Blog Posting # 840; Copyright 17 April 2025. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction), routinely paired with traditional stick-built housing (a.k.a. onsite construction).Plus, land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’), comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. And, considering various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describes post-production segment of MH.
EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial MH information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (This book belongs in every land lease community nationwide!), and SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production levels since 1955.
And my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as freelance consulting and authoring of 3 nonfiction texts.
George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (“MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.
Continued Call for Unity & Better Advocacy!
When I first started writing about this matter two weeks ago I had no idea how far or where the conversation might go. Response to the first blog posting was immediate and wide-ranging, even an inquiry from MHPro News. As usual, things have quieted down during the past week or so. Perhaps what follows here will stir matters up again.
Don’t look for any significant changes at MHI and MHARR! Both are firmly entrenched in their respective ideologies relative to what’s best for manufactured housing, regulatory and otherwise. Notice I didn’t add ‘post production segment of manufactured housing’ to that coverage description. Should, but MHI and MHARR, each in their own right – and in my opinion, give little more than lip service to respective needs and matters within and about that segment of our industry.
MHARR, was formed in 1985 as a spinoff from MHI, and has long represented smaller, mostly regional fabricators of HUD-Code manufactured housing. They’ve long been identified and appreciated as manufactured housing’s ‘watchdog’ in Washington, DC. And, as an industry, we do have a lot to be grateful for due to their lobbying efforts over the past 40 years. But the organization, again in my opinion, is little more than a shadow of its’ former self. MHARR never publishes a list of its’ members. And during their recent meeting with the head of HUD and his staff, could only bring their salaried leader, two retired former executives, and one member to the table, ostensibly representing the whole of our industry. Not a convincing presence. Plus, this gives rise to the thought that manufactured housing is a divided and fractious industry.
And MHI? A much larger staffed and dues-financed organization for sure, with ‘divisions’ representing most segments of the industry, including most state MH associations – since absorbing the National Manufactured Housing Federation around 1990.. Also prefer to advocate for the manufactured housing industry in a conciliatory rather than combative manner. And known for hosting the largest annual gathering of industry players, the Manufactured Housing Congress. The MHI Achilles heel (‘vulnerable spot’)? That varies among observers and commentators; but from the land lease community perspective includes: inability to solve the paucity of ‘home only’ financing (a.k.a. personal property & chattel capital) for product going directly into land lease communities and onto vacant rental homesites, lack of leadership relative to combatting rampant site rent increases among aggressive property portfolio owners/operators acquiring land lease communities – leading to rent control. Some even sight MHI’s failure, since 2010, to advocate for the professional engineering-approved Frost Free Foundation methodology HUD ignores to the detriment of homeowners/site lessees.
There is still more to be said about the present state of affairs relative to MHARR & MHI, but it’d be best pursued within both organizations among their dues-paying members and other interested parties. If you’d like to continue to add your opinion to the mix on this timely and controversial topic, communicate with me via gfa7156@aol.com
George Allen