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“Just-released statistics indicate that HUD Code manufacturers produced 9,110 homes in January 2022, a 7.5% increase over the 8,476 new HUD Code homes produced during January 2021.” So said the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR), in new statistics released on 3.3.2022. The data for December 2021 revealed the most new HUD Code manufactured homes – wrongly called ‘mobile homes’ by many – were built since 2006. “As a result, 2021 ends with a cumulative production total of 105,772 homes, a 12% increase over the 94,390 homes produced over the same period in 2020,” says a report with analysis and added details on MHProNews. That’s the highest production/shipment rate since 2006. All that is hopeful, but still just a drop in the bucket for the millions of affordable housing units that renters and other home seekers are thirsting for today.
While the facts make clear that manufactured housing is trending up, it still leaves open questions like, why has it taken so long to trend up?
For insights on that timely inquiry, a new MHLivingNews/MHProNews media release will be posted below. This has been released to mainstream media as part of our 2022 campaign to better inform the public about the truths – troubling, terrific, and otherwise – about manufactured housing.
‘MHI [Manufactured Housing Institute] Will Grant Request Via Prayer’ Mayor Pro-Tem Mewborn on Affordable ‘Plant A Home’
NEWS PROVIDED BY
MHLivingNews.com
March 05, 2022, 09:30 GMT [4:30 AM ET]
Ivory Mewborn, MHI CEO Lesli Gooch controversy-racial equity, affordable housing, swift legal solutions OpEd announced www.ManufacturedHomeProNews.com/Masthead/ [Notice: that link will take you to the Masthead blog on MHProNews, which has new content added routinely. For the link to the Ivory Mewborn-MHI report, see the link below.]
AYDEN, NC, UNITED STATES, March 5, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — After reading the evidence- and fact-packed new report, analysis, and commentary on the MHProNews Masthead editorial blog, the Reverend (Rev.) Ivory Mewborn, Mayor Pro-Tem of Ayden, N.C. said the following via email. “MHI [Manufactured Housing Institute] will grant our request [for legal, other support for the Plant A Home program] if we pray and believe. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turns it whatsoever way he will.” Certainly, to Mewborn’s point, there are Biblical supports that give millions of Christians, Jews, and other believers confidence that praying in assured faith to obtain a desired result works.1 What is also clear is that some prayers are answered swiftly, while some prayers are answered only after repeated requests.2 Obviously in Scripture there are verses where God makes clear that he can also say, “no” if the prayer is not in keeping with the Divine will and his commandments.3 That said, Mewborn was also the source to MHProNews that provided various documents, messages, and other elements of information used in the Masthead report. Those pointedly call into question the sincerity of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and their CEO Lesli Gooch’s claims of supporting minorities and other affordable housing seekers rights who need or desire a new, modern manufactured home.
That Masthead shows Gooch’s emailed response as well as the phone call notes from a phone call from Gooch to Mewborn.
On 2.8.2022, Mewborn sent an emailed message to MHI CEO Lesli Gooch, Ph.D., their North Carolina affiliate-NC Manufactured & Modular Homebuilders Association (NC-MHA.org), and specific MHI corporate leaders, as the Masthead op-ed evidenced.
On 3.8.2021, Gooch via NationalMortgageNews, made noble-sounding statements like these.
• “As policymakers in Washington seek federal interventions to support racial equity, an important element of the strategy should be increasing the minority homeownership rate.”
• “Addressing systemic barriers to minority homeownership is imperative and increasing the supply of quality affordable housing must be an integral part of the effort. This is where manufactured housing comes in. Constructed according to a federal building standard that is administered by HUD to ensure quality and safety, manufactured homes are the most affordable homeownership option available. With the average cost of a new manufactured home itself below $80,000, it is not uncommon for the purchase of a manufactured home to be less expensive than the option of renting.”
• “…the law already requires HUD to “facilitate the availability of affordable manufactured homes to increase homeownership for all Americans.” (42 USC 5401(b)(2)).
• “To advance racial equity, HUD must stop localities from excluding manufactured homes from their communities, which many have done through actions which range from exclusionary zoning restrictions to outright prohibitions against manufactured homes. The Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 specifically states that when HUD construction and safety standards are in effect, a locality does not have authority to establish different standards.”
• “Unfortunately, due to lax enforcement of preemption by HUD, many localities use construction requirements that deviate from the HUD Code to accomplish an underlying objective of zoning out manufactured housing (or making it prohibitively expensive). To address this, HUD must strengthen preemption enforcement.”
• “To achieve racial equity, HUD should take seriously its mandate to support the growth of manufactured housing to increase homeownership for all.”
Mewborn cited Gooch’s op-ed in his request for MHI to intervene in the impasse in Ayden, NC regarding “Plant A Home” installation of new manufactured homes. Gooch presumably had the support of the MHI board and leaders. That’s routinely part of the genesis of op-ed’s like hers published by NationalMortgageNews. Oddly, Gooch never mentioned in that op-ed the phrase “enhanced preemption” with respect to the MHIA.
Additionally, Gooch never mentioned that prior HUD Secretary Ben Carson personally offered to MHI in a live, video recorded session “to usher in” a “new era of cooperation and collaboration between our Department” – HUD – and the manufactured housing industry.
Gooch repeatedly said in often little-read federal comments letter that HUD was not enforcing federal preemption.
HUD has regulatory authority over manufactured homes. Federal preemption over local zoning is included, according to attorneys, lawmakers who were part of the widely bipartisan legislative process, and a former federal official.
While their methods and missions are different than MHI, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) has said for years statements similar to Gooch’s. HUD has legal preemption authority specifically given by Congress HUD often aren’t using when local jurisdictions attempt what Ayden, NC seems to be doing.
The Masthead includes insights on various sides of the controversy.
For instance, On 2.16.2022 Gooch replied via email to Mewborn, saying in part “We appreciate your passion and engagement to ensure more people in Ayden, and across America, can attain homeownership through manufactured housing. As we discussed on the call, our goals are aligned.
Lesli”
Mewborn’s reply on 2.17.2022 in his follow up pressed her-that’s included with other in-depth Masthead information.
“Ms. Gooch,
I thank you for your recent message. Does your reply mean that you will use your legal resources on behalf of residents in Ayden, NC – or elsewhere – to see that local officials are enforcing Manufactured Housing Improvement Act mandated “enhanced preemption?” That is my goal and that of others here who want a new manufactured home. Is that how your goal and ours are aligned? Please clarify or confirm.
Thank you,
Rev Ivory Mewborn
Mayor Pro-tem of Ayden, NC
Vice Chair Pitt County Human Relations Commission”
Mewborn told MHProNews/MHLivingNews that no one at MHI, nor their NC-MHA.org or corporate leaders have followed up with either himself or officials at Ayden. Our publication did a follow up to MHI and their leaders, which is also part of the Masthead linked herein and below. ##
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Biblical references, referenced in footnote in the opening paragraph above.
1) Jeremiah 29:12-13. Mark 11:24. 1 Peter 3:12. 1 John 5:15.
2) Luke 11:5-13. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9. Isaiah 55:8-9.
3) Ps66:17-20. 1Jn5:14-15. Jn15.7.
To learn more about the ‘new realities’ that are being exposed in the affordable housing/manufactured home arena; the following reports will prove useful.
https://baptistnews.com/article/manufactured-homes-and-just-zoning-laws-can-transform-working-poor/
Additional Information that is Manufactured Home Specific is Found in the Links Below
We lay out the facts and insights that others can’t or won’t do. That’s what makes our sister site and this location the runaway leaders for authentic information about affordable housing in general, the politics behind the problems, and manufactured homes specifically. 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
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