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The Speakers News Journal says that an “Analysis is an expert opinion.” Manufactured housing is a fine option when someone is doing business with – or considering a deal with – an honorable firm. But if someone is considering doing business with a firm that is deceptively predatory, they ought to be avoided. What follows will be facts, evidence, and analysis about Yes! Communities, some of which is based on that companies own remarks, but some of which will come from residents and others who have filed complaints, or from litigation that has emerged as a result of purported bad behaviors on the part of Yes! Communities leadership. Those readers of Mobile and Manufactured Home Living News (MHLivingNews.com) readers that are considering doing business with Yes! are advised to avoid this firm if they have another, better option. The reasons for that advice will be made clear by the information found in another report linked here and herein below.
To be fair and balanced, let’s start with some of Manufactured Housing Institute member firm’s praise of themselves.
“YES Communities is an operator of manufactured housing communities based in Denver, Colorado. YES has been recognized as the Manufactured Housing Institute’s “Community Operator of the Year” from 2009 to 2019.” So says the firm’s press release (PR) via Globe Newswire.
The Yes! PR pitches “A heartwarming community initiative” that per their own remarks are provided in good measure through ‘volunteer’ hours by Yes! Employees and donations.
Meanwhile, per Indeed on 1o.19.2023 from a Maintenance Worker and Current Employee of Yes! in Tyler, TX said that: Yes! Communities is the “Worst company I’ve ever worked for. Consistently have to fight an up hill battle with management to get any parts to get task done for livable conditions for tenants. Aside from that use my own tools while working on a w2 with no compensation or gratitude for doing so. Very poor management all the way up to Regional Manager.”
According to Bing AI, “Clayton Homes, the largest supplier of manufactured homes, sold 65 of its 66 mobile-home parks to Yes Communities, a Denver-based private equity firm that changed its name…from BaseCamp Capital. The deal involved 65 properties in 11 states and was completed in late January 2008. Clayton Homes had been acquiring land-lease communities where it could place its mobile homes since the 1970s.” Bing AI also said that according to Chris Nicely, while he was a former “Vice President of Marketing at Clayton Homes,” that “Nicely confirms that Clayton will continue to supply product to Yes” Communities. Nicely reportedly spent 15 years with Clayton before moving onto other roles in the manufactured home industry.
So, Yes! Communities has historic ties to Berkshire Hathaway, Clayton Homes, and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), as the two segments of today’s report that follows will reflect. But there is still more to the backstory, as will be revealed herein that is not found in the Yes! Communities press release that aimed to pat themselves on the back.
Note – showing the Yes! press release below should NOT be misconstrued as an endorsement of that firm. It’s not. It is for balance and to show how some purportedly predatory firms that are at times MHI members operate.
Part I
Yes We Care Volunteers Unite to Transform Home for Deserving Resident
YES! Communities
Fri, October 27, 2023 at 4:07 PM EDT·2 min read
Denver, CO, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A heartwarming community initiative unfolded as a team of dedicated volunteers and skilled contractors joined forces to renovate the home of a deserving resident in Candlelight Village, IN.
The Hug-A-Home project, initiated through the YES We Care program, provided numerous improvements and a revitalized living space for Carey Foerster, a cherished member of the Candlelight community since 2008.
Renovations to the home included new exterior paint and skirting, new window treatments, landscaping, new exterior lighting, and new rear steps. Building supplies and labor were donated by Justin Vandevanter, General Supply, C&J Remodeling, Palomino Remodeling, Manufactured House Specialists, Sherwin Williams, Lowes, and YES Community team members.
“I can’t believe YES Communities did all of this for me,” said Foerster. “I am so blessed.”
The YES Communities Hug-A-Home program was developed to assist residents through funding and allocating volunteer time for YES team members to offer help to deserving residents. YES Communities employees donate hundreds of hours of time to serve their own communities and help those who need it most. Hug-A-Home is a part of the YES We Care program, which has invested nearly $1 million since 2018 in assistance to team members, residents, and local organizations supporting YES Communities.
“We are incredibly grateful for the support and dedication showed by our volunteers and contractors in making this renovation project a reality”, said Karen Hamilton, the Chief Operating Officer at YES Communities. “Hug-A-Home truly demonstrates the incredible impact that can be achieved when people come together for a common cause”.
About YES Communities
YES Communities is an operator of manufactured housing communities based in Denver, Colorado. YES has been recognized as the Manufactured Housing Institute’s “Community Operator of the Year” from 2009 to 2019. ##
Part II – Additional Information with More MHLivingNews Analysis and Commentary
The nature of paltering and posturing is that every word of the above may be true in some technical sense, but to the extent that it leaves out information that may be significant to possible housing seekers at Yes! Communities, those remarks can still be misleading.
For example. Yes! Communities is indeed an MHI award-winner. But what exactly is the value of an MHI award? As the article linked below reflected, several MHI ‘award winners’ have poor ratings with consumers and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Several MHI ‘award winners’ have had regulatory and legal issues, or other problematic aspects to their business histories. So, no firm that gets an MHI ‘award’ should automatically be thought of by savvy consumers or others as automatically being an honorable or ‘good’ company.
Next, from the lawsuit entitled Perales vs. Yes! Communities, CIVIL NO. SA-12-CA-450-PM, Yes largely prevailed. But the following are interesting remarks from that case deemed in the pleadings to be statements of “undisputed facts.” It is fair to say that several of the insights that are ‘undisputed’ may not look so good for Yes!
III. STATEMENT OF UNDISPUTED FACTS
III. STATEMENT OF UNDISPUTED FACTSThe following statement of facts is taken from defendant’s motion for summary judgment.23 Unless otherwise indicated, plaintiff does not dispute the factual statements:
Defendant is “a company that operates manufactured home communities.”24 During her employment, plaintiff worked at two different communities: Springfield Meadows first, and Creston Ridge after a transfer. Plaintiff complains of the conduct of two of defendants’ employees: Michael Johnson (“Johnson”), the manager of Springfield Meadows,[1] and Bert Lopez (“Lopez”), the manager of Creston Ridge.[2]
Plaintiff began working for defendant on June 16, 2009 “as a salesperson/assistant manager at the Springfield Meadows community.”[3] The handbook contains an “equal opportunity policy” at the front, expressly states that unlawful harassment is prohibited, and instructs employees on how to report alleged harassment.[4] Plaintiff read and understood the handbook, and “understood that she had an obligation to report any conduct that she thought violated company policy as outlined in the Handbook.”[5] Defendant conducts sexual harassment training at least every two years for employees, and plaintiff attended such training on August 17, 2009 and February 10, 2011.[6]
Plaintiff captured in mobile telephone audio recordings examples of Johnson’s conduct on two days.[7] Plaintiff complained about Johnson’s conduct to co-workers. One of plaintiff’s co-workers, Vickie Roberts, reported Johnson’s conduct to Randal Brooks (“Brooks”), regional manager for defendant and Johnson’s supervisor.[8] Brooks conducted an investigation,
“including interviews of all of the pertinent employees.”33 As a result of the investigation, Brooks separated Johnson and plaintiff by transferring plaintiff to Creston Ridge, “issued a reprimand to Michael Johnson and wrote a performance correction notice.”[9] At the time, plaintiff lived in the Creston Ridge community, and her position, salary, and commissions did not change with the transfer.[10] After her transfer, plaintiff had no more contact with Johnson and reported no more problems with him, but did have some complaints about Lopez, the manager of Creston Ridge.[11]”
The plaintiff, the quoted document above says, recorded information on a smart phone as part of the case. With that in mind, the following report linked below could be useful for residents, customers, employees or others to consider, perhaps – when possible – along with the advice of counsel.
The Yes! Communities press release touts a decade of awards from MHI. That may be accurate, as far as it goes, but as this report and analysis reveals, it is far from a complete picture. There have been several legal issues, some of which have only recently been launched against Yes! As MHLivingNews has previously reported, Kentucky based Flagship Communities have also been given ‘awards’ from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and from the MHI affiliated Kentucky Manufactured Housing Institute (KMHI).
Let’s note that in the article above, it has since been learned that part of the BBB report may have conflated information about another company named Flagship, but even taking that into account, the rating appears to be D-, which is still a poor rating.
With that in mind, Yes Communities was featured in the report “Tricks of the Trade” linked below. That is MHI members telling each other ‘the tricks’ that they use. Those tricks are explored through the lens of a news interview with an actual Yes! resident with serious complaints against the firm.
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These news and video reports provide more information about a range of people with complaints about Yes! Communities.
It Isn’t just Residents, Employees of Yes! Have Complaints Too…
Yes! Community employees have expressed themselves via Indeed in a manner that reveals that significant numbers of them are not happy with the ‘corporate culture.’
When even some of the history of Yes! and their ‘charitable’ efforts are examined, one could quickly come to the conclusion that the problematic news, employee beefs, and the purported harms that they do far outweigh the occasional helping hand to a resident – as they portrayed via press releases like the one shown in Part I.
Indeed, in as much as the “Yes We Care” is deployed as marketing for Yes! Communities, their ‘charity’ is apparently used to benefit Yes! in several ways.
Along with so-called “Manufactured Housing Institute” “Excellence Awards” these are apparently among “the tricks of the trade” (see linked report above) deployed by Yes! to lure in new trusting clients into the communities. Once living there in a resident-owned home, the ease of moving out in a manner that is financially beneficial to the resident has arguably been limited. See attorney Marty Lavin’s “Witches Brew” linked here and resident-advocate Tim Sheahan’s remarks linked here.
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More recently, Yes! Communities, along with several other MHI members, has been named as a defendant in a number of national class action lawsuits. The defendants in those laws suits are reportedly moving to have the suits combined into one legal action. While the defendants admit no wrongdoing, Sun Communities, one of the defendants, admits to their investors that the outcome of the case is far from certain. Meaning, the defendants see the possibility that they could lose. Here is how they said it: “The plaintiffs have moved to consolidate the complaints into the case captioned Carla Hajek and Gregory Hammerlund v. Datacomp Appraisal Systems, Inc., et al., No. 1:23-cv-6715.” And: “We are unable to estimate a range of loss, if any, that could result were there to be an adverse final decision in this litigation. If an unfavorable result were to occur, it is possible that the impact could be material to our results of operations in the periods in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable.” That means that the defendants realize that the risk is potentially significant. “We believe that the plaintiffs’ allegations are without merit and intend to defend against them vigorously. However, litigation is inherently uncertain and there can be no assurance regarding the likelihood that our defense of this litigation will be successful.” (Emphasis added).
But even before the class action cases above, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, one of those items that many who posture being trade media in manufactured housing who align with MHI tend to avoid, revealed several areas of concern raised by Yes! residents and their advocates.
> “What has the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said about Yes! Communities?”
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) is an organization that identifies and engages with stakeholders, communities, and families affected by private equity firms 1. According to a news article on the PESP website, private equity-owned companies Yes! Communities and Inspire Communities have been in the news recently for their activity in the manufactured housing sector 2. The article highlights that manufactured housing represents “the largest sector of non-subsidized affordable housing in the United States” 2. However, the article also notes that private equity’s expansion into manufactured housing spells trouble for residents. Many residents own the home structure itself but still pay rent for the land their homes sit on. When that lot rent increases, many tenants, especially those on fixed incomes, are unable to weather the cost 2.
Unfortunately, I could not find any specific statement made by PESP about Yes! Communities. If you have any other questions or if there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know!
Learn more:
> “What has manufactured housing trade media reported about Yes! Communities connected controversies?”
According to an article on the Manufactured Housing Professional News website, Yes! Communities has been in the news recently for its activity in the manufactured housing sector 1. The article highlights that manufactured housing represents “the largest sector of non-subsidized affordable housing in the United States” 1. However, the article also notes that private equity’s expansion into manufactured housing spells trouble for residents. Many residents own the home structure itself but still pay rent for the land their homes sit on. When that lot rent increases, many tenants, especially those on fixed incomes, are unable to weather the cost 2.
I could not find any specific information about controversies related to Yes! Communities in my search results. However, I did find an article on Manufactured Housing Professional News website that reports on a recent antitrust lawsuit involving several manufactured home community management companies, including Yes! Communities 3. The lawsuit alleges that these companies conspired to fix, raise, and systematically inflate mobile home lot rental prices as more than 150 locations across the United States 3. The suit alleges violations of federal antitrust laws and common law 3.
If you have any other questions or if there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know!
Learn more:
According to a post on OU Legal website, published on June 27, 2023, the article titled “Yes Communities Lawsuit: Understanding the Legal Battle and Its Implications” delves into the details of the lawsuit, its background, key issues, and potential implications 1. The article provides an overview of Yes Communities, a prominent operator and owner of manufactured home communities throughout the United States. The lawsuit against Yes Communities emerged as a result of alleged wrongdoing and malpractices within the company. Several residents, advocacy groups, and legal entities came forward with complaints, leading to a legal battle that seeks to address these issues 1. The lawsuit encompasses a range of allegations and claims including unfair rental practices and sudden increases in rental rates, negligence in property maintenance and infrastructure improvements, violations of residents’ rights and privacy concerns, discrimination and harassment against certain residents, breach of contract and misrepresentation of lease agreements 1. The outcome of the Yes Communities lawsuit carries significant implications for residents. Depending on the findings and rulings, residents may receive compensation for damages, rent adjustments, or improved living conditions. The case also sheds light on the importance of tenant rights and the need for stronger regulatory measures in the housing industry 1.
All that noted, the behavior of Yes! Communities and other similar MHI member brands ought to be considered in the light of the more detailed and in-depth report linked below.
And what Yes! should tell us about the true nature of how MHI operates could be explored via the classic second article linked below. Note that per the recent fact-check linked here, MHI has removed their so-called “code of ethical conduct” from their new website. Given the various class action cases swirling around MHI and members that include Yes!, and the various exposes on MHLivingNews and MHProNews, is it any surprise that they did so?
Read their MHI-NCC code of conduct, look again at the evidence being amassed above and linked from herein about Yes!, and ask yourself this question. How could MHI have the nerve to give Yes! awards when the firm seems to be guilty of violating the MHI-NCC code of ethical conduct? Isn’t this part of the ‘tricks of the trade’ that MHI and Yes! demonstrate?
Big lawsuits take time. But the clock may be ticking down on Yes’ and others involved at MHI in similar tactics patterns of behavior. In our view, it is routinely better to do business with a family owned or smaller firm than it is with companies that have a reputation for so-called predatory behavior. Do your homework before doing business with any firm. Don’t let an “MHI” or an MHI state association affiliated ‘award winner’ sway you, because the ‘award’ may not be any better than the organization giving it. ##
For those who want research on manufactured housing, which routinely debunks the common myths, see the report linked above.
That’s a wrap on this installment of “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ### (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.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
Recent and Related Reports:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
