HUD Code land-lease community owners and operators should take note of two highly-publicized HUD prosecutions of “mobile home park” operators and employees for alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act.

For the second time in as many weeks, HUD, on August 20, 2012, issued a news release (below) concerning alleged violations of federal non-discrimination law within manufactured housing communities. In this instance, the Department detailed pending charges of discrimination based on national origin against the owners and manager of a “mobile home park” in Minnesota. In an earlier August 8, 2012 news release (also shown below), the Department announced the prosecution of a “mobile home park” in Alabama based on alleged racial discrimination.

It is highly unlikely that the lodging of these discrimination charges against manufactured home communities in two widely-separated regions – and the attendant publicity by HUD – is purely coincidental.  Instead, it could indicate that a specific enforcement campaign by HUD targeting manufactured housing communities is underway.  Thus, community owners might wish to take the precaution of reviewing non-discrimination policies with employees who interface with the public.

Of interest to the broader industry, it is particularly noteworthy that in the August 20, 2012 news release the HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity states: “Discrimination has no home in America. Mobile home residents do not have to accept derogatory statements based on their national origin when trying to rent.” (Emphasis added). While true, the irony is apparently lost on the Department and its senior management personnel that HUD itself – and other federal government and quasi-governmental agencies — routinely discriminate against manufactured housing and every manufactured home purchaser (or potential purchaser) as a matter of policy by, among other things, making it more difficult and costly, if not impossible, to finance a manufactured home that the purchaser can afford.

The reality – being fought by MHARR in the nation’s capital on a daily basis — is that more Americans of all races, nationalities, creeds and backgrounds are excluded from manufactured home communities, manufactured homes and home-ownership altogether by HUD policies that ignore manufactured housing as a component of HUD’s mission and discriminate against the industry its products and its consumers, than the actions — albeit deplorable and indefensible — of anyone in the private sector.  The industry’s post-production sector should be similarly engaged, collectively, independently and directly – on a pro-active basis – to change this and make manufactured housing a key part of the solution to the nation’s housing needs.

MHARR will continue to keep you apprised on this matter as developments warrant.

Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform

HUD CHARGES MINNESOTA MOBILE HOME PARK OWNERS AND MANAGER WITH DISCRIMINATING AGAINST MEXICAN AMERICAN COUPLE-pdf

HUD CHARGES OWNERS AND MANAGERS OF ALABAMAMOBILEHOMEPARK WITH DISCRIMINATING AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY-pdf