July 2012 Eblast
[Editor's note: links to web pages have been shortened for clarity and use.]
Welcome to MHOAA’s July 2012 Eblast. Please forward the Elbast to all members of your home owners’ association and other interested individuals. I also encourage you to reprint these Eblasts in your home owners’ association’s newsletter.
Thank you! – In June’s Eblast I invited you all to take action and contact your state members of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) to encourage them to support the Uniform Manufactured Housing Act (Act) – a model act that would title manufactured homes as real property rather than as chattel. Many thanks to all of you who responded and congratulations – the ULC approved the Act by a vote of 48-0. Oklahoma abstained and Mississippi, Wyoming, Georgia and New Hampshire did not participate in the vote. It is now up to all of us to work for passage of this Act within our individual states so that purchasers of manufactured homes have access to the financing tools and consumer protections that accompany mortgages on real property. Copy and paste this link to read more about the Act: http://tinyurl.com/btksvl5
SAVE THE DATE – MHOAA will host its Annual Convention at the Holiday Inn, Crystal City, VA, on November 8-10. The event will start with a reception on the Thursday evening and end with MHOAA’s Annual Meeting on the afternoon of Saturday November 10. We hope to have a great turnout of members again this year and we anticipate being able to offer some scholarships/stipends to allow as many people as possible to attend. To reserve your room ($119 + tax/night/single or $129 + tax/night/double occupancy and includes complimentary hot buffet breakfast) you can call the Holiday Inn at: 1.800.465.4329 or contact them on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/c3d4epa
More information about stipends and costs to attend the Convention will be available shortly. We only have rooms held in MHOAA’s name until October 9th so the sooner you reserve your room (let me know if you need me to find you a room-mate) the better. At the very least MHOAA will be able to cover the cost of 1 night’s accommodation provided you share a room with another Convention participant.
FYI – In the past week I received newsletters from two manufactured housing groups in California – GSMOL and COMOCAL. I have attached both publications for your reading pleasure though please note that MHOAA does not have an official position or endorse the content of either publication.
Before you go – I want to remind you that Congress is in recess during the month of August. This is an ideal time for you and your neighbors to arrange to meet with your members of Congress to educate them about the pros and cons of manufactured housing living and to ask them to support federal legislation that provides real help for manufactured home owners – more access to better financing tools; stronger consumer protections; low interest loans for the purchase of energy star homes to replace pre-HUD code homes; and tax incentives to encourage community owners to sell to resident associations, non-profit housing providers, or housing authorities. Passage of these ideas would help protect your assets and preserve existing manufactured housing communities and thus continue to help solve the affordable housing crisis facing the country today.
Last words for July – Congratulations are in order for two MHOAA state members. Well done the Federation of Rhode Island Mobile Home Owners on the successful passage of SB 2754 which provides a tax incentive if a community owner elects to sell the manufactured housing community for a resident owned cooperative – see link: http://tinyurl.com/cxb3rp3
Congratulations also to the Association of Manufactured Home Owners in Washington who co-sponsored along with MHOAA a one day symposium at Washington State University, Spokane, on “Senior-friendly Housing” highlighting the ways in which manufactured housing communities are “naturally occurring retirement communities” (NORCS). An assessment tool to allow home owners to evaluate how likely it would be for them to “age-in-place” in their manufactured housing community will be forth-coming and could be of benefit to any MHOAA member so watch for more details and hopefully a presentation at the Annual Convention.
Please note – MHOAA is in the process of updating its membership lists so be sure to keep your membership in MHOAA current so that you are eligible to receive all these communications. The application form for membership can be downloaded from the MHOAA website: www.mhoaa.us
Ishbel Dickens, Executive Director
Manufactured Home Owners Association of America (MHOAA)
PO Box 22346, Seattle WA 98112
ishbel@mhoaa.us 206.851.6385 www.mhoaa.us
Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/bpcvguk