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

May 28, 2021

A MEMORIAL DAY PENSE’ (‘reflection’)

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

Blog Posting # 640 @ 28 May 2021: EducateMHC

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

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INTRODUCTION: On this Memorial Day, celebrate the lives of not only those who served, but especially ‘Those Who Served & Gave All!’ And relative to Parts II, III & IV, here following, let’s together ensure, next Memorial Day, we won’t be mourning the passing of manufactured housing and land lease community business models! And Part V? ‘Ah, the mystery deepens!’

I.

A MEMORIAL DAY PENSE’ (‘reflection’)

This is a Personal Reflection Penned After My First Visit – alone – to the VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL (The Wall) in Washington, DC. on 15 July 1984, 15 years after my return from RVN.

If the coarse language in this poem offends you, reflect on this reminder penned by author George Orwell: ‘People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.’

Damn black wall!
Why do I cry so before you?
I’m alive – ‘Thank God’ for that
But what of these friends I knew?

Many years have passed
But now – “I’m really there again’
With the same strong emotions
And memories flooding back again….

‘Got, I hate to cry!’
But that’s all I’ve done today
Out of gratitude – grief – and pride
For these my comrades, where’er they lie.

‘Damn black wall!!’ But I’m oh so glad you’re there…..

GFA, Jr.

When you visit The Wall, and you really should someday, kindly look up the names of these two Marine officers, friends of mine, who did not make it back from Vietnam. Each left behind a loving wife and small child.

Lieutenant Mark Fiebelkorn
Lieutenant John White, III

II.

YOUR RESPONSE TO: ‘WHAT WE KNOW IS ALREADY HAPPENING!’

Last week’s ‘outing’ here, of Wall Street-type investment companies , including some private equity firms and investment funds acquiring land lease communities ‘touched a nerve or two’, among blog floggers (readers). Why? Because few manufactured housing professionals support the abhorrent use of predatory measures toward homeowners/site lessees and the exorbitant rental homesite rates they’re expected to pay, as well as absorb new add-on charges.

So the profiteering and related controversy (to embrace ‘rent control’ of not) continues! What I’m waiting to hear and see, is a very public denouncing of predatory practices. By whom? The only viable national advocate for land lease communities nationwide, the Manufactured Housing Institute’s (‘MHI’) National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division! The NCC adjunct to MHI began its’ work on 1 January 1996, after being birthed 2 ½ years earlier as the Industry Steering Committee (‘ISC’). And among the first founding group’s Mission Statement & Objectives is this goal:

“Avoiding and combating rent control and landlord/tenant legislation.”P.97 in SWAN SONG.

So, 30 years later, is there a parallel focus in the contemporary mission of MHI’s NCC division?

In my opinion, it’s time for the leadership of MHI’s NCC division to publicly address this serious matter – one that’s fast becoming the newest ‘evergreen issue’ negatively affecting the entire manufactured housing industry! Perhaps their Code of Ethics is the place to start.

If you’re a member, let them know how you feel!

III.

GSEs Once Again, Bail on MH!

Compare the content of the next two paragraphs. The first is quoted from SWAN SONG (‘History of Land Lease Communities’), describing an FHFA & GSEs national chattel finance roundtable in Indiana in early 2010. The second paragraph is quoted from Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform’s (‘MHARR’) Press Release dated 18 May 2021.

2010. “This decade began under the worst of business conditions! A Manufactured Housing Finance Roundtable was convened, early in the year, in Elkhart, IN., attended by representatives from the manufactured housing industry and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’), as well as GSEs (‘Government Sponsored Enterprises) Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Purpose of the meeting? To tell the (MH) industry it was, henceforth, ‘on its’ own’ and not to expect any substantive financial assistance from any of them.” P. 51, Chapter # 5. Nor did we receive any GSE assistance for several years.

2021. “The most striking aspect of both proposed (‘DTS’) plans, in relation to federally-regulated manufactured housing, is their complete omission of any programs, initiatives, or activities of any kind, designed to provide or advance either securitization and or secondary market support for the manufactured housing personal property (i.e. chattel loans constitute nearly 80 percent of the HUD-Code manufactured housing consumer lending market for new home purchases). The latest proposed (‘DTS’) plans included…absolutely NO proposed chattel loan purchases, NO chattel loan ‘pilot programs’, NO chattel loan data or information gathering, NO ‘education’, NO ‘engagement’, or any other activity of any kind.” Emphasis added. GFA

2021. And if the previous paragraph messages of serious benign neglect by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac is not clear to you, read this for effect: “For the 2022-2024 (‘DTS’) Plan cycle, Freddie Mac will devote our resources to supporting the real property manufactured housing market…We will NOT pursue the purchase and securitization of personal property (chattel) loans on MH.” Is it clear to you now? Once again, we are 100 percent ‘on our own’! Emphasis added. GFA

IV.

MHARR CALLS ON HUD TO RECTIFY FOUR MAJOR BARRIERS TO MH!

Short and ‘not so sweet’. MHARR, in correspondence dated 21 May 2021, admonishes HUD Secretary Fudge to take steps now to address and rectify four major barriers to MH:

• Full program reform in accordance with the 2000 law (MH Improvement Act)

• Elimination of discriminatory and exclusionary zoning

• Revitalization of the Federal Housing Administration’s Title I manufactured housing program

• Full implementation of Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans

So, here we are, six months into the New Year (2021), and these are our post-pandemic Marching Orders. Question now is, WHO is going to lead us in these worthy endeavors?

Always interested in your feedback – and you’ve certainly been giving it to me of late! Don’t stop now. Communicate with me via gfa7156@aol.com

V.

THAT DATE

Many of you receiving this weekly blog posting have been reading/hearing whispers of an unusual industry and realty asset class gathering later this year. Pencil 12 August 2021 onto your personal planning calendar. Details to follow…for the FINAL NETWORKING ROUNDTABLE.

George Allen, CPM, MHM

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