington, D.C. based Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and MHI have noted in various statements the quality of today’s manufactured homes. That is a point of agreement between the two national trade associations.
There is an industry blogger who periodically confuses – by intent or accident – the nature of the two oldest national manufactured housing trade groups. The difference is significant, and the Daily Business News on MHProNews will turn to what each association says about itself for the distinction.
“The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform is a Washington, D.C.-based national trade association representing the views and interests of independent producers of federally-regulated manufactured housing.” That statement by MHARR was on their last press release to MHProNews and is what their releases have stated for years. A 501c3 non-profit group must state their mission, it isn’t in principle a matter of conjecture.
What does the MHI say about itself?
“The Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) is the only national trade organization representing all segments of the factory-built housing industry. MHI members include home builders, retailers, community operators, lenders, suppliers and affiliated state organizations,” is what the MHI about us page states.
A press release by MHI public relations staff member Patti Boerger said, “MHI is the only national trade organization representing all segments of the factory-built housing industry. MHI members include home builders, lenders, home retailers, community owners and managers, suppliers and others affiliated with the industry. MHI’s membership also includes 50 affiliated state organizations.”
Rephrased, MHARR represents producers of HUD Code manufactured homes. MHI represents producers too, but also state that they represent the “post-production” sectors of the industry. As a related point, since that 2016 release by Boerger quoted above, 2 state community association broke ranks with MHI, and in 2018 launched a national community-owner focused association. That group is The National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners (NAMHCO).
Those are facts, facts, facts – including what the various trade groups have said about themselves. It should be noted that there are modular housing or commercial construction, and systems building trade organizations too. But those noted above are specifically engaged in manufactured housing, with MHI alone claiming to do even more by including the phrase “all segments” of factory-built housing.
HUD’s Release, Data, Followed by Analysis
On Friday, the Department of Housing issued the following release. It linked to the list immediately below, where the featured image and map at the top of this column were from.
See for yourself just how many – or few – projects involve manufactured housing? Per HUD, by state and territories.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Here is the full HUD release from Friday, February 8, 2019. The commentary below the HUD breakdown by state was provided by MHProNews.
HUD AWARDS OVER $2 BILLION TO HELP END HOMELESSNESS
Federal grants to help thousands of homeless assistance programs nationwide
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $202 million in FY18 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program grants to support new homeless programs across the country, including nearly $50 million to projects dedicated to assisting survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. View a complete list of all the state and local homeless projects awarded funding.
Last month, HUD announced nearly $2 billion in CoC grants to renew funding to thousands of local homeless assistance programs nationwide. Combined, this funding represents a record investment to support state and local efforts to reduce and end homelessness.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson made the announcement in Akron, Ohio today during a visit to the Battered Women’s Shelter, a grantee that received funding and will use it to house domestic violence victims who are on the verge of homelessness.
“Today we make another critical investment to those persons and families living in our shelters and on our streets,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “These new programs will join those already on the front lines in their communities working to end homelessness.”
HUD supports a broad array of interventions designed to assist individuals and families experiencing homelessness, particularly those living in places not meant for habitation, located in sheltering programs, or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. Each year, HUD serves more than a million people through emergency shelter, transitional, and permanent housing programs.
HUD continues to challenge state and local planning organizations called “Continuums of Care” to support their highest performing local programs that have proven most effective in meeting the needs of persons experiencing homelessness in their communities. Many of these state and local planners also embraced HUD’s call to shift funds from existing underperforming projects to create new ones that are based on best practices that will further their efforts to prevent and end homelessness.
HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable,
inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
— end of HUD release —
Manufactured housing is failing to meet the stated goals of its post-production sector staff ‘leader,’ MHI President Dick Jennison.
There is an affordable housing crisis. As the links below the byline and notices reveal, top MHI staffers have been getting paid bonuses.
There are numerous third-party reports and news stories in 2018 that reflected the quality, value, and need for manufactured homes.
So why is the industry underperforming?
MHI production rival MHARR laid out the facts in the report linked here and further below.
MHARR points their finger directly at MHI, as they are the post-production association side of the industry. The article above provides the final tallies and hard data. Their article linked here and further below shares an analysis by Mark Weiss, JD, President and CEO of MHARR.
The questions are not moot. They are germane – indeed, necessary to explore – if the industry is going to recover from its 2-decade funk. A news analysis by our publisher is linked here and among the text-image linked boxes below the bylines and notices.
That’s this morning’s edition of MH “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
NOTICE: You can get our ‘read-hot’ industry-leading emailed headline news updates, at this link here. You can join the scores who follow us on Twitter at this link. Connect on LinkedIn here.
NOTICE 2: Readers have periodically reported that they are getting a better experience when reading MHProNews on the Microsoft Edge, or Apple Safari browser than with Google’s Chrome browser. Chrome reportedly manipulates the content of a page more than the other two.
(Related Reports are further below. Third-party images and content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
1) To sign up in seconds for our MH Industry leading emailed news updates, click here.
2) To pro-vide a News Tips and/or Commentary, click the link to the left. Please note if comments are on-or-off the record, thank you.
3) Marketing, Web, Video, Consulting, Recruiting and Training Re-sources
Related Reports:
You can click on the image/text boxes to learn more about that topic.
The Masthead
The year was 1998. It happened to be the year that manufactured housing hit its last peak, but it was also the year that Simon Reynolds compiled and published ” Thoughts of Chairman Buffett – Thirty Years of Unconventional Wisdom from the Sage of Omaha.”
Positive, Uplifting Third-Party Reports Favor Modern Manufactured Housing, So What’s Going Wrong?
HUD Code Manufactured Home Production Decline Persists – Time For Action Not Excuses | Manufactured Housing Association Regulatory Reform
Washington, D.C., February 4, 2019 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that according to official statistics compiled on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), HUD Code manufactured home production declined again in December 2018.
“The Illusion of Motion Versus Real-World Challenges” | Manufactured Housing Association Regulatory Reform
Motion – or, more accurately, activity – in and of itself, is not necessarily synonymous with, or equivalent to, realprogress, or, in fact, any progress at all.
