George Allen / EducateMHC Blog Mobile Home & Land Lease Community Advocate & Expert

March 17, 2023

Alexandria, VA., MHI & Affordable Housing

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 6:00 am

Blog Posting # 732, Copyright 17 March 2023. EducateMHC

Parallel Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated, performance-based, factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the investment real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC alone is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two business models! To input this blog or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317)881-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com, or visit EducateMHC.com to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (The sole professional property management text in print today!); SWAN SONG, a history of land lease communities and official record of annual MH production totals since 1955; and, my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – my combat adventures in Vietnam & business career in MH & communities.

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of MHI, RV/MH Hall of Fame inductee, and retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines.

Alexandria, VA., MHI & Affordable Housing

Alexandria, VA., is home to the Manufactured Housing Institute. MHI is home to the manufactured housing industry’s perennial national advocacy and lobbying effort to have its’ type factory-built housing, and land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home community) development, accepted in local housing markets nationwide as truly affordable housing!

Alexandria, VA., is home to “A proposed redevelopment property (that) recently died after a yearlong fight.”*1 “The brouhaha…shows how the not-in-my-backyard mindset blocks virtually any increase in housing supply, even those that strive to maintain local character while making relatively modest changes.” (I.e. a four-story mixed-use retail and apartment building)

In this particular Wall Street Journal  OPINION piece, penned by Stephen Ford, its’ ten word title speaks equally well to ongoing land use and rezoning fights waged by manufactured housing and land lease communities, and the recent imbroglio experienced by local developer Bonaventure Real Estate in Alexandria, VA:

‘Yes, There’s a Housing Crisis. No, You Can’t Build Here’

After describing the Alexandria, VA., redevelopment project rejection in detail, the writer concludes, “Until some middle ground can be found between not-in-my-backyard and yes-in-my-backyard, neighborhoods…will keep getting more expensive and less welcoming to newcomers.” The very conundrum also high on the priority list of the Manufactured Housing Institute in Alexandria, VA.

End Note.

  1. Wall Street Journal, OPINION page, Saturday/Sunday, March 4, 2023.

Is the ‘National MH awareness’ Program Dead?

As a volunteer committeeperson working on this program since its’ inception last fall, I have heard nary a word about it since our last zoom call on Thursday afternoon, 23 February 2023.

That is, until I received a telling message from an interested party, combining the dismal MH production figure for the month of January (6,951 units reported by IBTS & MHARR) with said program:

“…four consecutive months of progressively worsening year-over-year production/shipment declines (@23.6 %!), at a time when the need for affordable housing and homeownership stands at record levels.”*1 MHARR

The telling message: This “Reminds me of the definition of insanity.*2 If ever we needed an image/promotion campaign it is NOW!” anonymous

Get the point? If what we’ve been doing, or not doing – as an industry and advocate thereof, year after year after year, to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease community development, is getting us nowhere, except backwards at present, then collectively we are insane! The solution? Up until this last zoom call, that’s what this committee of volunteers attempted to do – ideate, plan & execute a New National MH Awareness Program.

What’s zoomed wrong of late? Frankly, I’m not sure, though I have an opinion. What I do know, however, is this. Until a working group like this includes some ‘heavy hitters’ (e.g. CEOs of one or more major housing manufacturers and land lease community portfolios), and a charismatic, widely-known leader, as an industry, we are Dead in the Water! And if this august group should materialize soon, I think my earlier suggestion of four meetings during year 2023, rings true: at the Manufactured Housing Congress during April, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame during early August, at the annual SECO Conference in Atlanta during September, and finally, at the Louisville MHShow during January 2024.

What do you think about this matter? As before, let me know your ideas and thoughts via email: gfa7156@aol.com

End Notes.

  1. Quoting from MHARR’s News Item dated 3 March 2023, and titled ‘HUD Code Production Decline Worsens in January 2023’
  • Definition of Insanity: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” This quote is misattributed to Albert Einstein.

Is a HUD-Code Manufacturer Shipping New Homes Sans HVAC?

Still researching… awaiting an answer…

FAMOUS HISTORIC QUOTE

“You have a business…you didn’t build that. Someone else did!” Barack Obama

When I first heard and read this amphigorical quote it reminded me of what to expect, all too often, from non-business enterprise types in our society. GFA

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