MHARR Takes Major Step on Exclusionary Zoning with Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman

The following are excerpts from a June 25,2024 press release from the Washington-based Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR).

In a meeting with with HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman on June 18, 2024, Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) President and CEO, Mark Weiss, called for decisive action by HUD to address and remove discriminatory zoning mandates which exclude affordable, mainstream HUD regulated manufactured housing from many communities and is one of the principle drivers of housing unaffordability and unavailability in the United States. More precisely, discriminatory and exclusionary zoning are one of three major bottlenecks that have suppressed the long-term growth of the manufactured housing industry as well as the availability of mainstream HUD Code manufactured housing for all too many American consumers (the others being consumer financing discrimination by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and looming excessive federal energy regulation).

As published reports continue to reflect, the United States faces a severe and chronic shortage of affordable housing, which has reduced the United States’ rate of homeownership and housing affordability to their lowest levels ever. This extreme shortage which corresponds with unprecedented low production numbers for HUD Code manufactured homes (which have fallen below 100,000 homes annually in 15 of the past 17 years) represents a catastrophe for lower and moderate-income families due, in substantial part, to zoning exclusion. As legal scholars have recently emphasized, “Exclusionary zoning severely reduces the housing supply in many jurisdictions, thereby preventing people from moving to areas where they could find better jobs and educational opportunities. It also increases homelessness by pricing poor residents out of the housing market. Exclusionary zoning causes enormous harm.” (Emphasis added)

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 federal – regulated manufactured housing.

“MHARR was one of the principal proponents of the “enhanced” federal preemptions of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000-MHARR has consistently urged HUD to exercise this statutory authority.”
– Mark Weiss, J.D., President and CEO of MHARR.