{"id":3014,"date":"2017-07-28T11:14:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T16:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/?p=3014"},"modified":"2019-01-13T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T15:29:17","slug":"harper-thank-you-rev-donald-tye-fighting-for-enhanced-preemption-of-manufactured-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/harper-thank-you-rev-donald-tye-fighting-for-enhanced-preemption-of-manufactured-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper – Thank You Rev Donald Tye, Fighting for Enhanced Preemption of Manufactured Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony,
\nI\u2019ve been meaning to take a moment for a couple of weeks now, to send you this message. I apologize for mixing subjects, but – in the end\u00a0– I believe you\u2019ll find that all these topics relate to one another.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you for your direct question to HUD\u2019s Pam Danner about the City of Kilgore\u2019s plans to further limit the placement of manufactured homes in that city.\u00a0 I\u2019ve repeatedly questioned why HUD and the administrator\u2019s Office of Manufactured Housing Programs hasn\u2019t acknowledged that preemption was significantly enhanced by the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000<\/a> (MHIA of 2000).<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0 Several of Rev. Donald Tye, Jr.\u2019s comments which you published brought back memories of an MHI Land Use Conference held in Chicago in the late 90\u2019s.\u00a0 I remember a speaker at that event \u2013 a middle-aged black gentleman, who was (I believe) a member of the Illinois General Assembly.\u00a0 He coined a term for the discrimination by local governments against many forms of affordable housing, particularly manufactured home placements.<\/p>\n

That speaker called it \u201ceconomic racism<\/strong><\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EconomicRacismIlGenAssemblyRevDonTyeJr-JDHarperArkManufacturedHousingAssoc-IndustryVoicesMHProNews\"<\/a>
Collage credit, MHProNews.com – this and the headline are provided by the publisher, as is customary with Op-Eds. The statements are those of the writer. <\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve thought about the power in that statement many times since that meeting, knowing that he had lived-through the Civil Rights movement.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent countless evenings in municipal buildings made of cinder-blocks with bad fluorescent lighting. I\u2019d attend meetings, \u2018waging a seemingly-endless war on ignorance\u2019 about our affordable homes (and the people who live in our product) with local decision-makers over the past quarter-century.<\/p>\n

So, I appreciate and agree with Rev. Tye\u2019s powerful comments.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In conclusion, I believe many in our society view manufactured housing as some sort of \u2018housing of last resort\u2019 for:<\/p>\n