Programming note. The forecast for Louisville has evolved, see that among the week-in-review headlines further below. What weather experts predicted at midweek – just a few days ago – has already changed. That should make American thinkers wonder. If climate experts can’t get a forecast right that’s only a week out, how can AOC rely on those experts who think that climate change will destroy the planet in 12 years?
Enough of that, now moving onto the headline.
Facts are nettlesome things. They are nettlesome to several of those who may or may not be at the 2019 Louisville Manufactured Housing Show. Facts will be nettlesome to the far greater numbers of industry professionals who won’t be at this year’s Louisville Show.
Nettles can sting, but properly used, they can also be medicinal. There are specific reasons why we’ve chosen that metaphor. Our MHProNews nettles are meant to prick with the facts, evidence, and truth, and thereby to offer healing.
Understand that what follows are facts, not partisanship. Consider and sift the wheat from the chaff, on all things.
The most recent IRS tax filings publicly available for the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) nonprofit is 2016. Recall that MHI leaders predicted that year that Secretary Hillary Clinton would win victory for president. Days before the election, at a MHI/NCC event in Chicago, they had not one but two paid, pro-Hillary Clinton speakers on their stage.
Nathan Smith, past MHI Chairman was a prominent Clinton supporter. An even more prominent Clinton supporter was Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway in turn owns MH industry dominant firms – Clayton Homes, 21st Mortgage, and Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance (VMF).
In 2016, MHI had been ‘fighting’ for the passage of the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act. Photo ops, CSPAN videos, lots of MHI ‘housing alert’ emails, and even click-to-contact your representatives gave the illusion of motion. Mostly Republicans, with some Democrats, worked in Congress for that bill which MHI President Richard ‘Dick’ Jennison promised – publicly promised at Louisville in 2015 – would pass.
Oddly? Preserving Access never did pass. In fact, MHI’s former VP of Government Affairs, Jason Boehlert told MHProNews readers in an exclusive commentary well prior to that broken pledge by Jennison that Preserving Access wasn’t likely to pass at all. Ever.
So the thinking manufactured housing industry professionals must ask. Why were years of effort and millions of dollars spent on what MHI’s VP Boehlert said years before it was a non-starter?
The close of 2016 was almost 2 years after MHI’s the Dick Jennison said that 500,000 new HUD Code manufactured home shipments were achievable (see the related reports, further below).
Now, 4 years after Jennison’s public pledge on the industry achieving higher new home sales and thus shipment levels, the industry is still nowhere in sight of that half-million home production mark. Rather, the current question is, will the manufactured home industry cross the threshold of 100,000 new homes produced in 2018? When an affordable housing crisis is raging, why not?
The possible points or takeaways are many. When nettlesome facts are laid out like the above – based upon MHI’s own stated goals and claims – and they repeatedly miss the mark, something is clearly wrong.
MHI, on issue after issue, has failed. Time and again, year-after-year, they’ve missed their own targets. When have they last kept a serious promised or pledged outcome? Do you see why MHARR for over a decade has urged the establishment of a new, post-production association? Or why NAMHCO broke away from MHI, and began what MHARR leaders have encouraged?
So, why did MHI CEO the Dick Jennison or MHI EVP Lesli Goofed, err, Lesli Gooch get paid nice bonuses in 2016? Are they being rewarded for failures? Who made those bonus decisions? Are they automatic bonuses? What are the criteria for earning bonuses at MHI?
Notice that the federal filings of any tax return – including a non-profits tax return – are made under penalties of perjury.
As several of our recent Daily Business News on MHProNews reports have reflected, MHI’s own website lacks some of the most compelling information produced by third parties in the last year. So it’s no wonder that they don’t cite Harvard’s Eric Belsky, as they used to do before Warren Buffett took over Clayton, 21st, VMF, Oakwood, others – and thus began to dominate MHI. The HQs for those are the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis.
Make no mistake. MHI ‘elected’ and salaried staff are indeed leaders. The question is, where are they leading the industry’s thousands of independents?
The Biggest Variety of News, Sources and Topics Covered?
There is no one in the manufactured housing industry’s trade media – no one – that produces anything approaching the wide variety of news that matters to our industry’s professionals. This once weekly recap, below, reflects that reality.
So the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington related items are far from the only topic we explore on MHProNews. But it is so vital to understand that key issue, that we do reference it, as needed and when it fits.
The manufactured housing industry ought to be doing 5x more – at a minimum, using the Dick Jennison figure – than it is today. Imagine your sales going up 500%. Would that be useful to your firm’s bottom line?
In an industry that MHI (errantly?) claims has 40,000 full-time workers, the well over ten thousand industry pros, investors, policy wonks, and advocates who’ve been logging on daily to MHProNews seem to think these are important issues.
Facts can be #NettlesomeThings. Nettlesome means they sting some, but offer healing to others.
On MHProNews we follow the facts, the evidence, and the money trail. In a nominally free society, we watch as the mindless MHI cheerleaders, sycophants, and bootlickers say or do whatever. Compare what those toadies and lemmings say, to the reality checks you will find exclusively here. That’s arguably why we are the runaway #1 – by far the most read, by those who agree or disagree, and those on the fence.
With no further adieu, see what those bonuses leaders – and others – achieved, did, or avoided in the week that was.
What’s New on the Masthead
God’s Sense of Humor, Tilting After Windmills, Manufactured Housing – Merchants or Crusaders?
What’s New from MHARR
“The Illusion of Motion Versus Real-World Challenges”
“The Illusion of Motion Versus Real-World Challenges” | Manufactured Housing Association Regulatory Reform
Motion – or, more accurately, activity – in and of itself, is not necessarily synonymous with, or equivalent to, realprogress, or, in fact, any progress at all.
What’s New from MHLivingNews
Puzzling Case of Millie Francis, Where are Religious Liberty, Fair Housing, Resident, and Manufactured Home Organizational Defenders?
What’s New from the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 1.26.2019
Friday 1.25.2019
Bloomberg’s Reality Check for Senator Warren’s and AOC’s Tax Plans, Plus MH Market Updates
Fannie Mae Reports Billions in Manufactured Home Community Deals, Details Others Lack
Fannie Mae Reports Billions in Manufactured Home Community Deals, Details Others Lack
Metroplex Video Touts No Down Payment Loans on Manufactured Housing and Modular Homes
Metroplex Video Touts No Down Payment Loans on Manufactured Housing and Modular Homes
Midwest Manufactured Housing Federation Official Louisville Show Communique to MHProNews
Midwest Manufactured Housing Federation Official Louisville Show Communique to MHProNews
Thursday 1.24.2019
Not Just Income Tax, Warren Pitches Wealth Tax On Assets, Plus MH Market Updates
Not Just Income Tax, Warren Pitches Wealth Tax On Assets, Plus MH Market Updates
MHI CEO Dick Jennison’s Pledge – 500,000 New Manufactured Home Shipments
MHI CEO Dick Jennison’s Pledge – 500,000 New Manufactured Home Shipments
Wednesday 1.23.2019
Are Robots Taking Over? Not So Fast, As Hotel Fires Half Their Robot Staff, Plus MH Market Updates
Are Robots Taking Over? Not So Fast, As Hotel Fires Half Their Robot Staff, Plus MH Market Updates
Louisville Manufactured Housing Show Updates – Bitter Cold, Possible Snow Forecast, Says AccuWeather
Louisville Manufactured Housing Show Updates – Bitter Cold, Possible Snow Forecast, Says AccuWeather
Tuesday 1.22.2019
Will Current Political Currents Lead to a Top 70 Percent U.S. Tax Rate in 2021?
Almost All Tracked Manufactured Housing Stocks Drop With Broader Markets, MH Stock Updates
Almost All Tracked Manufactured Housing Stocks Drop With Broader Markets, MH Stock Updates
Significant Drop in Housing Sales, Splits Experts on Cause-Effect
Monday 1.21.201
Sex and Human Trafficking Involving Manufactured Home Community, Hits Fox Video Report
His Dream Was Rooted in American Dream, “Free At Last”
Sunday 1.20.2019
Wishful Thinking vs Facts, Evidence, Reason, and Manufactured Housing
Corruption, waste, fraud, and other abuses in the Washington, D.C. metro are not new. But that doesn’t mean that they should be tolerated.
Something has smelled in certain offices in Arlington, VA for some time. And it’s not a flowery aroma. Rather, it’s arguably the stench of a string of troubling incidents and concerns connected to MHI that has made them worthy of suspicion, which our coverage and analysis of such #nettlesome things have made this pro-manufactured housing growth publication the most widely read trade media in this industry today.
That’s MH “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” ## © (News, analysis, and commentary.)
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