Clayton Home Building Group presented a check for $300,000 to Hope For The Warriors as the founding sponsor of the Warrior's Compass Program Suite.
Hope For The Warriors Launches New 2019 Warrior’s Compass Program Suite
Clayton Home Building Groupis a founding sponsorship of national military nonprofit, Hope For The Warriors®(HOPE) 2019 program, Warrior’s Compass Suite.
In 2017, Hope For The Warriors supported 6,000 service members, veterans and their families.
Since 2015, Clayton Home Building Group has supported Hope For The Warriors and their commitment to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members, their families, and families of the fallen who have sustained physical and psychological wounds in the line of duty. Warrior’s Compass was founded as an extension of the transition services Hope For The Warriors currently offers to help veterans transition from service to the workplace.
Clayton Home Building Group committed to donating $300,000 to HOPE over the next three years to support Warrior’s Compass Program Suite.
“On behalf of Hope For The Warriors and the thousands of veterans we serve each year, a sincere thank you to Clayton Home Building Group for its three-year commitment as the founding sponsor of the Warrior’s Compass Suite of transition services,” said Robin Kelleher, Hope For The Warriors President/CEO. “Their ongoing commitment supports veterans’ transition from military to civilian life. Whether providing critical financial support to augment gaps in benefits, supporting spouse education opportunities, or offering a needed boost to a new career or business startup, Clayton’s partnership will positively impact veterans and their families for years to come.”
The Warrior’s Compass Program Suite includes:
Warrior’s Compass: A web-based employment search engine designed for veterans and their families. The program offers a comprehensive range of resources including resume support, job training, military skills translation, candidate matching and structured mentorship from other veterans.
Warriors To Business: A program that supports veteran entrepreneurs in creating or growing a small business. The program offers numerous tools to help their businesses succeed; including professional development, tools and equipment, networking opportunities and business resources.
A Warrior’s Wish: The wish program fulfills desires for quality of life beyond recovery and a quest for life-gratifying endeavors. Wishes granted include adaptive tools and equipment for hobbies and restorative family trip experiences.
Transitional Critical Support: Transitional critical support provides for service members’ financial and organizational needs as they transition out of the military. These needs include collecting documents, working with care providers, providing stop-gap financial assistance, creating SMART goals and providing referrals.
All Hope For The Warriors programs serve post-9/11 active duty, National Guard, reserve service members and veterans from all branches of the military.
“Hope For The Warriors provides so many resources for our nation’s veterans, and their families,” said Clayton Home Building Group President Keith Holdbrooks. “We’re so fortunate to sponsor the Warrior’s Compass Suite that will extend the support for service men and women as they transition into the workplace. Our assistance is just one way we can show our appreciation and give back to those who have served our country.”
Since 2015, Clayton Home Building Group has donated over $365,000 to Hope For The Warriors. For more information or ways to get involved, visit www.hopeforthewarriors.org or www.claytonhomes.com.
National Occupancy, Rents Show Positive Trends in 2018
Each month, Datacomp Appraisal Services releases a new set of updated information on manufactured housing communities in specific U.S. markets. In addition, this time each year, Datacomp provides an annual national summary of all major housing markets.
The annual information comes from all 160 major housing markets covered by our team.
Datacomp and JLT data always is published so manufactured housing professionals will find the value it lends to business. We provide a comprehensive look at investment-grade properties. This enables informed decision making for industry professionals including:
The interior of a new Champion home.
Owners
Managers
Lenders
Appraisers
Brokers
2018 Annual National Summary
The JLT Summary for 2018 shows increases in adjusted rent and occupancy across the board. The industry growth is evident for All-Ages and 55+ communities in every region.
Occupancy rates nationwide rose 1.2 percent year over year, with All-Ages communities bumping up 1.5 percent to 91 percent, and 55+ communities increasing 0.6 percent to 96 percent nationwide.
Adjusted rents increased nationwide year over year by 3.5 percent for all communities, to $526 per month. The same rents at All-Ages communities rose 3.7 percent to $507 monthly.
The biggest increase in monthly adjusted rents occurred in All-Ages communities in the West and Southwest, with 4.4 and 4.6 percent gains respectively. For 55+ communities, the South and West regions led the way in rent increases, each with an increase of 3.8 percent.
For increases in regional occupancy, gains in All-Ages communities in the Southwest outpaced the rest of the country, with an increase of 4.6 percent. In 55+ communities, the Midwest led the way in occupancy increases, up 2.7 percent for the year. However, most markets with lesser gains in occupancy already were operating at 90+ percent, while Midwest and Southwest properties had been operating in the high-80s for occupancy percentage and therefore had more to gain.
Energy Efficiency is a Focal Point for Business Efficiency
Whether putting up an office building or rental community, energy is fundamental to the success of any real estate project and plays an essential role in both cash flow and valuation.
Brad Dockser, CEO of GreenGen
Too often, the focus is on cost first… to the detriment of operations and life cycle analysis.
Many GreenGen clients approach us to help with the engineering and implementation of energy efficiency projects that not only lower operating costs but also improve sustainability.
Generally, energy and building systems are overlooked during initial design and are addressed at the end of a project. This can create hard and soft returns with significant impact on an asset’s perception and value. The right energy solution not only will reduce operating cost, but also increase asset value.
Applicable to manufactured housing, we have assessed numerous rental developments during the past year to evaluate potential to reduce costs via energy efficiency upgrades. Assessments revealed many opportunities for cost savings and value creation, most notably around lighting efficiencies.
This was the case for a student apartment building in Tucson, Ariz., near the University of Arizona. Even though the property was relatively new, the assessment revealed a variety of ways to upgrade the controls and lighting systems and increase property value in both the units and the common areas.
Powering Down to Improve Energy Efficiency
Replacement of fixtures and lamps in a facility, as well as adding occupancy-based controls, offers a great payback for property owners. LEDs offer much better efficacy than their incandescent, fluorescent, and metal halide equivalents. Additionally, the life of an LED is up to ten times longer than the lamp and/or fixture it replaces. Using automated occupancy sensors in intermittently occupied spaces also presented another major chance to reduce costs.
Many common spaces in communities have vending areas that present savings opportunities. Snack machines often operate all day even though they are not continuously used by residents. Occupancy-based vending machine controls turn off machine lights and cycle down compressors to optimize savings while maintaining desired temperatures. Typical savings for these controls are in excess of 50 percent.
An Eye on Water Consumption is Key in Every Locale
Another savings source is to reduce water consumption. At the Tucson asset, most restroom faucets consume 2 gallons per minute. Yet, Energy Star’s recommended consumption levels are at 1.5 GPM or lower. Aerators that go down as far as 0.5 GPM are available as well. Retrofitting existing faucets with pressure controllers reduces water consumption and water heating costs by maintaining a consistent GPM flow.
Installing efficient showerheads that prevent hot water from running down the drain while waiting for it to heat up is also a great way to save. These kinds of savings can be particularly valuable for properties that combine MH and RV occupancy, for communities that focus heavily on rentals, and in common areas at most communities.
Energy usage fluctuates with time of day and year. For common spaces in communities, summer may see increased usage with students away from school. Owners can capitalize on these changes by optimizing building operations around occupant schedules. Using controls to optimize use and run equipment ensures that facilities can maximize savings during down times.
Controls can include simply regulating a device or managing an entire system. At a minimum, lights should have sensors that turn off or dim when no one is around. Part of the implementation strategy for occupancy sensors is that light levels meet safety requirements and that the occupancy sensors are properly located. Prime locations are corridors, elevators, common/recreation spaces and storage areas.
A well-designed controls platform means energy usage correlates with physical occupancy. For users, that means the lights are always on when and where they are present. Device controls are simply and quickly rolled. And they are designed to function with most any fixtures to take advantage of nearly immediate savings.
Double Down on The Bottom Line
Implementing these measures will significantly improve the property efficiency and decrease energy consumption and cost. At the Tucson student housing, the facility upgrades, combined with available rebates, will increase the building’s value by more than $1,827 per bed, totaling nearly $1.1 million in added value.
Lighting efficiencies and plug load reductions generally are at the top of the list as the lowest expense, with the bonus of quick payback. This adds value to a property or a building through increasing comfort and safety of residents, as well as improving the overall experience.
When done correctly, financial return and sustainability are not discrete, separate choices but rather byproducts of each other. They are interrelated decisions that support and catalyze one another, creating multiple opportunities to create value.
This double bottom-line approach helps property owners and managers “Operate in the Green®”.
Datacomp Releases December 2018 JLT Manufactured Home Market Reports for Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee
Datacomp has published the December 2018 JLT Market Reports manufactured home community rent and occupancy reports for 12 markets in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
JLT Market Reports provide detailed comprehensive national data from more than 160 major housing markets throughout the United States.
December Reports include information on 342 communitiesfrom 12 major markets
Datacomp’s manufactured housing data published in the December 2018 JLT Market Reports includes information on 342 “All ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities. Those communities are located in 12 major markets in the three states. Altogether, the reports include data representations for 65,476 homesites.
“A pair of markets in Ohio have experienced slight decreases in occupancy at retirement communities. Likewise, a pair of markets in Pennsylvania had occupancy decreases, one of which had drops in both retirement and all-ages communities, ” Datacomp Co-President Darren Krolewski said. “However, a great majority of the remaining eight markets experienced growth in both occupancy and rents, which has been the trend nationally throughout 2018.”
Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report published by Datacomp includes detailed information about investment grade manufactured home communities in major markets.
Information on JLT Market Reports includes number of homesites, occupancy rates, average mobile home community rents and increases, community amenities, vacant sites, and repossessed and inventory homes.
Moreover, established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of December 2018 rents and occupancy rates to December 2017. In addition, there is a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to present date in most markets.
How to Get December 2018 JLT Market Reports for Ohio, Penn., Tenn.
The December 2018 JLT Market Reports for 12 markets in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.
Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers and other organizations to effectively benchmark those communities and make informed decisions.
New Skyline Champion Plant to Create about 200 Jobs
Leesville, La., is known as “the best hometown in the world”. And the little city in Louisiana is about to get even better with the opening of a new Skyline Champion manufactured housing plant.
The new Skyline Champion plant will be the only manufactured housing facility in the state of Louisiana.
A 127,000 square-foot Skyline Champion Corporation plant will open January 2019. Facility will begin production in the spring. The idle facility is a former Pioneer Housing Systems plant. Skyline Champion Corporation will reconfigure and automate the facility to include updated manufacturing techniques.https://mhinsider.com/off-site-built-partners-champion-quartz/
The new facility will allow Skyline Champion to:
Create 200-plus jobs over the long term and add to its 7,000-plus North American team
Increase capacity to meet growing demand in the affordable housing sector
Increase market share by offering greater convenience and affordability to customers in Louisiana and surrounding states
“It’s an honor to be the only operating manufactured housing facility in the state of Louisiana,” Chief Executive Officer Keith Anderson said. “We are thrilled to bring our high-quality, cost-effective homes to an even wider customer base. As well as to offer the exceptionally skilled local workforce with hundreds of new jobs.”
Champion’s Bradford Model.
New Plant to Provide More Affordable Homes for the Region
“The facility’s location will allow us to provide better value due to reduced transportation for the future homebuyers of Louisiana, east Texas, south Arkansas and south Mississippi,” said Wade Lyall, vice president of the southern region. “We are strongly committed to providing affordable housing to the residents of this great state and we look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the City of Leesville, the Louisiana Economic Development Corporation, local Retailers, and the LA Housing Commission.”
$12 Per For Each of the New 4 Million Shares Offered by Legacy Housing
Legacy Housing Corp., trading under the symbol LEGH, announced pricing of its initial public offering of four million shares of common stock at a public offering price of $12 per share.
The Dallas-based builder is the fourth largest producer of manufactured homes in the United States. It is a recognized leader and innovator in the manufactured housing industry.
The gross proceeds of the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by Legacy Housing, are expected to be $48 million.
All Common Stock in Offering from Legacy Housing
Legacy Housing has granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 600,000 shares of common stock at the IPO, less underwriting discounts and commissions.
Legacy Housing intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to expand its retail presence in the southern United States and surrounding geographic markets, provide financing solutions to select housing community-owner customers, repay debt and pursue possible acquisitions, and use the remainder for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The common stock is expected to begin trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on Dec. 14, 2018, under the ticker symbol “LEGH.” The offering is expected to close on Dec. 19, 2018, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
The offering is being made through an underwriting group led by B. Riley FBR Inc., Oak Ridge Financial and National Securities Corp., which are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.
A registration statement relating to the shares being sold in this offering was declared effective by the SEC on Dec. 12, 2018. This offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus related to this offering may be obtained, when available, from: B. Riley FBR, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 1300 14th Street North, Suite 1400, Arlington, Va., 22209, or by phone at (800) 846-5050 or by email at prospectuses@brileyfbr.com; Oak Ridge Financial, Attention: Joseph Sullivan, 701 Xenia Avenue South, Suite 100, Golden Valley, Minn., 55416, or by phone at (800) 231-8364 or by email at jsullivan@oakridgefinancial.com; or National Securities Corporation, Attention: Marguerite O’Brien, 200 Vesey Street, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10281, or by phone at (212) 417-8164 or by email at prospectusrequest@nationalsecurities.com.
About Legacy Housing Corporation
Legacy Housing builds, sells and finances manufactured homes and “tiny houses”. Homes are sold through a network of independent retailers and company-owned stores and are sold directly to manufactured housing communities.
The company is the fourth largest producer of manufactured homes in the United States. The ranking is determined by number of homes manufactured via information from the Manufactured Housing Institute and IBTS. Legacy offers customers an array of quality homes ranging in size from approximately 390 to 2,667 square feet.
The homes consist of one to five bedrooms and one to 3 1/2 bathrooms. Legacy homes range in price, at retail, from approximately $22,000 to $95,000.
QUESTION: How can we improve community image with good home appearance and home siting?
Professional Planner Donald Westphal
Nearly all manufactured homes today have an acceptable appearance when set on a subdivision lot or in a land-lease community with the long face of the home parallel to the street. Most of these homes are displayed in shows and sales centers “broad set”, in order to capitalize on that more attractive-looking face.
Unfortunately, many of these same homes function poorly and lack curb appeal when placed on the narrow lots found in many subdivisions and most land-lease communities.
Cost Considerations Often Play Against ‘broad set’ Homes
Cost considerations related to lot width often rule out the possibility of broad-setting homes in most communities. However, four actions can be taken to improve community appearance with little or no added cost.
First, be certain that homes on corner lots are placed with the front door and yard facing the street. This consideration must be made in the initial planning of the community and can be accomplished by either spinning corner lots ninety degrees, as shown in the sketch, or making provisions for the utility risers to accept a home with a reverse floor plan.
Second, require in the community guidelines that all homes have some attractive treatment on the street-facing end of the home. This can be accomplished by requiring one or more of the following:
a minimum amount of window area
an eyebrow roof or bay window
a porch or entry covering if the home has a street-facing entry door
a garage or carport in front of the home
I have driven through many communities where the end of the home facing the street was a solid wall of vinyl or hardboard siding, and the attractive side of the home was not visible from the street.
Third, see that the placement of homes on the lots results in a uniform front setback from the street. Many communities are designed with the utility risers placed very close to the rear of the homesite. This requires the home to be placed to the rear of the homesite to cover the sewer and water risers. As a result, there are marked differences in the front setbacks and a lack of continuity in the streetscape.
Many designers now place the utility risers further forward on the homesite so that the shorter multi-section homes can be placed closer to the street without making riser location adjustments.
Fourth, off-street parking should be designed so that landscaping can be placed along the front of the home. Many communities are designed with the parking in front of the home, making it impossible to landscape there. Some developers design the parking in tandem along the side of the home. This allow for a future carport or garage. Also, it reduces the number of cars parked off-street adjacent to the curb and results in fewer cars in the streetscape.
An attractive streetscape in your community will not happen by accident. Some developers require plot plans for each home placement in the community. This can help make certain that the home and homesite all add to the positive appearance of the community.
A Historical Look at the Need for Workforce Housing
In 2002, the Urban Land Institute assembled a panel of experts to discuss the growing shortage of affordable workforce housing. The ULI defines workforce housing as that which is affordable to those who live on between 60 and 120 percent of the area median household income.
Many families in this group fail to qualify for federal entitlement programs. Yet, they still have inadequate income to support their housing needs.
The ULI meeting divided into small groups to identify regulatory barriers and possible solutions. One panel’s solution involved workforce housing where local governments donate or sell property at reduced prices. Another panel urged greater marketing efforts to encourage affordable housing development. One panel suggested expanding state and local first-time homebuyer tax credit programs to help cover down payments.
Another solution was to offer property tax abatements as a tradeoff for the development of workforce housing. The panel said that expedited permit processes for affordable housing projects could reduce costs and make such developments more profitable.
Older manufactured and mobile homes, sometimes repossessed, can be refurbished for much-needed workforce housing.
Local building codes for site-built housing often add time and expense to projects, but do little to improve quality or safety of the units. Manufactured housing – with its faster, semi-automated, protected building processes – can greatly speed this up. Building permit fees for land-lease communities might only apply to the infrastructure, and not necessarily to the factory-built units themselves.
Another ULI panel suggested that linking fees to unit size would make smaller, more affordable housing more attractive to developers.
Development opportunity could come about through changes to local zoning laws. Allowing some existing commercial properties to be redeveloped as workforce housing rezoning requests conditional on workforce housing.
One of the panels recommended that localities use their comprehensive plans to link commercial zones with residential zones, fostering less zoning segregation and more affordable housing options. Similarly, if a commercial developer makes a special request for a reasonable exemption from the building code or approval of zoning for manufactured housing, the approval can come with a requirement for workforce housing to be built into the project.
Institute ‘Request for Proposal’ to Encourage Workforce Housing
Another suggestion: As part of major redevelopment proposals, local governments could require that workforce housing be a part of the “request for proposal” process. A result of this could be that financial and density bonus incentives that are part of inclusionary policies could be expanded to cover low- and moderate-cost housing, in addition to affordable units. Other regulatory incentives that could be used include shared parking opportunities, mixed-use zoning, flexible zoning and fee waivers or reductions.
With the relatively low interest rates, home buyers with sufficient down payments and fair-to-good credit scores have been able to purchase new and repossessed homes in many markets for some time now. And some forward-looking, factory-built home manufacturers have been offering housing structures that are built at low cost but also meet the needs of heavy use for families.
Yet still, there is a need for access to families with fair-to-medium credit and minimum down payments, especially in markets where there is good employment.
In the past, this need was provided by a regular supply of new family land-lease communities. However, with the high rate of defaults on home financing that started in the early 2000s, there has been very little in the way of new community development – largely limited to a few senior resort-style communities in select areas.
In many parts of the country, there has been a lack of housing for low- and moderate-income families, in tandem with prolonged job losses and an only recent economic upturn.
A natural gas field in upper plains of the United States.
North Dakota and Texas ‘Man Camps’
Much of the early recovery job growth was tied to the “man camps,” as they’re called, at the oil reserves in North Dakota, south Texas and other areas, which were built and operated under the direction of the production companies.
Long rows of oil-field housing are a great example of how building in a factory can be an efficient solution. And yet there are myriad sectors in major markets that need timely delivery of quality, affordable housing.
Even in less intense workforces, there are shortages in affordable local housing for working families. These housing needs could be met through the judicious use of manufactured homes and housing communities. This is true particularly when the owners can provide self-financing or lease-to-own programs for consumers with low credit scores and a lack of sizable down payments.
The emerging demand for affordable workforce housing may be the first indicator of the ability of manufactured housing land-lease communities to provide for this need.
So, how did they do it?
Refill Community Vacancy with Workforce Housing
New manufactured housing land-lease communities are being built to meet high family housing demands in northwest North Dakota and parts of south Texas. In other areas, a number of community owners purchased and installed used and repossessed homes. Those homes were offered for occupancy with a “lease-to-own” option. This is based on the landlord’s estimation of the buyer’s creditworthiness.
Monthly home lease payments for lower-cost used or repossessed homes – primarily single-section, post-1976 homes – often were below costs of area apartments, and resulted in successfully filling vacant communities.
The availability of home finance when the dwelling is sited on a leased homesite is among the most important items for an investor to scrutinize. At the present time, shorter-term loan amortizations at higher interest rates than for site-built homes are generally the case. Lowering the homesite lease terms may offset the potential for higher monthly home payments. Converting the property into land-home combinations for conveyance as real property may be another option. Additional methods may apply, but financing terms on a “par” with site-built homes may be forthcoming.
No matter where it exists, the need for affordable housing for workers with families located near their jobs continues to grow. As viable housing options increase for working families, so too will the breadth, depth and balance of the workforce. Organizations that are willing to push for lower-cost, factory-built homes in combination with some of the newer lease-to-own strategies have been able to meet these vital needs.
About Edward Hicks
Edward “Eddie” Hicks, principal consultant with Consultants Resource Group, can be reached by phone at (813) 300-6150. Hicks has more than 45 years of experience as an MH retailer, manufacturer, developer and real estate broker, assisting clients with their community development, financing and acquisition needs. For more information, email Hicks at easteddie@aol.com, or visit www.mobilehomepark.com, www.factorybuilthome.com or www.fha207m.com.
Community Owner Inspired by His College Experience
A college scholarship paid for Ron Cobb’s books and tuition for four years. Without it, he would have been unable to attend college. Years later, he decided to give back and create a scholarship program of his own.
Cobb and his wife Jeanette own Logan’s Crossing Manufactured Home Community in Dallas, Ga., about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. About a decade ago, Cobb decided to start offering scholarships to school-age children in his community. There are many children who live in Logan’s Crossing, an all-ages community with about 400 residents. Many of them get to school from the bus stop in front of the main office, Cobb said.
Cobb approached the Paulding Education Foundation, which seeks to promote educational opportunities in Paulding County, Ga. He proposed that Logan’s Crossing create and fund a scholarship program that the foundation would administer, and the foundation agreed.
A Community Education Partnership is Born
The partnership between the foundation and the Paulding County School District is crucial to the success of the scholarship program, he said.
“The cooperation between the school board and education foundation gives them access to school records, which gives me a way to verify that children are eligible,” Cobb said. “If I had done this on my own, the school system would have been unwilling to share with me the attendance and grade records of students, and I would have had to depend on parents or students to tell me.”
Getting the Georgia scholarship program from idea to reality was not as easy as Cobb originally assumed.
“There are an awful lot of contingencies you have to deal with,” he said, but “we have most of the kinks worked out.”
To qualify for a scholarship, a student must be a resident of Logan’s Crossing for the full academic year. The recipient must go to class in Paulding County School District (or an accredited college or technical school in Georgia), and must have achieved either perfect attendance or an average grade of B or better.
Community Recognition of the Georgia Scholarships
Typically, the Cobbs dole out $1,000 to $1,500 a year in scholarship money to a handful of students. The most they’ve paid in one year is $5,000 to nine students. The local newspaper covers the scholarships every year, running pictures of the awardees. The program saw its first college degree last year, when a Logan’s Crossing student graduated from Georgia Southern University.
“I wanted to give back to the community, and it has worked out well,” Cobb said. “(Logan’s Crossing) has been recognized in ways I never anticipated.”
Logan’s Crossing Offers Scholarships for Students Who Meet the Following Requirements
Grammar school
$50 for perfect attendance for the entire school year.
Middle school
$75 for perfect attendance for the entire school year.
High school
$100 for perfect attendance for the entire school year; $100 for earning a diploma or GED, regardless of age; $250 for maintaining at least a B average for the entire school year.
College
$1,000 for each year a student is awarded a Georgia Hope Scholarship. Up to four awards per student.
Technical school
$1,000 for each year a student maintains at least a B average for the full academic year. Up to two awards per student.
Logan’s Crossing residents Cheyanna Jones, Dakota Pinson and Mobato and Mohau Mbesa were all given scholarships for the 2017-18 school year.
Countryside Estates in Muncie, Ind., a UMH community. Photo courtesy of UMH Properties.
Refusal to Act on Proposals for Manufactured Home Community Amounts to Discrimination, UMH Properties’ Complaint Contends
New Jersey-based UMH Properties, a manufactured housing community ownership group, has filed a complaint against the Village of Coxsackie in the State of New York alleging the local government has engaged in activities that are based on discriminatory motive, create a disparate impact against protected classes in the community, and perpetuate segregation.
The complaint, filed Oct. 1 in U.S. District Court, stems from an attempt to build a development for a 330-site manufactured home community. The site is 18 miles south of Albany near the banks of the Hudson River in Central New York State.
Defendants in the complaint are the Village of Coxsackie, Coxsackie Village Mayor Mark Evans and the Village Board of Trustees.
UMH Properties initially applied for the construction of Mountainview Estates in 2005. This was after a year of planning and the subsequent real estate purchase. The village has raised a variety of concerns to stall the applications during the course of more than a dozen years.
In August 2005 a moratorium on all development began while the village asserted its need for trustees to reconsider the zoning code. The moratorium was to last two months. However, it was in place for approximately three years. The village also voiced concerns about rare owl habitat, and had conversation about village sewer and water capacity.
How Does Discrimination Apply?
“The crux of the case is the fair housing causes of action,” Craig Koster, UMH Properties’ General Counsel said. “The denial or refusal to even act on the application is discriminatory and has caused a disparate impact on racial minorities and families with children. We’ll be relying on statistics, expert testimony and other evidence to prove that discrimination is at play.
The Village has “been very clear about the feelings they have for the ‘type of people’ who they believe live in [manufactured home] communities and what it will do to the village,” Koster added.
An aerial view of the expansion to Memphis Blues, a UMH property in Tennessee. Photo courtesy of UMH Properties.
How UMH Landed in Coxsackie, N.Y.
Sam Landy is president and CEO of UMH Properties. UMH is a public real estate investment trust that has been in operation for more than 50 years. It owns 115 communities in eight states in the eastern and Great Lakes regions of the United States.
Landy said he had completed a pair of successful community expansions in Pennsylvania at the time he began his search. His interest was real estate along the eastern seaboard that would be ideal for an entirely new community, something that’s been a rarity in recent years.
About 315 new manufactured home communities have been built nationwide during the last 16 years, MHInsider research shows. Compare that number to the 2,645 new communities constructed during the prior 15 years, including 395 communities built during 1986-87 alone.
So, when Landy came across a property owner looking to sell in New York, he thought he might have the right spot.
“It’s flat and beautiful,” Landy said of the 180 acres in Greene County. “It was for sale by a farmer who wanted just a couple things. He didn’t want a whole bunch of contingencies. We did ask for 60 days to check city water and sewer capacity, as well as zoning.”
Zoning for the community was in place, and water and sewer capacity were manageable.
“They both came back relatively fine, but there was nothing to indicate a problem,” Landy said.
A new Redman home on display during a UMH Properties annual meeting in September. The home was placed in a UMH community in Pennsylvania.
A Site Visit and a Model Home
Landy walked the property with the then-village mayor and township supervisor.
“I told them all what we were going to do, showed them pictures and assured them it would be a very nice community,” Landy said.
UMH purchased the property. Landy set up a model home to provide tours for interested buyers and potential residents. Invitations went out to village officials and the general public. However, no Coxsackie office holder came to see the home.
A short time later, in October of ’05, a local news outlet reported on the proposed manufactured home community, and residents began to lodge complaints about the project.
Village Support Wanes for UMH’s Proposed Community
“Village Trustee Joseph Zanchelli wrote a letter to the editor and in a sharp departure from initial support for the project, he explained that the residents UMH would attract were undesirable,” the complaint states.
It continues, “Zanchelli stated: ‘[i]f you need help to better visualize what I’m talking about, just watch virtually any episode of ‘Cops’ and that should be enough to show you what one of UMH’s developments are actually like, in my opinion.”
Village residents have expressed concern about increased crime and declining property values, and used “coded language” that relies on stereotypes about minorities and low income families with children, the complaint states.
A timeline of events for UMH Properties in Coxsackie, N.Y.
Resident Launches ‘Keep Coxsackie Charming’ Page
JD Fielding is a village resident and business owner who opposes the UMH development. He started a Facebook page entitled “Keep Coxsackie Charming”, as well as a petition against UMH’s plans. The page has since been taken down.
“I want to make very clear that our opposition to UMH’s project within the village of Coxsackie is strictly due to antiquated water infrastructure, an almost completely maxed out school district, and because of the size of their project, and what that would possibly mean for Fire/EMS services, traffic, and crime rates,” Fielding said in a written statement to MHInsider.
“At no time ever has any person speaking on my behalf, or that I am ever aware of … used what is alleged to be ‘coded language’,” he stated.
Fielding said the UMH complaint is frivolous. He feels the intent of the claim is to put pressure on the village to bend its recently instituted housing density rules, he said. And Fielding characterizes the citation of Zanchelli’s statement about watching “Cops” in the UMH complaint as “laughable”.
“How that proves to be any proof of racial bias is beyond me,” he stated.
Village of Coxsackie Mayor Mark Evans declined comment. He cited the ongoing case and being named a defendant in the UMH filing.
The Need for Affordable Housing in Greene County
The civil complaint filed by UMH Properties asserts that the Village of Coxsackie has a need for affordable housing. Affordable housing is a particular need for area families with children.
Homes with three or four bedrooms in village limits that list for less than $200,000 typically are found on foreclosed properties, the claim states. And those homes require substantial amounts of work. There are three apartment complexes that meet the need, but one is senior housing and another has no vacancy. The third provides 24 residences.
The intent for the Mountainview project was for 50-homes per phase. The development would include a clubhouse, swimming pools, tennis courts and walking trails. Homes would sell for between $75,000 and $125,000. Approximately a quarter of the homes would be owned by the community and available for rent.
Guests tour a model home during a UMH Properties meeting in New Jersey during September 2018.
“We’re in dire need of affordable housing in New York State and a project like the one UMH has proposed would meet the need for a lot of our residents,” Capenos said.
Capenos said he is unaware of another disparate housing filing being levied in New York.
Capenos said developers are well accustomed to having projects “thwarted or stalled” by local governments.
“I grew up the son of a developer, and I’ve seen this my entire life. It’s nothing new for any type of development. You are going to have opposition and you’re going to have challenges,” Capenos said. “That’s why this can be so frustrating, because you see there’s such a need. There’s a need everywhere for housing, including manufactured housing. Manufactured housing meets a great need.”
He works for Haylor, Freyer & Coon as a risk management consultant, within the insurance part of the business working exclusively in manufactured housing.
How the Owls Came to Impact the Proposals
A primary point of pride among residents of Coxsackie is the local, rare owl population. When the state ordered a closer look at the proposed site, the habitat for short-eared owls came into question.
In 2006, as part of an application for variance from the village development moratorium, a required environmental quality review showed that the UMH property either includes or sits near habitat for the endangered short-eared owl. The short-eared owl population is declining nationwide, particularly throughout the northeast.
“So, that raises the question about how much land we need to give to the county for an owl preserve,” Landy said. “That’s what came out of the environmental review.”
Consequently, UMH resolved to purchase 57.2 acres on an adjacent hillside. A portion of the new land will be used for owl habitat if a development plan for Mountainview is approved.
Concerns About Sewer Capacity
The village has been working with the state on an Order on Consent since 2009 to operate and correct its inflow and infiltration capacity. Failure to produce a work plan for the problem twice has resulted in Department of Environmental Conservation citations, once in 2010 and again in 2012.
“The village repeatedly asserts that its failure to act on, or failure to approve, UMH’s applications to build a manufactured home community is due to the sewer-related moratorium as imposed by the Order of Consent,” the UMH complaint states.
Landy said throughout study and negotiation in regard to sewer capacity, UMH has offered to construct and maintain its own onsite treatment facility for the proposed community. It also offered to pay $10,000 per home site toward infrastructure upgrades. The village has called for UMH to wait.
The current village plan calls for a completion of the village sewer by 2020, a driving force for which is the pending completion of a new county jail.
Yet, a new village law approved in January redefines the rules for manufactured home parks. It requires each home site to be no less than 10,000 square feet, more than double the previous standard.
“That would reduce our number of home sites to 80, which is economically unviable,” Landy said.
UMH President Sam Landy speaks to some of his regional managers during a September 2018 meeting in New Jersey.
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