Frank Rolfe-Special Interests ‘Don’t Want to Solve Affordable Housing'

If you believe Frank Rolfe and his associate Dave Reynolds, in an email to MHProNews that reported he made this statement: "...don’t tell me “we can’t solve affordable housing” because the correct statement Rolfe said is “we don’t want to solve affordable housing...” That same "Frank and Dave" email on behalf of their "Mobile Home University" (MHU) said: “But there’s nothing more annoying than watching state and federal bureaucrats and non-profits that come up with ideas that don’t have a prayer of working and just throw good money after bad.”

If that's true, that's a stunning and troubling claim.

For those who don't know, who are Rolfe and Reynolds and their so-called "Mobile Home University" and why is what they say of interest to anyone interested in more affordable housing?

Let's look.

Rhodes to Wealth said in November of 2021 that the duo had built a "$700 Million Portfolio Of Mobile Home Parks." Wikipedia said Rolfe "became the largest private owner of billboards in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before selling to Clear Channel in 1996 for $5.8 million." Wikipedia also said "In 1996, four months after selling his billboard business, Rolfe bought Glenhaven Mobile Home Park in Dallas for $400,000. By 2007, he had purchased and sold 24 mobile parks, which he has said earned him about as much as selling the billboard business.[1]"

In a viral (over 10 million views) video by HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver posted at this link here, Frank Rolfe is one of several members of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) featured in that satirical, controversial, but routinely evidenced-based exposé. The still below is from Oliver's video that cited research by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP).

Polk County, FL, has several MHI members that operate land-lease manufactured home communities (MHCs) that are often members of the MHI-linked Florida Manufactured Housing Association (FMHA) too. Several of those MHI member firms and FMHA or other manufactured home state association linked companies have been hit by multiple class action antitrust suits, as the report with analysis on the Patch post linked below noted. There are some possible takeaways. Among them, this pattern impacts not only certain (not all) manufactured home community residents, but a similar problem is also in evidence in the apartment/rental housing world too.

Per Wikipedia on Rolfe are the following pull quotes.

> In 2015, The Guardian quoted Rolfe as saying "We traditionally raise our rents by an average of 10% a year or something like".[4]

> In 2015, advocacy groups in Austin, Texas helped residents of North Lamar Community Mobile Home Park successfully sue Rolfe and Reynolds over rent hikes and eviction notices, shortly after the two purchased the trailer park.[4][7][8]

As an online search would reveal, mainstream media has been reporting on woes involving Rolfe, Reynolds, and their business practices for years.

Per information produced by MHI, and according to sources connected to various MHI associated state associations, Rolfe and Reynolds are active members.

MHI has several members who have faced vexing claims by their own residents, legal advocates, and nonprofits that claim they are predatory. Yet, MHI has what they call a "code of ethical conduct" that according to searches using artificial intelligence (AI), there are no known examples of MHI enforcing their code of conduct against members credibly accused of predatory behavior.

Rolfe and Reynolds claim they are saving the communities they and their proteges buy from redevelopment and closure. But as Wikipedia said, they are accused of unethical behavior. But is their behavior illegal?

In a 17 page antitrust research paper with over 130 footnotes for Knudson Law, Samuel Strommen pointed the finger at several MHI member firms, including some in the land-lease community sector. Strommen believes that MHI and/or some of their members are guilty of "felony" antitrust violations. MHI has not publicly responded to those allegations, per Bing's AI powered Copilot.

Here is my most recent Q&A with Copilot on 8.28.2024.

• Copilot, has the Manufactured Housing Institute publicly responded to the allegations made by Samuel Strommen antitrust and consumer protection research paper that claims that felony antitrust violations have been occurring in manufactured housing?

Several MHI leaders, an outside MHI attorney named David Goch, and their designated media contact Molly Boyle were contacted by this writer prior to this post. Rolfe and Reynolds were also contacted. Hours later, no response. That said, here are some more quotes from Rolfe reported by a range of sources, including at times Rolfe and Reynolds themselves.

Rolfe has said on his own website that owning a "mobile home park" “is like a Waffle House where the customers are chained to their booths.”

"Sure , it sounds unfair. But there's nothing illegal about it." That and the above about Waffle House are posted on their MHU website.

The other quote above and shown below is also found on their MHU website.

"If you like having a monopoly, holding all the cards, knowing the tenants won't move their homes out, never worrying about someone building a new property near you, and taking one of the tenant's biggest assets if they default, then you're going to love mobile home parks."

DOJ has acted in the RealPage apartment/rental housing market case, why not this?

Those remarks and others are arguably so brazen that it is difficult to imagine why public officials haven't already shut down such problematic behavior. Perhaps legal action made in conjunction with multiple state attorneys general and/or the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division could occur. MHI claims to have antitrust guidelines and they claim to have a code of ethical conduct. How exactly does that work?

Without mentioning MHI, several Democratic lawmakers said that they filed a complaint about certain known MHI-member connected business practices that they said they referred to DOJ and the CFPB. Their letter linked here was during the Obama-Biden Administration. We are now in the Biden-Harris Administration. What happened?

Here is the meat of my Q&A with Copilot on 8.28.2024 on the above.

Copilot at this link https://democrats-financialser... is a letter from Democratic lawmakers to the CFPB and DOJ https://democrats-financialser... Can you find any evidence that DOJ or CFPB ever acted on that letter?

Copilot

• "I couldn’t find specific evidence that the DOJ or CFPB took direct action in response to the 2016 letter from Democratic lawmakers regarding manufactured housing. ..."

The math found here revealed that the affordable housing crisis can't be solved without millions of more manufactured homes and other new housing. But unfortunately, due to problematic behavior by several MHI member firms, manufactured housing is being hobbled, as Strommen and others have alleged.

That said, ironically, Rolfe and/or Reynolds have oddly at various times pointed the finger at MHI and/or MHI members for claimed problems in the industry. Some examples are warranted.

That quote "Nathan Smith is the chairman of the Board of Directors of MHI. His company is being sued in a huge class action lawsuit on several counts..." has appeared on the MHProNews website several times, including in a report linked here. Smith's company has since rebranded as Flagship Communities and went public. Flagship and Smith have been "awarded" with certain honors even though they have had poor ratings with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and other online reviews. Smith and other firms, often MHI members, are credibly accused of predatory and/or oligopoly style antitrust violations.

Another prior MHI chairman, Joseph "Joe" Stegmayer, with Cavco Industries (CVCO) was hit with a suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After years of legal manuevers, and reportedly millions spent in legal fees and fines, that SEC case was finally settled by Cavco.

Manufactured housing is a good value and is necessary, so long as someone is working with an ethical organization. For whatever reasons, Rolfe has on several occasions called attention to problematic behavior involving MHI member firms, and he is not alone.

Sam Strommen. Members of Congress. Doug Ryan for CFED (later rebranded as Prosperity Now). The PESP. The SEC. The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR). These are just some of the sources and examples alleging purported problems associated with specific brands and organizations - often involved in the Manufactured Housing Institute.

It should not be thought that the entire industry is like this, because every profession has its problematic players.

But if public officials fail to step in and do a transparent investigation and litigation as necessary, there are reasons to believe that the problematic brands will steadily push out the honest and ethical firms. There is an argument to be made that the SEC could and should have done more in the Cavco case. But at least the SEC did something. Where is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and DOJ?

Each of the linked reports goes into greater detail and links evidence while maintaining the rights of the accused. Until proven in court, allegations are just that in the eyes of the law.

But one takeaway from the evidence is this. Rolfe's remarks about MHI and the lack of will on the part of public officials and certain nonprofits to truly solve the affordable housing crisis may have a valid point.

Recall Rolfe said: “But there’s nothing more annoying than watching state and federal bureaucrats and non-profits that come up with ideas that don’t have a prayer of working and just throw good money after bad.”

Rolfe added: "...don’t tell me “we can’t solve affordable housing” because the correct statement Rolfe said is “we don’t want to solve affordable housing...”

The affordable housing crisis absolutely could be solved. Ironically, the solution requires enforcing existing laws, as the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform has said.

But when the problems of a lack of affordable housing goes on and on year after year, at what point are millions of Americans who are suffering under a lack of affordable housing going to say 'enough is enough' and demand that public officials authentically get this done? To learn more about the good and the bad, see the prior reports in this periodic series of evidence-backed op-eds on the Patch. ##

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L. A. “Tony” Kovach and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com and ManufacturedHomeProNews.com, trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several aspects of the industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing.