On 12.8.2023 the popular financial and alternative news site ZeroHedge had an article with the provocative headline: “We All Have PTSD.” It is a premium article, and this writer doesn’t have a premium account with ZeroHedge and wasn’t going to get one for that one topic, but the headline itself obviously stuck with me. Yesterday, this writer for MHProNews had a conference call with 4 individuals about their experiences with what can fairly be described as a major member of the Manufactured Housing Institute. Several details were shared by those callers, backed by pages of evidence that are already in MHProNews’ hands. The individuals involved ended our roughly 100-minute Zoom call by saying they would be discussing their options before potentially pressing ahead. MHProNews advised them that they should be prepared for a potential battle that could last years. That was said not to dissuade them, but rather to prepare them for the realities of even committed individuals going up against a big company that is a member of an even bigger club of so-called “insider” companies that apparently dominate the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) regardless of their easily disputable claim to represent “all segments” of the industry. They are demonstrably a consolidators trade group, as evidenced by multiple national antitrust suits that have hit several of their member-brands. Neither those firms individually, nor MHI itself, have offered to directly respond to, discuss, or debate the evidence that supports that contention.
As a possible example that is not hypothetical, but rather is a still developing case at hand, of potential PTSD for individuals involved in manufactured housing consider the following.
Part I Facts with Analysis
1) Imagine for a few moments that you and your loved ones are a family living in Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater, Florida.
Left-leaning Google’s Gemini gave the following summary of the events and issues at Lil Abner Mobile Home Park. Following that summary, MHProNews will provide some context and expert definitions that point to the potential for the residents there to have PTSD. From there, additional insights will be provided to reflect that it can be common to have PTSD, even if it isn’t ‘universal’ as was stated by that Zero Hedge headline: “We ALL have PTSD.”
Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park is located in Sweetwater, Florida. The park is being redeveloped and residents have been given notice to vacate their homes by May 2025.
What’s happening at the park?
- Residents have protested the evictions
- Residents have filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, and the landlord
- The park’s management has offered relocation assistance and a financial incentive package to homeowners who leave
Why are residents being evicted?
- The land is being developed into affordable government-subsidized housing
What have residents said?
- “We understand that this is not our property, but eight or 15 days later to receive a letter is frustrating for us”
- “It’s so sad at the same time that everything is going away. A lot of people don’t have anywhere to go”
What’s being said about the evictions?
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The lawsuit alleges the city, county, and landlord either failed to follow proper zoning procedures or misled property owners
2) There were links to reports that didn’t cut-and-paste into this platform’s publishing software to support the above.
3) This video is from regional news covering the events at the Li’l Abner community. WPLG 10 said:
“Realtors were selling at Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park despite redevelopment plans.”
4) One of the posted comments for that video’s YouTube page said this.
“No words to what they have done to us. I’ve been a resident of LilAbner for 32 years and simply feel betrayed. We’ve been treated like garbage… thrown out with no remorse… very sad for many of us.”
Another posted comment.
“The city knew the whole time what was going on and the real estate agents knew as well, I hope these people all sue the city and the real estate company for everything they have.”
This comment illustrated that similar problems can occur for conventional housing owners.
“They did that to my mom in Miami after 28 years of living in her dream home the bank disappear and they didn’t let her know where they went so she lost the house the house went on the on the foreclosure and she lost her house.”
Other remarks.
“We have low life realtors here in NYC as well. There are scams in every business.”
“Failure to disclose, sue the Realtors and their company, and the seller and the landlord.”
5) The Zoom callers to MHProNews were seemingly intelligent, thoughtful, experienced adults. But several admitted, using their own words, that they are scared. This writer explained why they should be, but not to dissuade them from acting.
Rather, those tipsters were told so that they would prepare themselves for what might be ahead. Don’t expect a big company to simply roll over a play dead because of even embarrassing, potentially actionable or criminal behavior.
6) According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 5.27.2024.
Feeling supported by family, friends or other people following the potentially traumatic event can reduce the risk of developing PTSD.
7) In a different article entitled Preventing PTSD dated Nov 27, 2024:
Not everyone who experiences a potentially traumatic event will develop PTSD.
8) As Gemini said in response to an inquiry from MHProNews:
Military training can help soldiers prepare for combat and reduce the risk of PTSD, but it can’t guarantee that soldiers won’t develop PTSD.
So, preparation can reduce the potential risks of stress.
9) With the above in mind, let’s pivot to some definitions.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH.gov) are the following.
What is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD?
It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation. Fear is a part of the body’s “fight-or-flight” response, which helps us avoid or respond to potential danger. People may experience a range of reactions after trauma, and most will recover from their symptoms over time. Those who continue to experience symptoms may be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Who develops PTSD?
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. This includes combat veterans and people who have experienced or witnessed a physical or sexual assault, abuse, an accident, a disaster, a terror attack, or other serious events. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened, even when they are no longer in danger.
Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event. Sometimes, learning that a relative or close friend experienced trauma can cause PTSD.
10) The Crappy Childhood Fairy site had a post entitled: “Why Does it Seem Like EVERYBODY Suddenly Has PTSD? Ten (Unscientific) Theories.” Among those theories were the following.
“PTSD is real, but its symptoms often look like plain old anxiety or depression or even bipolar disorder. And there may be more than one kind. There’s adult-onset kind, that an otherwise healthy veteran might have as a result of a specific trauma during a combat experience. The other is Complex PTSD or CPTSD, which is from long-term exposure to trauma. Examples of this kind might arise from a childhood riddled with neglect or abuse, or from the ongoing trauma of, say, being in prison or having chronic and life-threatening medical problem.”
11) Under the header shown were the pull-quoted items. There were often other items that were skipped over in sharing the following.
So why, now, is there so much PTSD?
Because people are actually more traumatized now than they were in the past.
Because overly violent and sexual images in media are changing our brains.
The protective influence of strong families and communities is breaking down.
Our diets have changed. Many people exposed to trauma don’t develop PTSD, and not much is known why others do develop it — and seemingly at a higher rate than in the past. It is plausible that our collective, accelerating Western shift from whole foods to highly processed and high carbohydrate foods over the past 40 years or so — the same shift responsible for the obesity epidemic — could be lowering our resistance to the destructive brain changes that occur when PTSD develops. …”
“We are growing more isolated socially. Since the 1980s, the percentage of American adults who say they’re lonely has doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent.”
12) That was posted about 3 years before the declared COVID19 pandemic. Some pundits have said that mainstream media engages in what has been called “fear porn.” The emerging details of the various funding tentacles in the federal government to support programs that influence, censor, cajole, and silence people should also be kept in mind.
13) That’s not mere conjecture. The NIH said this.
“In the COVID-19 era, PTSD is one of the consequences of the pandemic crisis. People with pre-existing mental and physical health conditions such as depression, substance use, and many more are at a higher risk of developing PTSD.”
14) NIH also said in 2024:
“Elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the COVID-19 pandemic have been well documented.”
15) An August 2020 article on Forbes said this.
“Some 73% of US adults believe that social media platforms intentionally censor posts espousing certain political views…”
16) Also in 2020, per Washington University in St Louis:
“Free speech? Nearly half of Americans self-censor.”
17) Meta (Facebook’s parent company) Research said this.
“Our results indicate that 71% of users exhibited some level of last-minute self-censorship…”
That was in 2013, years before COVID19 and the 2020 election cycle, when millions of Americans believe that they were censored on social media for sharing information that often later was proven to be correct.
18) When big corporations that have access to professional psychologists and sociological research make their risk assessments of certain behaviors that may be illegal or actionable, isn’t it reasonable to think that they take into account the numbers of people who won’t speak up? Short answer? Yes.
According to the Volkov Law Group post headline quoted below are the following.
Con Men, Criminals, and Compliance
What does it take (or not take) to be a con artist and/or a white collar criminal? Do not kid yourself — white collar criminals can be “dangerous,” in that they usually suffer from significant personality disorders. Many are narcissists and sociopaths and are constantly engaging in manipulation, financial schemes, and inflicting harm to victims.
We all the know the legendary white collar scandals – Lay and Skilling at Enron; Bernie Ebbers at WorldCom; Jack Abramoff; Bernie Madoff. The list goes on and on with infamous criminals.
The term “Con Man” has been coined through the years to describe individuals who can convince an innocent person to invest in fraudulent schemes or manipulate people to trust the con artist.
Just like any issue in life, however, there are degrees and differences among the con artists or the criminals. Some are worse than others and it is easy to lump everyone together in the white collar crime bucket.
From a compliance perspective, however, this issue is important in understanding risk. An employee who engages in theft over the years while working at a company may have plenty of so-called explanations or even justifications, but in the end, their actions reflect their willingness to break the law, and violate the code of conduct. Often, the fraud and theft scheme is for the perpetrator’s material needs. I have never observed a “Robin Hood” who steals from the company to give to the poor (beyond themselves).
Many serious criminals are not susceptible to persuasion – no amount of training, communication, or promotion of corporate values of trust and integrity will convince the criminal to not engage in the misconduct. A narcissist and a sociopath will have no problem flouting the rules because they do not acknowledge that the rules apply to them; from their viewpoint, their needs transcend any of the law-abiding community.
When it comes down to it, a company needs to rely on its law-abiding employees to report misconduct. This is the best protection against criminal conduct. If reported, a company may be able to investigate and stop the conduct. In some cases, a vigilant reporting system may even deter a criminal from engaging in behavior.
A robust system to investigate complaints and possible misconduct is the best protection a company may have against fraudsters and other criminal activity…
22) Part of the problem, at least initially, for those looking into misconduct in MHVille is not a lack of evidence of apparent misconduct, but the sheer volume of evidence of misconduct that often seems to involve members of MHI and/or an MHI member state association affiliate.
23) To illustrate the point about several of MHI’s higher profile members, who often have a board position, are the following. In no particular order of importance are the following potential examples. MHProNews Notice to New and Regular Readers. MHProNews’ management is pro-manufactured housing. Affordable manufactured homes are necessary in this nation which is suffering from an affordable housing crisis. The following is not meant to disparage the entire industry, because there are arguably thousands of professionals who either don’t accept such problematic behavior and don’t engage in it themselves. That said, when the list of ‘leading’ MHI member firms is considered, and it is cross referenced with this sampling of some of the problems involving MHI or the industry more broadly, there is a significant amount of overlap. This is why MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site have advocated for years that public officials need to probe MHI and several MHI linked state association and specific corporate brands.
27) Once the broader picture of apparently corrupt and problematic, predatory and potentially outright illegal behavior involving MHI members, it becomes clearer why MHI would have hired scandal-plagued Lesli Gooch, Ph.D., and attempt to dress her up by claims of being named by HousingWire as a women of influence. If she is so influential, why is it that the industry’s production is still under 30 percent of the last highwater mark of 1998? If Gooch is so influential, why is it that the MHI itself admits that there are good federal laws that are not being properly enforced?
28) Now, step back and look again at the industry through the eyes of consumers, particularly residents, of some of the apparently predatory MHI member communities.
29) The population has grown but affordable manufactured housing production has shrunk dramatically. MHI is playing footsy with the rivals of HUD Code manufactured housing instead of working with MHARR to implement the existing laws that could benefit residents and honest growth-minded businesses alike. By using barriers of entry, by limiting production, by limiting new development, there are some who (arguably wrongly) believe that they are benefiting their business model and profits.
30) Until someone has attentively read an article like this, it may seem implausible to think that multiple firms are working in a manner that fits the term collusion. But how else can it be described when experienced and often well-educated individuals tolerate problematic behavior while failing to do what common sense would dictate? This is why grasping terms like paltering, posturing, propaganda, true lies, and the like are important. Harvard researchers and others have studied these issues for good reason. They can be applied to a better understanding of why manufactured housing is underperforming during an affordable housing crisis.
There is an argument to be made that until some corporate officials are prosecuted under felony statues, that these violations will only continue. The fines or even sometimes large judgements are obviously not a deterrent.
A company that is committed to justice and making sure misdeeds are punished is likely to see a positive environment for reporting misconduct. Overall, efficient justice leads and promotes even greater reporting and justice.
Company investigators are not on a crusade. Criminals will be criminals no matter what the culture of the company may be. Criminals are focused on themselves, what they can get away with, and fulfilling their narcissistic or sociopathic needs. It is not a situation where companies create criminals; rather, companies may be able to deter or prevent criminals from engaging in misconduct by swift justice and creating an environment where law-abiding employees are committed to reporting misconduct.
Some of that may be debatable, because Volkov is focused on white collar corporate defense, but it is still interesting.
There is always more to know. See the related and linked reports to learn more. ##
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
