Two quick notes before dive into our main topic, The Media, Manufactured Homes Communities and the Rent Control Issue.
Note 1: We've received numerous replies on the Captive Finance topic, beyond those we have published. There are comments that said this was an 'excellent' and 'important' topic and that gave us their atta boy. We also have a lengthy reply from yet another expert, which I thought about sharing today, but instead we plan to share in the days ahead.
Note 2: Then there are calls and comments about the Sharing Success in 2013's Record Territory! Replies included kudos, congratulations and sincere enthusiasm about the progress being made on our trade media platform as well as on our image campaign. But one party called rather than wrote, to personally say, Tony, you don't need to brag, everyone knows how successful MHProNews has become. This was a sincere comment from a supporter who went onto say that the last 1/3 of the article on the image campaign was terrific and should have been the sole focus. My reply was a two part explanation. One – my routine acknowledgment that MHProNews is not a project I've accomplished solo, it is team work with dozens involved in various ways, plus we couldn't do it without sponsors. Two, the numbers shared underscore why we believe the MHLivingNews.com image campaign will do well.
Track records matter.
So the point of the mid-week blog wasn't “grandstanding” or chest thumping. Rather, it was to relate the facts and to point to the future. Let's also mention that every media outlet – local or national – that is a leader states their numbers to their readership. They make similar comparisons to what we did. Every event organizer states at the end how 'terrific' their turn out was. So what we did mid-week is SOP. Facts and track records matter.
So with that said, let's move on to focus today on the important topic of rent control and manufactured home communities.
The media does a fine job in many markets of making manufactured home community owners look like greedy and heartless robber barons. Where is the balance in their reports?
Or where are the news cameras on the tens of thousands of dilapidated apartments, or of rental housing in often dangerous neighborhoods that needs to be torn down?
Regardless of the the mainstream media's logic – or lack thereof – this is an issue that seemingly no one, including manufactured housing pros, do enough to tackle from a balanced or pro-industry perspective.
You will find that we strive to tackle the topic here on MHProNews; for example, through interviews with leaders like the one with ELS's Marguerite Nader, or in the items we will cover below.
Friday two different yet distantly related Daily Business News briefs provided us with yet another chance to change perceptions based upon facts. Please STOP and read these two news briefs linked below, and then swing back to finish this post.
http://www.MHProNews.com/blogs/daily-business-news/city-seeks-balance-on-rent-control-issue/
Believe me. The original news source on the second story had a completely different spin on their news topic. By contrast, the Canadian report linked above was far more balanced. As a close view of their video reveals, it actually suggests what the problem is in the park closure that was the human interest side of their news story.
Let's spit it out in a sentence. The unintended consequences of rent control is to make affordable housing more scarce.
There, we said it.
Now, let's learn to repeat this early and often!
We have covered numerous stories on the growing shortage of affordable housing. A West coast pro called recently to remind me that going back to the 1960s, Richard Nixon was touting the growing popularity of then “mobile homes” in “mobile home parks” and that Nixon believed the trend deserved public support because of its amazing affordability.
Since we need affordable housing, why are we seeing more park closures than openings?
So called “public policy” is sadly one key reason.
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When zoning official accept a NIMBY view of opening new manufactured home communities (not in my back yard), or
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when cries for rent control prevail,
the results are that one of America's most affordable new home options – manufactured homes in land lease communities – is cut off.
HUD ought to take an aggressive stand on this, due to the enhanced pre-emption found in the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA 2000).
In fact, HUD seldom acts to defend pre-emption. This is a travesty of justice and a first class violation of their mandate!
HUD Mission Statement
“HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business.”
Let's start reminding HUD that it has promised to transform the way HUD does business.
We are NOT asking HUD to 'promote' us, that's our job as industry pros!
But we are strongly suggesting that HUD fails to include us in projects. HUD also fails to routinely enforce the laws that would provide millions of Americans with affordable housing options, while also saving the tax payers billions of dollars in housing subsidizes. That arguably violates the core of their mission!
But wait!
Lets be fair, objective and balanced. Is it HUD, or is it we professionals who have dropped the ball? Could it be that all we need to do is to take HUD officials at their word?
Permit me to show you very specifically what may be a gift which the Industry has failed to open.
Let's consider the testimony of Henry S. Czauski, Acting Deputy Administrator, Office of Manufactured Housing Programs, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said before the House Committee on Financial Services.
In the statement to the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity, “Implementation of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000” on February 1, 2012, Czauski said as follows:
Federal Preemption
“Federal preemption was a key concept in the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974. It provided that once Federal standards were established, no State or political subdivision would have the authority to establish any standard which is not identical to the Federal standards. The 2000 Act added language to this provision providing that Federal preemption should be “broadly and liberally construed to ensure that disparate State or local requirements or standards do not affect the uniformity and comprehensiveness” of the Federal standards. The major benefit of preemption is that it allows a manufacturer in one state or local government jurisdiction to deliver and install a home built under the Federal code, rather than having to build each home to conform to the code of the local jurisdiction where the home will be sold. HUD was charged with implementing Federal preemption, which the agency continues 4 to do. If and when HUD receives information suggesting that a jurisdiction is attempting to enforce State or local standards, HUD issues a letter to that jurisdiction informing them that local laws are subject to Federal preemption. Enforcement of preemption has been carried out through education and notification.”
His entire statement is linked in the download available here.
Please let me encourage you to not only think about this offer from HUD, but also to test it often.
Now, let's move on.
Anytime HUD favors subsidizing stick builders on apartments vs. making it easier for manufactured housing to develop and expand, they are not only picking 'winners and losers,' they are arguably violating their mission and thus wasting our tax dollars in the process.
The last enforcement letter I've seen from HUD was the one that Jennifer Hall, from the Mississippi Manufactured Housing Association, obtained in a story we covered at this link. You can also obtain a free download of that potentially useful letter at the end of the article linked above.
The take aways from the Canadian story – that the U.S. media needs to be reminded about – are these.
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Manufactured home community owners are in business, so they have a natural desire to balance affordability with the need to have a reasonable return on their investment. In my experience, we see more cases of community owners who don't raise rents often enough – for fear of losing residents – than those who raise them too aggressively. On the balance, the free market approach works.
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When a community owner can't get the returns on investment they need, new communities won't open.
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When a community owner can't get the returns needed, park closures may result when the owner finally decides to transform the location into a parcel for a big box store or developer with a 'higher, better use' in mind.
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Because new communities aren't being built, where do those residents of closed communities go to?
Let's also state this obvious truth. When developers are told NO on a new manufactured home land lease community or expansion, affordable home options have de facto been limited.
My fellow industry pros, public officials who read this column and investors, it is past time for us to routinely and robustly PROMOTE our side of the story! We do this Better Together than we do apart.
We have added a new story on our public focused ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com website that is linked below. Please share that story link with your industry peers and your team, because certainly we all need to be able to point to the facts or learn how to articulate one on one with others our side of the story. Also please share it with officials, the media and the public at large.
Cancer Cures and the Affordable Housing Crisis.
Our industry has not one, but many great stories to tell. Let's learn how to share them robustly with each other, and with the public.
That is what the new ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com is all about. Be a part of the solution. Please see the last 1/3 of the previous Masthead post on the vision for advancing the industry's image building cause.
Improving our image is a major key to attracting more customers with cash or good credit and also to getting public policy changes that will level the playing field so you and your colleagues can grow and prosper. ##
PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red HotFeatured Articles for August and see the other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.
L. A. 'Tony' Kovach
ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com |
Business and Public Marketing & Ads: B2B | B2C
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