He made that and other potent comments as part of an in-depth upcoming video interview and related conversations with a man who understands factory-built housing after decades of first hand experience.
Tye’s father and mother opened a modular home business that created housing options for as little as $24,000 back in the early 1970s. Those factory-built homes are selling today for about 4 times their original price.
Tye said he believes HUD Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson will relate well to what his father and mother’s family housing business accomplished in numerous lives.
The Flashback, Then The Flash-Forward
Donald Tye, Sr. and his wife Willie had a development and construction business. At first, Tye Sr. was doing conventional site-building. But he became frustrated with a variety of elements, perhaps the most important being affordability.
It was then that they turned to factory-built homes. In the late 1960s and into the early 1970s – when the civil rights movement was a fresh, lived experience – they began to sell homes in part of the Cincinnati, Ohio metro.
The father died many years ago, but the son’s involvement and interest lived on.
“As we think about housing in today’s world, the most important aspect should start with affordability. When home ownership is affordable, it has ancillary benefits,” said Donald Tye, Jr.
He speaks in the moderated vocal tones of confident experience.
“Ownership builds character, competence and integrity,” Tye said.
“One thing that is completely missed by politicians and prejudice towards manufactured housing is the tax benefit.”
Tye spoke about “the projects” and shoddy tenements that warehoused people, something he said HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson would know from his experience in Detroit.
The son of “Able and Able Modular Homes” founder referenced the Hope VI Project in Boston. Tye noted that under Democrats and Republicans alike, multifamily housing units like Columbia Point Housing Projects in Boston were part of a pattern that wasted billions of dollars annually. A photo of that project is shown below, and a written snapshot of HOPE VI is found as a downloadable reference, at this link here.
Billions Wasted on Federal Housing Projects
Donald Tye Jr. described how beyond the billions of dollars were largely wasted on high rise tenements was the social impact of housing that turned into dens of crime, drugs, and despair. What he said could have been an echo from Dr. Carson’s recent video, which called for “housing crusaders.”
Tye specifically mentioned a project that was part of the download linked above. The Brookings and HUD literature described the concept in these terms; “HOPE VI is a plan by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is meant to revitalize the worst public housing projects in the United States into mixed-income developments.”
He noted that after billions were spent, the effort ended up much like what they started with. Meanwhile, lives were being “wasted” and opportunities for affordable quality living – such as they were providing with factory built housing – was being overlooked.
“If they had thought about replacing that dilapidated housing with affordable manufactured homes, they would have created a [tax] revenue stream that would last for generations,” Tye said. “Three hundred homes would have generated taxes to pay for schools, parks, police, etc. Instead the apartments became the same old problem with a new paint job.”
Tye grew up in an era when racial prejudice was more common. He equated the notions of prejudice about various groups to the ignorance and prejudice about factory-built housing.
“It’s just as wrong to use the N-Word to describe a black as it is to use the T-Word to describe a manufactured home,” Tye stated matter-of-factly.
The first of those video interviews will be coming soon. Tye speaks about:
- his family and neighborhood experiences in factory-crafted homes,
- how that improved lives,
- how families built equity and saved money that allowed them to do more in other parts of their lives,
- how he attributes part of their success and that of others who bought those homes to their affordability,
- his hope for some of the Trump Adminstration and Dr. Carson’s HUD initiatives,
and much more in a ground-breaking video interview.
The upcoming videos special reports could well mark an important turning-point for a proper understanding of how what Tye calls a prejudicial and ignorant view of factory home building is cheating millions of Americans, and needlessly costing the nation billions in tax dollars wasted and tax revenues that could otherwise be generated through affordable home ownership. ##
(Note: some of the points that Tye made dovetail with the HUD PD&R report, linked here.)
(Image credits are as shown above, and when provided by third parties, are shared under fair use guidelines.)
