The Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) is openly attempting to ‘control their messaging.’ That is revealed via a forwarded email tip from a MHI connected professional. That industry pro forwarded the following message attributed to a state association that is a MHI ‘affiliate’ and was thereby obtained by MHProNews. That message said in part: “In an effort to ensure a consistent industry message, we ask that you please refrain from making comments to reporters on this matter.” Imagine. MHI is asking industry members not to speak to reporters about a serious manufactured housing industry issue. They apparently want industry pros to agree to self-censor. MHI then provides – see what follows in Part I below – a single contact to help “ensure” that “consistent” MHI endorsed message. Stop and think. MHI isn’t using their CEO Lesli Gooch, their President Mark Bowersox, or their marketing/PR person to do this task. Rather than using internal staff, MHI leaders have instead hired that messaging task out instead to a public relations firm, as the quote above and their full “special bulletin” statement below reveals. Why?
Keep that question in mind.
Furthermore, wasn’t it MHI’s outside attorney David Goch who said in writing that MHI wants all points of view? Which is it? Are MHI leaders trying to forge their own narrative? Or are MHI leaders instead looking for genuine consensus that can be, as Goch admitted, a messy process?
If MHI leaders are sincerely looking for consensus, then they are apparently violating that notion by trying to have a controlled and consistent message. You can’t square that proverbial round peg.
After months of delay by MHI before even mentioning in any known published or emailed remark that MHI leaders would consider litigation as an option, suddenly they and the Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA) announced last week that they have sued the DOE to halt their harmful and costly manufactured housing energy rule. On the one hand, better late than never. But if they MHI had listened to MHARR months earlier (see the linked articles for the recap of the week that was, below), this last minute hustle and related bustle might be avoided. Indeed, isn’t MHARR – or those who hold the MHARR point of view on this topics – close to the heart of MHI’s request that industry professionals silence themselves and let a contractor from outside of manufactured housing speak ‘for the industry?’ Does that pass the BS smell test?
Given that a previously unpublished document obtained from a source clearly indicates that MHI asked for the DOE in writing for a negotiated rule instead of resisting the entire process a clear example of MHI chutzpah in action? Furthermore, what about MHI’s SELF-proclaimed and vaunted “clout” in D.C.? What happened to the legislation they misleadingly claimed would be the ‘solution’ to this problem? Didn’t MHI backed HR7651 die with only a tiny fraction of the needed number of lawmakers signed onto it, with no Democrats endorsing, nor a Senate companion bill? This publication warned the industry’s pros that MHI’s so-called plan was doomed last summer, as those linked items now demonstrate.
Make no mistake. MHProNews has editorially supported the notion of MHI filing such a suit. Perhaps better late than never, time will tell. But MHARR has suggested (again, see the reports for the week that was, linked below, that MHI may have delayed in order to cause “chaos” for producers of HUD Code manufactured homes.
The actual legal documents filed by MHI’s outside attorneys to stop the DOE manufactured housing energy rule from going into effect are part of the various reports and commentary (a Masthead) for the week in review that follows Parts I and II of this article.
The MHI supporting message fits the pattern described by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR)’s senior advisor and founding president and CEO, Danny Ghorbani in the exclusive Q&A with MHProNews that is linked here.
Part I and the preface of this report provides the text of the MHI email, which includes the context of their call for on ‘Effort to Ensure Consistent Industry Message’ shown in the headline above. They certainly don’t want anyone like you, us, or even their own stafffrom saying something to a reporter that might make them look duplicitous or incompetent, do they?
Part II of today’s report is additional information with more MHProNews expert analysis and commentary.
With that preface, per an MHI affiliate is the following.
Part I – ‘Special Bulletin’ from MHI, per an MHI State Affiliate and Tipster
For several years, MHI has been pursuing a multipronged strategy to stop implementation of the DOE standards until the standards are properly incorporated into the HUD Code. Progress has been made with HUD and lawmakers, and we are continuing to work with DOE and HUD to find a workable and affordable solution. However, with the looming deadline and continued lack of clarity from DOE, MHI decided legal action was the only option available.
DOE set an arbitrary and unrealistic 1-year deadline and the proposed requirements are not ready for implementation on May 31. DOE failed to consult with HUD, and the standards do not align with the HUD code, contain inaccurate cost estimates, do not take current manufactured home construction methods into consideration, and fail to address testing.
In addition to today’s legal action, MHI is dedicated to:
- Continuing to work with regulatory agencies to delay implementation of the DOE standard until there is alignment between DOE and HUD regulations.
- Ensuring HUD’s Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee’s (MHCC) proposed changes to incorporate the DOE standards into the HUD code are finalized.
- Supporting legislation to guarantee HUD is the primary regulator for all construction standards for manufactured housing.
In an effort to ensure a consistent industry message, we ask that you please refrain from making comments to reporters on this matter and instead refer any media inquiries to Molly Boyle. Molly’s email is molly.boyle@fpmgi.com and her phone # is 202-777-3668 ##
Part II Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
As a relevant aside, note that such forwarded emails – like the one above – are valued tips and useful for the entire industry and thus to MHProNews. We thank and value tipsters.To others who only occasionally or have not yet provided news tips, don’t presume that your state association or MHI are providing their information and talking points to MHProNews. There are tips that come in, like that DOE letter that MHI was a party to, the were not a part of any known communication by MHI to the industry at large.
As to controlling their messaging, this isn’t the first time that MHI has attempted to do that. MHI used to do so send MHProNews those emails directly. But they stopped providing the industry’s largest and most read manufactured housing (MH) trade media – MHProNews – with their own ‘news’ some years ago, after our MH Industry fact check policy ramped up. According to a state association executive, former MHI general counsel, attorney Rick Robinson, reportedly made an effort to throttle (silence, ‘control the message’) with state associations by even providing their emailed claims to MHProNews. That calls into question MHI’s lack of transparency and therefor the sincerity of their various stances.
That noted, as a reminder to professionals in nonprofits or businesses, MHProNews has a strong track record of protecting sources for news tips, including forwarded documents and emails. If a source wants credit, great, but if not, they are kept ‘off the record.’
Next, in the new Masthead linked below are the primary pleadings by MHI, TMHA plus this publication’s evidence-backed and MHVille expert take on the MHI lawsuit.
In the news updates from MHARR is their report to mainstream media and manufactured housing industry professionals on the DOE lawsuit.
Those reports will speak for themselves.
Pivoting from the DOE topic, but against that backdrop of MHI openly attempting to control their message, this first look at the graphic below from the Skyline Champion (SKY) investor relations pitch-deck also speaks volumes for those with the eyes to see.
Notice: the graphic below can be expanded to a larger size.
See instructions below graphic or click and follow the prompts.
Arrow #1 in the above points to MHI member Skyline Champion (SKY) remarks on the top which says: “The Manufactured Housing Industry (HUD Product) has significant upside as financing returns.” That is logically and demonstrably true, so on that specific claim, MHProNews would editorially concur.
Arrow #2 on the left reveals that pre-HUD Code mobile homes, the historic predecessor for manufactured housing, burst past 500,000 shipments a year and were approaching 600,000 new homes annually the early 1970s. Note the percentage of single-family housing starts at that time was over 30 percent, about some 33 percent. That noted, and per the NAHB’s Eye on Housing: “Single-family starts in 2022 totaled 1.01 million, down 10.6% from the previous year.”
One third of that 1 million plus new single-family housing starts in 2022 total would, based on the same market share standards of the early 1970s, be equal to some 330,000 (+/-) new HUD Code manufactured homes. Yet we now know that actual manufactured home production in 2022 was 112,882 actual new manufactured homes produced and shipped nationally in 2022.
An apparent takeaway from this SKY IR PowerPoint slide ought to be that MHI, led by the corporate leadership of their dominating brands that includes Skyline Champion, logically ought to press for more lending as well as zoning/placement relief.
That being the case, why is it that only the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) that is calling on Congress to hold oversight hearings of the manufactured housing industry? Is MHI once more obviously asleep at the switch? As MHProNews recently observed, no dedicated, long-term, seasoned professional can be this incompetent for such a sustained period of time.
More on that competency and strong potential upside issue will be presented in the postscript today. That postscript will be based on more information from MHI board-member Skyline Champion (SKY), and will be found further below.
But suffice it to say for now that by MHI-TMHA suing the DOE over the energy rule standards, they have now placed themselves in the awkward position of needing to sue to get the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA) and its “enhanced preemption” position enforced. They are also, as the SKY graphic apparently indicates, in a logical position where they should be suing to get the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 and its “Duty to Serve” (DTS) manufactured housing provisions enforced. Because as MHI has admitted on both of these other key manufactured housing industry issues, those laws are not being properly enforced.
Pushback by MHARR, strongly supported and amplified by MHProNews and/or MHLivingNews, has once more apparently paid off.
While it has taken time, that pushback and consistent exposure of the lack of logical consistency by MHI, and it publicly traded firms, arguably leaves several MHI connected corporate organizations and nonprofits open to be challenged for failing in their fiduciary duties to their stakeholders, shareholders, and members.
Again, don’t miss today’s postscript. The pressure is apparently building on MHI and their corporate leaders to take legal action. This is the latest example that factual, evidence-based, and common-sense supported pushback by MHARR and pro-growth, pro-consumer trade media (MHProNews/MHLivingNews) can and does pay off.
With no further adieu, the following are the headlines for the week that was 2.12.2023 to 2.19.2023.
What’s New from Washington, D.C. based MHARR
Notice: MHARR issued a press release on the issue above.
The results of that press release are reflected in the screen capture posted below.
What’s New on MHLivingNews
What’s New on the Masthead
What’s New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 2.18.2023
Friday 2.17.2023
Thursday 2.16.2023
Wednesday 2.15.2023
Tuesday 2.14.2023
Monday 2.13.2023
Sunday 2.12.2023
Postscript
The intensity and cadence on MHProNews/MHLivingNews that hammers home on the fact- and evidence-based statement that manufactured housing is underperforming during an affordable housing crisis has demonstrably increased in 2022. That pattern continues in 2023.
Since MHI claims, rightly or wrongly, to represent “all segments” of the manufactured housing industry, they should logically be held to account for their claims vs. their behaviors and performance. When MHI’s past president and CEO, Richard “Dick” Jennison, and prominent MHI member Skyline Champion (SKY) are among the sources that indicate that the industry could be doing much more in affordable manufactured housing sales and thus production, illustrations and evidence such as what follows support the manufactured home industry ‘underperformance’ claim.
Notice: the graphic below can be expanded to a larger size.
See instructions below graphic or click and follow the prompts.
This next graphic from the Skyline Champion (SKY) investor relations pitch deck has numerous problematic remarks. After months of observation, where was the public outcry by anyone at MHI to debunk these odd set of disputable claims? This will be the first known report that spotlights this issue, which appears to reflect poorly on SKY and MHI, as well as others in MHVille trade media.
Notice: the graphic below can be expanded to a larger size.
See instructions below graphic or click and follow the prompts.
Manufactured housing is demonstrably underperforming. The facts don’t lie.
What is questionable are the accuracy and sincerity of MHI’s corporate and staff leadership, as this article and the linked items reflect. MHI has been invited to respond to these concerns. MHI’s media relations contact on the DOE manufactured housing energy rule has also been invited to respond. Each of been silent. Why won’t they provide their hoped for consistent message? Are they afraid that their message might be picked apart and shown to be spin?
More industry-focused, fact-packed reports and ‘connect the dots’ analysis and commentary are ahead. See why industry pros, those who cheer and those who jeer, are hooked on MHProNews. No one else does what we do in MHVille trade media. No one.
Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.’
