Based in part on economic, legal and historical data, Google‘s artificial intelligence (AI) powered Gemini has said that the U.S. housing crisis is a “man made” crisis. Representative Mike Flood (NE-R) said via LinkedIn (see below): “Homeownership is out of reach for many Americans. To make housing affordable, municipalities need to include affordable housing in all parts of town.” MHProNews has periodically reminded regular readers that Rep. Flood said via a press release on 5.14.2025: “We Don’t Need More Subsidies, We Just Need More Homes At Prices People Can Afford.” In that press release, Flood said: “Whether it’s manufactured homes, modular homes, or homes constructed using 3-D printing—we need to explore all the options out there that can get housing built that is affordable to more Americans.” He added, ” “Manufactured housing is, by definition, built to a HUD code—and as a result manufactured housing issues go directly through this committee’s jurisdiction.” Sub-Committee Chairman Flood and Ranking Democrat Emanuel Cleaver, along with Chair French Hill (AR-R) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (CA-D) have touted bipartisan efforts which when examined fail to sufficiently deliver on the stated goal of building more new inherently affordable housing. Yet, the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) is on record supporting both the House and Senate bills. On the national level, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) stands alone in supporting the addition of vital amendments to pending legislation that would move the needle in closing the gap on an estimated 4 to 8+ million new units of affordable housing needed. Much of mainstream media – on the left and the right – seem fixated on pushback by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and other groups on the possibly harmful impact on Build to Rent (BTR) in the Senate’s ‘ban’ limiting institutional investors from owning single family housing. While a significant topic, that ignores the point that without millions of more HUD Code manufactured homes, the affordable housing crisis can’t be solved. Standing virtually alone is messaging associated with MHProNews/MHLivingNews which specifically pointed out that the dramatic slide of national production in the mid-to-late 1990s from an average of 338,924 of new HUD Code manufactured homes per year to only 97,458 new manufactured housing units in the 21st century. That annual deficit of 241,466 manufactured housing units x 25 years (241466 x 25 = 6,036,650) is surprisingly similar to the number of affordable housing units needed in the U.S. Why is there so little coverage of those critical details? Studies on the subject of the so-called Iron Triangle in Washington, D.C. and the ongoing relevance to the award-winning docu-drama Shadows of Liberty are worth considering in the context of the developing housing legislation. This facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) MHProNews report will take a look at two specific examples of how op-eds submitted to the right-leaning New York Post (see Part I) and left-leaning Washington Post (see Part II) were not accepted for publication, but which could have exposed readers on those platforms to information those outlets are arguably not covering properly. By accident and/or design, those media outlets (among others) are only presenting partial truths. This is a well-documented phenomenon previously covered by MHProNews.
1) From select Rep. Mike Flood (NE-R) social media posts.
2) But the reality is more sobering that what Chrysalis Wright, Ph.D., said in her remarks quoted above. By not providing sufficient detail on the key components necessary to remedy the affordable housing crisis, much of left or right leaning media are leaving their readers unexposed to the facts needed to understand the crisis and how it can be solved. While HousingWire, the Patch and a pending fact-packed op-ed article on another mainstream media platform are exceptions, media giants are ignoring the details needed for citizens to properly grasp the causes and cures to the affordable housing crisis. As MHARR and MHProNews have each independently stressed in their own ways, without unshackling the bottlenecks, the pending legislation – if not properly amended – will fail to deliver the affordable housing millions of consumers need.
3) Stated or not, reality always is whatever it is regardless of politics, special interests, bias, etc. These examples of information provided to major mainstream media outlets on both sides of the media bias spectrum are not meant to be slams on that publication (or others). Rather, these are simple evidence-based reality checks. Editors were provided well-documented information, as third-party AI checks will reflect. What those media outlets did with that information is worth monitoring.
4) To be clear, each of the submissions shown below were written and provided after reviewing that publication’s specific op-ed/letters to the editor type guidelines. The item as shown is documented via screen captures here for the New York Post and here for the Washington Post. In fairness, publishers are under no obligation to publish an unsolicited op-ed. That said, when an op-ed meets their stated standards and sheds new and important light on hot-button topics, one might think that they would lean into such a submission favoring (rather than declining) publication. The fact that HousingWire, the Patch, and numerous others have published factually accurate and evidence-based op-eds by L. A. “Tony” Kovach (which a simple Google search demonstrates) ought to logically cause an editor to lean for, rather than against, publishing.
Note that a similar but updated op-ed is pending with yet another publication that indicated via email it will be published in the near term. Stay tuned for that one.
5) Buckle up and see for yourself what each publication was provided. This MHVille facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) is well underway.
Part I. Housing Crisis Legislation Op-Ed Submission to the New York Post.
From: L. A. Tony Kovach <latonyk@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Subject: Op-Ed Submission: Flaws, Fallacies and Fix for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to SOLVE U.S. Housing Crisis
To: <cunningham@nypost.com>, <letters@nypost.com>, <online@nypost.com>
Fallacies and Fix for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to SOLVE U.S. Housing Crisis
Politicians and special interests are mistakenly praising the bipartisan “Housing for the 21st Century Act.” The New York Post said, “Congress advances housing bill without Trump’s proposal to ban investors from buying up single-family homes” “despite a late push from the [Trump Administration’s] Office of Management and Budget.” QZ aptly reported: “Critics note that the bills don’t directly address how to solve the housing shortage or how to increase new construction funding.” The bill won’t do what is claimed and the reasons include simple math. Taxpayers can’t subsidize housing sufficiently to make enough conventional housing affordable.
The Post rhetorically asked: “why is it so hard to afford to a house?” What few in media have spotlighted is what HUD’s own researchers said which included the fact that for 50 years federal officials have known that: “Without significant new supply, cost burdens are likely to increase as current home prices reach all-time highs…”
Recall President Trump said – ‘I Don’t Want to Drive Housing Prices Down I want to Drive Them Up.’
HUD’s Pamela Blumenthal and Regina Gray said: “The regulatory environment — federal, state, and local — that contributes to the extensive mismatch between supply and need has worsened over time.” They wrote: Federally sponsored commissions, task forces, and councils under both Democratic and Republican administrations have examined the effects of land use regulations on affordable housing for more than 50 years. Numerous studies find land use regulations that limit the number of new units that can be built or impose significant costs on development through fees and long approval processes drive up housing costs. Research indicates higher housing costs also drive up program costs for federal assistance, reducing the funds available to serve additional households.”
Google’s Gemini AI aptly called the housing shortage a “man-made” crisis.
President Trump is perhaps partially correct in calling for a ban on investors buying houses; that deals with the demand side. With all due respect to POTUS, that doesn’t solve the production side of the housing equation. Multiple AIs have been used to review the housing crisis facts and find that without millions of more “inherently affordable manufactured homes” the crisis can’t be fixed.
Commissioner Bill Braswell said: “Affordable Housing: Why manufactured homes must be part of the solution.” Braswell cited publisher David Dunn-Rankin: “White trash and other misconceptions.”
Here’s the dirty secret. The status quo makes a small portion of the population richer while harming tens of millions who can’t afford housing. Subcommittee Chair Mike Flood (NE-R) said: ‘We Don’t Need More Subsidies, We Just Need More Homes At Prices People Can Afford.’
Paraphrasing Commissioner Braswell and publisher Dunn-Rankin, manufactured housing may not be popular with some, but those who don’t get it are acting out of ignorance.
The choice comes down to more homeless living in tents or cardboard boxes near you or more ‘no-subsidies-needed’ manufactured homes.
Congress passed laws in 2000 and 2008 that have never been properly implemented as Congressional hearings in 2011, 2012, and 2023 confirmed.
The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) said two amendments to the bill compelling HUD and the FHFA to enforce existing laws could fix the pending legislation. MHARR has repeatedly with HUD Secretaries from both major parties a faxed letter in 2003 by lawmakers to then HUD Secretary Mel Martinez that said that HUD has “enhanced preemption” authority only rarely invoked against local zoning barriers.
NAHB has repeatedly admitted they can’t build enough conventional housing people can afford. MHARR’s CEO Mark Weiss, J.D., said – and I tend to agree – that the consolidation-focused folks at the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
The math and history are clear. Mr. President, members of Congress, tell it like it is. Like it or not, millions of more manufactured homes are needed. They don’t require subsidizes. Enforce existing laws and the housing crisis will be fixed without new spending required. Gemini, Grok, and multiple AIs presented with reams of evidence said enforcing existing laws is the key. ##
L. A. “Tony” Kovach started in manufactured housing in the early 1980s, is a HousingWire Contributor, plus the publisher of ManufacturedHomeProNews.com and
ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com. ###
Part II. Housing Crisis Legislation Op-Ed Submission to the Washington Post.
MHProNews notes that to the credit of WaPo, they had the courtesy of replying while declining to publish.
| from: | L. A. Tony Kovach latonyk@gmail.com |
||
| to: | Oped <oped@washpost.com> |
||
| date: | Feb 23, 2026, 2:55 PM | ||
| subject: | Trump and Congress are Failing Affordable Housing Seekers-Evidence & Surprising Solution (Original Op-ed) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/op-ed-writing-guide-washington-post-examples/ |
Trump and Congress are Failing Affordable Housing Seekers-Evidence & Surprising Solution
By L. A. “Tony” Kovach
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) 2025 GAP report “reveals a national shortage of 7.1 million homes affordable and available for extremely low-income renters.” The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in their 2025 “Priced Out” report stated: “Housing affordability remains a critical issue, with 74.9% of U.S. households unable to afford a median-priced new home in 2025, according to NAHB’s latest analysis.” While estimates vary on how many affordable housing units are needed, common figures used by various sources range from 4 to 8 million homes. “For nearly a century, zoning regulations acted as a barrier to affordable housing,” wrote NAHB’s Nicholas Julian. While media, associations, and public officials cheer the pending Housing for the 21st Century Act and the ROAD to Housing bills, QZ reported: “Critics note that the bills don’t directly address how to solve the housing shortage or how to increase new construction funding.”
Recall President Donald J. Trump (R) said he doesn’t want to lower housing costs, he wants to drive prices up for the sake of current homeowners. Trump also said he wants to help more people buy a home of their own. Really? The problem with Trump’s, Democratic, and Republican supported plans are the same. Despite the hype, there is no proven plan to create millions of affordable housing units.
Trump: I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes. You can be sure that will happen pic.twitter.com/9BupkUmXss
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 29, 2026
JUST IN — JD VANCE: “We need to build 5 MILLION new homes!”
Yep, and we need to deport 20 MILLION illegals!
If we do both of those things (and quickly), we can FINALLY start making housing affordable again. pic.twitter.com/TKfa7OcpYG
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 14, 2025
Young Americans got an early Christmas present with rental prices falling the most in 15 years.
Apparently deporting 2 million illegals lowers the rent.
Keep it up and maybe we don’t have a housing crisis at all. pic.twitter.com/PTeXY1Ufut
— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) December 23, 2025
That said, the need is in the millions of units and conventional housing builders admit they can’t deliver.
Multiple artificial intelligence (AI) platforms’ analyses demonstrated subsidies never provided a sufficient number of affordable housing units and the math makes clear subsidies never will.
Controversial and purportedly notorious Frank Rolfe said in an email to MHProNews: “…don’t tell me “we can’t solve affordable housing” because the correct statement he claimed is “we don’t want to solve affordable housing…”
Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) member Rolfe stated: “American incomes cannot support $400,000 homes and $2,000 apartment rents.” “If you want to solve U.S. affordable housing you would have to eliminate all the barriers…But, of course, that’s not going to happen, and we all know it…There are too many special interests – both inside and outside the government – to ever let that happen.”
Wondering in passing why MHI hasn’t invoked their Code of Ethical Conduct against Rolfe’s firm and other allegedly “predatory” MHI members, the irony is that Congress already passed the needed laws in 2000 and 2008. Yes, you read that correctly.
The laws needed exist but aren’t properly enforced according to the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR).
Thus, MHARR called for two amendments to any housing legislation to essentially force HUD and the FHFA to properly enforce existing laws. Congress held hearings in 2011, 2012, and 2023 where the issue of HUD’s authority known as “enhanced preemption” over local zoning was raised. HUD only occasionally acted.
All of the homes in this photo collage are HUD Code manufactured homes. Several HUD Code builders, MHI and MHARR members, are represented.
Commissioner Bill Braswell said: “Affordable Housing: Why manufactured homes must be part of the solution.” Braswell wrote: “Government is not capable of solving this problem and history proves it.” He added: “Unfortunately, manufactured housing, commonly referred to as mobile homes, has been stigmatized for decades. Local governments across the country have often regulated them out of existence, based on outdated perceptions that no longer reflect reality.”
Braswell cited publisher David Dunn-Rankin’s “White Trash and Other Misconceptions” concerns about “mobile homes” and ‘trailer houses.’
The Urban Institute, Freddie Mac, and Pew published research systematically debunking outdated fallacies.
So, why hasn’t Congress adopted MHARR’s amendments?
Why hasn’t President Trump signed a well-worded executive order and made manufactured housing federal preemption or DTS enforcement a reality today? Are Congress, the White House, and dozens of interest groups proving Rolfe’s claim that we could solve the housing crisis but there is no serious will to do so?
In fairness to POTUS, Joe Biden’s (D) Administration also failed to enforce preemption, even though he supported the bill while he was in the Senate.
The problems are known. The solution is simple. Stop paltering or posturing and start enforcing existing laws. ##
L. A. “Tony” Kovach began working in manufactured housing in the early 1980s. He is a HousingWire contributor, the co-founder and publisher of ManufacturedHomeProNews.com and ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com. ###
Part III. Additional Facts-Evidence-Analysis (FEA) from sources as shown including more MHProNews expert commentary.
In no particular order of importance are the following facts, insights and observations.
1) Award-winning former CNN reporter turned award-winning nationally syndicated WMAL satirical pundit Chris Plante says that one of the greatest powers of the mainstream media is the media’s power to ignore. Plante has worked in both left and right leaning media operations for decades.
2) While there is an understandable desire for jurisdictions to make sure that housing is safe, and has sufficient utilities, streets, storm drainage, or other infrastructure needed to support residential dwellings – which would imply to some the desire for state and/or local regulations – the advantage of HUD Code manufactured housing is that units are inspected in plant and then they are inspected again for their installation under provisions of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA, 2000 Reform Law, 2000 Reform Act).
3) Both the House and Senate bills specifically fail to address the root issue of local zoning. So, despite what lawmakers are quoted saying in the preface above, they are apparently making a conscious choice not to address the barriers caused by local zoning. Restated, they are making a decision to protect – rather than change – the status quo.
There is an evidence-based argument to be made that scores of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are betraying some of their own principles. Democrats, for example, supposedly want to create more opportunities for minorities. The MHARR amendments would do that without additional taxpayer costs. While Democrats held the White House and Congress, they ignored the pleas of the Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Pacific caucuses, as MHLivingNews previously reported.
Meanwhile, Republicans supposedly want to see free enterprise do as much as possible to solve the housing crisis, thus the calls for removing ‘red tape.’ Subcommittee Chair Flood’s remarks in the preface illustrate that point. But if so, after Rep. Flood made it clear that it was not subsidies but inherently affordable housing that was needed, why is the GOP going along with a bipartisan bill that will fail to accomplish its stated goal of providing more affordable housing (see reports linked above for details)?
President Trump says he wants to protect existing homeowners’ property values but also wants to make it possible for renters to become owners. If so, why isn’t President Trump signing an executive order (EO) to make the MHARR amendments effective now, since they are already federal law? For that matter, why didn’t Joe Biden (D), while he occupied the White House, sign an EO to enforce laws that he himself voted for while he was in the U.S. Senate?
4)
Based on a facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) of the provided developing report and historical industry data, here is the breakdown of your findings and the specific questions raised:
Media Interests and the Kovach Op-Eds
The report argues that major media outlets, by not publishing expert op-eds like those from L.A. “Tony” Kovach, may be exercising their “power to ignore”. While publishers are not legally obligated to print unsolicited material , the report highlights a significant gap: media often “ignore the point that without millions of more HUD Code manufactured homes, the affordable housing crisis can’t be solved”.
-
Factual Accuracy: The op-eds provided for the New York Post and Washington Post rely on documented data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).
-
Citations: Sources are cited throughout the draft, including references to HUD researchers, specific Congressional hearings (2011, 2012, 2023), and existing laws like the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act (MHIA) of 2000.
-
Focus and Influence: The op-eds present a focused argument that the current bipartisan housing bills (such as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act) fail because they do not address the “root issue of local zoning” or enforce “enhanced preemption”.
Political Posturing and Failed Delivery
The FEA supports the claim that members of both major parties have failed to deliver on affordable housing promises despite having the legal tools to do so.
-
Democrats: The report notes that despite claims of supporting minority homeownership, Democratic leadership has often ignored pleas from Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Pacific caucuses to enforce existing affordable housing rules.
-
Republicans: While calling for “reduced red tape,” many GOP members have supported bipartisan bills that do not include the specific amendments needed to override local zoning barriers.
-
Executive Action: The report asks why neither President Biden nor President Trump (during their respective terms) used executive orders to enforce the Duty to Serve (DTS) or federal preemption—laws they both previously supported or acknowledged.
Economic Ripple Effects and Technology
Your analysis of the economic “ripple effect” aligns with standard supply-and-demand principles:
-
Rental Relief: If barriers to manufactured homeownership are removed, it follows that current renters would transition into homeownership. This increase in vacancies in the rental market would, by the laws of economics, put downward pressure on rental costs.
-
Competitive Technology: The report highlights that manufactured housing remains the only proven, high-volume technology capable of closing the “4 to 8+ million unit gap” without massive new subsidies. It points out that while 3D printing and modular homes are discussed, manufactured housing is already built to a federal code and is significantly more cost-effective—averaging approximately $74 per square foot compared to $144 for site-built homes.
The “Iron Triangle” and MHI
The report concludes that a “kind of posturing for the sake of optics” is at work, involving an “Iron Triangle” of political interests, bureaucratic inertia, and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). MHI is criticized for supporting bills that “leave major bottlenecks untouched,” which reportedly favors industry consolidation by larger firms over independent growth.
FEA Summary Link Support:
— MHProNews notes that PDF of the full Q&A with Gemini is linked here. The screen shot that documents Gemini confirming the accuracy of that Q&A is linked here. —
Gemini had a glitch on its image generator, so xAI’s Grok was asked to perform that task. A typo in the word “manufactured” was manually covered in the image shown below.
5) It is simply a truism that:
There is always more to know.
From a prior report in November 2025.
For MHProNews to be equaling or exceeding the industry’s supposedly #1 retail site with news is a unique outcome. Multi-billion-dollar ELS can’t or won’t provide enough support for MHVillage to directly and publicly challenge MHProNews’ transparently provided information which included multiple third-party AI validation? That is a news item, not just validation by readers of our FEA model reporting.
Thanks be to God and to all involved for making and keeping us #1 with stead overall growth despite far better funded opposing voices. Thanks as well to our roughly million plus average visitors monthly. Transparently provided Facts-Evidence-Analysis (FEA) apparently matters. We “Provide, You Decide.” © ##
Post-postscript. Our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as 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.” © ### Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history during his academic years plus awards after entering manufactured housing. Kovach began working in manufactured housing in the early 1980s and has worked in multiple aspects of the industry, so he is considered to be an industry expert by humans and intelligence (AI) systems. Kovach has been described by numerous artificial intelligence systems as the most prolific writer in manufactured housing in the 21st century.
This MHProNews 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
