Politics & Government
HUD Nom Scott Turner Asked to Fix Affordable Housing Law Enforcement
'Sabotage' Tactics Used Against Manufactured Housing per Fed Researchers; Latest on Mobile Homes; new Manufactured Housing Data per MHARR
The causes and cures for the affordable housing crisis are both easy to know yet they may seem complex. For example. A search minutes ago on left-leaning Bing revealed about 1.25 million results for this phrase: "zoning makes affordable housing harder." Bing's artificial intelligence (AI) powered Copilot said in part: "Zoning regulations can make affordable housing harder to access 1234. Strict single-family zoning can limit housing supply, raise prices, and prevent families from moving into neighborhoods with better schools and job opportunities 1. Restrictive zoning codes contribute to socioeconomic divisions and worsen the housing affordability crisis 2. Land use reform is necessary to increase housing stock and address these issues 2."
The simple fix? It could be boiled down to five words. Properly enforce existing federal laws.
When there are 1.25 million articles, posts, and reports that shed light on the notion that zoning is part of the problem, it should be obvious that federal, state, and local officials should be paying attention to that, right? Hold that thought as we pivot to introduce the man who has been named to spearhead the challenges of affordable housing by the incoming Trump administration.
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Eric Scott Turner is "the founder and president of Community Engagement & Opportunity Council (CEOC), an organization that suppports children living in poverty. CEOC is credited with renovating the Literacy Lab in Bonton, a section of Dallas," according to left-leaning Wikipedia. If his nomination by President-Elect Donald J. Trump to be the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) occurs as many expect, he will be the national point man for addressing the affordable housing crisis at the federal level.
As MHProNews reported last week, President-Elect Trump's background on Turner went deeper than that pull-quote from Wikipedia. The former and future president said the following.
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"I am pleased to nominate Scott Turner, from the Great State of Texas, as the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Scott is an NFL Veteran, who, during my First Term, served as the First Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities. Those efforts, working together with former HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, were maximized by Scott’s guidance in overseeing 16 Federal Agencies which implemented more than 200 policy actions furthering Economic Development. Under Scott’s leadership, Opportunity Zones received over $50 Billion Dollars in Private Investment!
After graduating from University of Illinois, Scott was drafted by the Washington Redskins, and spent nine years in the NFL before he went on to win a State House Race in Texas, where he was born and raised.
Scott is the Founder & CEO of his Family’s Foundation, Community Engagement & Opportunity Council (CEOC), working to revitalize communities across America through Sports, Mentorship, and Economic Opportunity. He is also on the Board of the American Cornerstone Institute, and an Associate Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Scott will work alongside me to Make America Great Again for EVERY American. Congratulations to Scott, his wonderful wife, Robin, and his son, Solomon."
Turner's background appears to be broad and solid.
At this time, it seems that Turner should get confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next HUD Secretary without the same level of drama some other nominees have rightly or wrongly faced. So, there is no time like the present for Turner to get the lay of the land in the most-proven form of affordable housing which HUD is the primary regulator of, namely, the manufactured housing industry.
As this Patch contributor has previously revealed to detail-mined readers, conventional housing builders have admitted they are not able to achieve anything like manufactured home level affordability without taxpayer supported subsidies. The various facts and quotes from the screen captured graphic below are all easily verified by simple Google searches. They are well supported, so they are accurate. Note, this isn't a plug for that company, which our publications have critiqued.
Various Trump Transition team members have said mass deportations are coming and the public largely supports it. While deporting millions of people illegally in the U.S. could potentially open up sizable numbers of housing units, it still won't be enough to meet the current needs of our nation.
HUD nominee Turner is expected to make sure HUD housing vouchers won't go to those in the U.S. illegally.
Gov. Healey is going to drive the cost of rents much higher in Massachusetts. She now plans to move all illegals from her hotels & shelters into apartments while giving them a monthly $2,100 taxpayer-funded housing subsidy. With increased demand will come higher prices! #mapoli
— Jeff Kuhner (@TheKuhnerReport) November" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/TheKuhnerR... 25, 2024
“If they're not willing to do it then get out of the way — we're coming," Homan said, “so if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that's what we're gonna do."
Stop protecting criminals here illegally and protect the citizens instead @GovofCO pic.twitter.com/dGp4Fu8tPi
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) November" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/dobetterdn... 15, 2024
Manufactured housing is documented as the most affordable permanent housing in the U.S. and HUD is its primary federal regulator. The "Mass Production of Homes in U.S. Factories: First and Only Experiment Was Tremendous Success" is a study by various Federal Reserve linked researchers that include Elena Falcettoni, James A. "Jim" Schmitz Jr., and Mark L. J. Wright.
https://www.manufacturedhomepr...
Falcettoni, Schmitz and Wright are among several reseachers (see the evidence in the article linked above) who provided pages of details and footnotes supporting their contention that the manufactured housing industry has been 'sabotaged' by a combination of builders, HUD, and special interests. Nominee Turner, please take note.
MHProNews reported this week on the respective remarks of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), unpacking both in depth. Nominee Turner, please take note.
Common concerns about manufactured homes have been debunked for years. For example. HUD did research during the Obama-Biden administration (2011) that documented that manufactured homes and conventional housing side-by-side in urban neighborhoods in different parts of the country witnessed both forms of housing appreciating. Why does HUD pay for this type of research if they don't intend to use it?
https://www.manufacturedhomepr...
Turner has been described by some as the protege of HUD Secretary Ben Carson, M.D. Dr. Carson repeatedly praised manufactured homes.
As favorable as he was on several levels, there is one thing prior Secretary Carson didn't do. Per MHARR, Carson didn't enforce existing federal law on the "enhanced preemption" provision of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (a.k.a.: MHIA 2000, MHIA, 2000 Reform Law, 2000 Reform Act).
Other researchers have come up with similar results praising manufactured housing. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is one of the entities that commissioned an array of research on manufactured housing and the results are impressive for those who don't know these facts.
https://www.manufacturedhomeli...
According to Freddie Mac, over 25 million renters could become homeowners if they turned to affordable manufactured housing.
https://www.manufacturedhomeli...
But there are scores of such research with often dozens to hundreds of pages of third-party generated evidence by nonprofits, universities, governmental entities, media, and others that have been collected at Manufactured Home Living News.
What nominee Turner, or anyone else who is seriously considering solving the affordable housing crisis, should wonder is this. Why is it that HUD's own researchers have said that for over 50 years the causes and cures for the affordable housing crisis have been known and yet have not been implemented?
https://patch.com/florida/lake...
When a teenager can figure it out, why is that that federal officials paid to solve this problem can't, won't or don't? Among the items quoted by "TARK" from HUD's own staff are the following.
"Two HUD Policy Development and Research (PD&R) professionals, Pamela Blumenthal (Ph.D., J.D.) and Regina C. Gray, Director, Affordable Housing Research and Technology Division jointly published the following remarks on the HUD website.
• “The United States needs more housing, and more varied types of housing, to meet households’ needs throughout the country.”
• “The consequences of inadequate supply are higher housing costs for both renting and buying a home. More than 37 million renter and owner households spent more than 30 percent of their income for housing in 2019.”
• “Without significant new supply, cost burdens are likely to increase as current home prices reach all-time highs…”
• “Federally sponsored commissions, task forces, and councils under both Democratic and Republican administrations have examined the effects of land use regulations [i.e.: zoning] on affordable housing for more than 50 years.”
But it may be worse than what HUD's Blumenthal and Gray helpfully said.
Reseachers Falcettoni, Schmitz Jr., and Wright, referenced above and at the link here, said that for about 80 years, builders were sabotaging first mobile homes and later manufactured homes via zoning barriers.
For about 50 years, Falcettoni, Schmitz Jr., and Wright said that HUD itself has been sabotaging manufactured housing.
The result of that sabotage of manufactured housing has been a lack of affordable housing. Even those who may never want a manufactured home for themselves arguably benefit from making sure the option is there for others. Those benefits include less homelessness, fewer tax dollars spent, more generational equity being created (see Dr. Carson's remarks, quoted above), and an estimated $2 trillion dollars a year in increased GDP should existing federal laws be properly enforced.
It is simple. A lack of affordable housing is costly. Widely available affordable housing is the solution.
The best part, per MHARR, members of Congress, and others, is that the federal laws needed already exist. MHARR and others say existing laws only need to be properly and consistently enforced.
https://www.manufacturedhomeli...
The question is, will Turner and his team make that potential a reality? Will Team Trump enforce these specific existing federal laws?
Manufactured housing production is rising, but it is still only a fraction of the level of what it once was before what researchers call 'sabotage' or antitrust violations.
With the rising numbers of manufactured homes in mind, consider the following press release from MHARR published as part of a more detailed report linked here by MHProNews.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: MHARR
(202) 783-4087
HUD CODE PRODUCTION MOVES HIGHER IN OCTOBER 2024
Washington, D.C., December 3, 2024 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that according to official statistics compiled on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), HUD Code manufactured housing industry year-over-year production increased in October 2024. Just-released statistics indicate that HUD Code manufacturers produced 10,263 new homes in October 2024, a 22.2% increase over the 8,393 new HUD Code homes produced in October 2023. Cumulative production for 2024 now totals 87,639 homes, a 16.7% increase over the 75,040 HUD Code homes produced over the same period in 2023.
A further analysis of the official industry statistics shows that the top ten shipment states from January 2023 -- with monthly, cumulative, current reporting year (2024) and prior year (2023) shipments per category as indicated -- are:
The October 2024 statistics result in no changes to the cumulative top-ten list.
The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform is a Washington, D.C.- based national trade association representing the views and interests of independent producers of federally-regulated manufactured housing.
— 30 —
Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR)
1331 Pennsylvania Ave N.W., Suite 512
Washington D.C. 20004
Phone: 202/783-4087Fax: 202/783-4075
Email: MHARRDG@AOL.COMWebsite: www.manufacturedhousingassociation.org
---
Trump’s nominee for HUD Secretary Scott Turner gave a great speech at his introduction.
The corrupt uniparty cult controlled media doesn’t want people to see it. pic.twitter.com/9UYrpNjBb5
— Glockford Files (@GlockfordFiles) November" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/GlockfordF... 26, 2024
This writer for the Patch and MHProNews urges HUD nominee Turner and all relevant segments of the federal government to look into and root out the corruption that has kept millions of Americans poorer, while enriching a small minority of connected insiders. Properly enforcing existing laws is a simple mantra that could benefit tens of millions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life.
> Properly Exposing Corruption is the Start of Rooting Out Corruption
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---> L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News.com (MHLivingNews.com) and Manufactured Home Pro News.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###
