Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/684297
JUNE 2016 10 THE JOURNAL Wells Fargo Securities is the trade name for the capital markets and investment banking services of Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidiaries, including but not limited to Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, a member of NYSE, FINRA, NFA and SIPC, Wells Fargo Prime Services, LLC, a member of FINRA, NFA and SIPC, and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and Wells Fargo Prime Services, LLC are distinct entities from a-liated banks and thrifts. © ‚ƒ„… Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. WCS-‚„ƒƒ‡‡ˆ wellsfargo.com/mhc Our experience and dedication to this unique industry have made us the financing leader nationwide for manufactured home communities for more than years. We'll work with you to help find the best solution for your financing needs. Contact us today. Balance sheet lending | Fannie Mae DUS® Lender Freddie Mac Program Plus® Seller/Servicer | CMBS lending Correspondent lending NOT FDIC-INSURED • NO BANK GUARANTEE • MAY LOSE VALUE Lew Grace • •••-• -••- • lew.grace@wellsfargo.com | Tony Petosa • ƒ„-•-…-• - • tpetosa@wellsfargo.com There for you, now as in the past Manufactured home communities No. 8 on Get It Quick Page I received a call recently from a graduate stu- dent doing a research project on how the U.S. government could better support the plight of af- fordable housing. The better question is "how could it do a worse job of supporting affordable housing"? There is simply not much positive you can say about how the government approaches the affordable housing crisis, or our industry in gen- eral. And that's a shame. A topic that gets little productive attention While many people talk about the need for af- fordable housing, it's never done in a construc- tive format, nor is there ever a solution discussed. It's the same as the casual discussion of homeless- ness, where you say "isn't that a shame that peo- ple are homeless" but then do nothing to fix its root cause. While the Zika virus can muster im- mediate planning and pledging of billions of dollars for research, the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. has been going on for decades and nobody even bothers to hold a productive conference on it – just continual lip service. The failure of supporting our home loans A good first step to solving the affordable hous- ing problem would be to support manufactured home loans with the same vigor as single-family. I'm sure that everyone is aware that the govern- ment sat back and did nothing when chattel paper imploded in 2000, but jumped through every hoop imaginable to prop up residential mortgages in 2008. As a result, lending all but disappeared and millions of people who wanted to buy a manufac- tured home were denied that right. And now, 15 years later, it's not much better. And the gov- ernment still does nothing. The SAFE Act scandal With traditional financing all but eliminated for manufactured homes post 2000 (except from some of the manufacturers, such as Clayton's mortgage arm), much of the available credit for manufac- tured home buyers came from community owners and those who invest in individual manufactured homes (often called "Lonnie Dealers"). While the government was so obsessed with helping single- family mortgage holders (and deflecting the blame for the crisis to begin with) they passed the SAFE Act in July 2008 and, once again, threw the man- ufactured home industry under the bus. With this new law, it became illegal to create mortgages un- less the lender was willing to become SAFE Act certified and licensed and, as a result, many com- munity owner and Lonnie Dealers exited the busi- ness forever. And when it became apparent that SAFE was destroying the only remaining hope for affordable housing for millions of people, some politicians tried to get an amendment eliminating the requirements for homes under $50,000 – but it fell with a thud when Obama vowed to veto any such logical step. Pathetic. Exposing The Hypocrisy Of The U.S. Government's Support For Affordable Housing BY FRANK ROLFE COMMUNITY CONSULTANT \ 27