“State associations representing manufactured housing communities – Manufactured Housing Communities of Arizona (MHCA) and the Manufactured Housing Community Owners Association (MHCO) of Nevada – both of which had previously withdrawn from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), have announced the formation of a new, independent post-production manufactured housing association,” said the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulator Reform (MHARR) to MHProNews.
In its initial communication regarding the new group, “the MHCA states:”
“The MHCA had joined a national association [i.e. the Manufactured Housing Institute or MHI] in the hopes that we would get … representation and effectiveness at a national level. The national legislation and rulemaking over the last ten years has proven that we do not have that representation,” said MHARR about the MHCA’s release to them.
“The MHCA has taken the first steps in establishing a new organization to lobby on behalf of community owners and associations representing community owners. The new organization is the National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners, Inc. (NAMHCO)….”
The MHCA communication concludes by observing that “we have a problem at the national level,” and invites other post-production groups to become “part of the solution” by joining and supporting their new national association.
MHARR notes that their move is similar to a suggestion that MHARR made in a 2017 study and analysis “MHARR Releases Study Recommending Independent Collective Representation for Post-Production Sector to function at the national level.” More on that in the related report, linked below, which can read after you’ve finished reading this post.
MHARR Comments on Announcement of
National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners, Inc. (NAMHCO)
“While this action (at present including only HUD Code communities) – is both positive and encouraging,” said the MHARR release, “the industry’s entire post-production sector (communities, as well as retailers, developers, finance providers, insurers and others) remains in desperate need of an independent, collective, national association and representation to deal effectively with national-level issues that are today either not being addressed at all, are not being addressed effectively, or are, in effect, being held captive to the interests of the industry’s largest corporate conglomerates.”
“At present, HUD Code manufactured housing is nearly alone, as a major industry, in being without an independent, national, collective post-production association, and this crucial “missing link” needs to be decisively corrected as soon as possible if the industry is to advance and expand to its full economic and market potential,” the statement to the Daily Business News said.
“While HUD Code production is gradually recovering and improving from its recent modern-day minimum level, and manufactured homes, in 2018, offer superb quality with unprecedented value for consumers, the industry’s post-production sector has, conversely, regressed, with repeated failures in critical areas such as consumer financing, placement, zoning and installation, among others,” said the Washington, D.C. based MHARR.
“These failures [by MHI] suppress and unnecessarily restrict industry growth,” said their release, “as untold thousands of consumers are eliminated from the market due to unnecessarily high interest rates on manufactured homes and particularly manufactured home chattel loans (due to the ongoing refusal by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide market-significant securitization and secondary market support for such loans).”
“To make matters worse,” the independent producers’ trade group said, “even for consumers who would be able to obtain such financing, the refusal of local communities to permit the development of new manufactured housing communities, or otherwise permit the placement of manufactured homes in vast areas of the United States, needlessly drives potential homebuyers away from the HUD Code market. As a result, while manufactured homes have progressed substantially, once they leave the factory, the industry (and consumers) are ill-prepared, ill-equipped and ill-served in the field.”
The Contradiction…
“This dichotomy, between significant successes in the production realm, as contrasted with significant failures in the post-production realm, not only undermines industry growth and needlessly excludes large numbers of consumers from the HUD Code market, but also harms, as one of its primary victims, the state associations on which post-production industry businesses rely so heavily,” said MHARR.
State association executives have told MHProNews that for some years, they’ve been controlled by the same interests as controls MHI. One of several examples is linked in the report, linked below, which can be read later for additional depth of understanding on the issue.
“While most state associations continue to do excellent work under difficult circumstances, they are unfairly handicapped in many instances, by a lack of centralized policy information, formulation, direction and coordination. This effectively leaves state associations either “on their own” to individually seek relevant factual and policy information from other states, or worse, dependent on MHI and its few industry-dominant corporate conglomerates on matters that rightfully should be discussed, debated, formulated and decided on a collective, independent and collaborative basis,” MHARR argued.
“In either case, the collective functionality of the state associations and the post-production sector is not what it should be, or needs to be, in order to successfully advance both the post-production sector and the industry as a whole,” their release stated.
Rephrased, the producer’s trade group MHARR is saying that the manufactured home industry won’t grow at the pace of potential it could achieve, due in part to the lack of an effective post-production organization.
“This matter, moreover, has been unnecessarily complicated by the involvement of self-promoting individuals and/or entities that not only have difficulty in grasping the magnitude of the ongoing failures of the post-production sector – and the damage thereby inflicted on the industry and consumers – but also continue to press and advance ostensible remedies (publications, conferences, meetings, etc.) that are overly simplistic, unduly parochial, and simply inadequate to address the much larger and significantly more complex problems underlying this crucial issue,” said the MHARR statement.
That made be construed as an oblique hit on COBA7 and SECO, which are recognized for certain positive efforts, while reportedly frustrating the formation of a robust post-production trade group.
“MHARR, therefore, for reasons that it has previously spelled-out in detail, supports the formation of the new, independent communities association,” they said, concluding:
“In addition, MHARR also supports and encourages the expansion and further development of this association going forward.”
The Daily Business News will continue to track and report on the development of the new community owner’s association, and related developments. “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
(Third party images are provided under fair use guidelines.)
Related Reports:
George Allen Blasts MHI, NCC Ignoring Own, Spencer Roane, SECO, COBA7, Tom Lackey Controversies
7 Surprising Keys to Unlock Manufactured Housing Industry Sales Success
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