I’ve been writing this blog for more than a decade and to be quite honest, nothing much has really changed in the modular housing industry during that time.
Factory management and modular new home builders, especially East of the Mississippi have found no real reason to change what is obviously a winning formula. Very few have embraced the expensive move into any real type of automation, BIM, Virtual or Augmented Reality and robotics.
They know that all these new approaches to help them improve their business simply are too expensive and usually too hard to implement as a few factories found out when they tried to install BIM. Besides, if what you’ve been doing for 20 years or more is working quite well, why change? We all know construction is a very labor intensive and hands on type of business.
Even marketing is not a high priority for most modular factories. With only a 3-4% share of all new home construction in the US being modular, who could blame them. Business is good right now!
Most of those in the modular construction industry have become very apathetic when something new comes along that could affect modular’s “business as usual”.
This shared apathy is about to get a ‘wake up’ call!
What started as a new idea from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) called “CrossMod”tm is becoming a movement by MHI and its members into other areas.
Dr Ben Carson, the Secretary of HUD, was charged with making changes to new home construction that would make it affordable. That term refers to housing that can be obtained by the median wage earner in each part of the US. In January he announced he would be taking a nationwide bus tour focused on removing barriers to affordable housing stock.
He has spoken of how the Fair Housing act should be expanded to include discrimination against “types’ of new home construction. Last June HUD held an Innovative Housing Showcase, co-hosted by the NAHB, on the National Mall in DC where the only types of homes displayed were HUD manufactured homes.
HUD will hold it again this September but this time the NAHB (co-hosting again) is preparing to include non-HUD housing innovations. The “apathy blinders” will be removed this year as I’m sure NAHB will make sure every type of housing is fully represented.
But MHI isn’t sitting on their hands simply watching what is happening in affordable housing. No way! They are presenting new regulations to HUD that will allow HUD manufactured home factories to build the affordable housing Sec Carson is looking for.
These new regulations include two story, four module homes, townhouses and other types of buildings usually reserved for on-site, prefab and modular construction and allow them to circumvent most state and local code enforcement requirements.
The MHBA has spoken out about these changes but once more their member’s apathy shows when very little about it is being discussed within the association.
Modular construction’s apathy shows when I talk with modular factory owners and management and their builders about a “fact finding” breakfast meeting I’m hosting with some of the most important people in the off-site industry with knowledge of these impending new regulations.
This is what I hear back from them (all true responses):
“This won’t have any effect on modular housing”
“Those regulations will never pass”
“I’m going to be out of town that day. What day did you say it was?”
“Not something we would be interested in”
“We are so busy we can’t spare anyone for a breakfast meeting”
Apathy!
Please don’t be one of those people that refuses to listen to what is about to happen in HUD that may have a direct bearing on modular housing.
MHI is working hard for their members to give them the tools to help HUD create affordable housing. Why aren’t we at least learning what MHI is doing from people that know? Then modular housing people can decide for themselves if this a threat to what you’re doing or just another option from HUD for people that want an affordable home.
CLICK HERE to read about Modcoach’s HUD Fact Finding Breakfast on March 25th.
Seating is very limited.
