The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association in recent years has created a more street-level approach to showing the various types of homes that are built in a factory. While the success of home shipments going into Michigan is based on a number of factors, it’s clear that making a more direct appeal to a prospective homeowner has to help.
Michigan shipments of HUD Code homes have increased more than 30 percent year-over-year, while most other states have experienced single-digit growth.
“MMHA has been working very hard in recent years to utilize resources to ‘take the product to people, and people to the product,’” MMHA Executive Director John Lindley said. “By ‘product,’ I mean the homes and the communities. By “people,” I mean consumers and policymakers.”
Some of the events MMHA has partnered in or hosted include:
The Manufactured Housing Showcase at the Novi Home Show near Detroit. For years, MMHA has worked with member manufacturers and retailers to showcase three to six homes per year in a range of sizes and price. In 2025, Lindley said the association added the Spring Novi Home Show, and has adopted a plant to keep contributing to that effort.
“These events provide tens of thousands of consumers with the opportunity to tour multiple homes and interact with industry experts,” Lindley said.
The state association also has a presence at the Michigan State House Development Authority’s Building Michigan Communities Conference. The event brings more than 1,000 people in the housing sector together in downtown Lansing each year for educational sessions and an exhibit hall.
MMHA has been a sponsor of the event for several years, providing an opportunity for the association to promote the industry with an exhibit booth and a breakout session.
“We have utilized this opportunity to assemble industry panels with representatives from member manufacturers, retailers, community owner/operators, and finance experts,” Lindley said. “These panels have been well-attended, and coupled with the visibility created by the association’s exhibits, have resulted in increased understanding and knowledge of today’s manufactured homes and developments.”
The Capital MH Showcase was created in 2025, and occurs in time with the Building Michigan Communities Conference. MMHA worked with Champion to stage a pair of homes at a city park in Lansing. The location is a short walking distance from the conference and the State Capitol complex.
“Between conference attendees, state lawmakers, and staff, an estimated 200 stakeholders toured the homes and attended a reception,” Lindley said. “The success of this first attempt will lead to an annual event and growth in the number of displayed homes.”
Lindley said the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association, at its annual gathering of hundreds of community planners, has presented itself as a very specific and applicable audience for the manufactured housing industry to invest resources in an effort to eliminate bias against the product, the homes, and the land-lease community model.
“In 2023, we rented transportation and took attendees to two local communities for tours, brunch, and discussion with industry experts,” Lindley said. “In 2024, we again had a panel presentation from the industry.”
Finally, at the Northwest MI Housing Summit, MMHA has built a similar strategic partnership.
The event, hosted each year by Housing North, provides an opportunity to expose leaders in the housing space to today’s manufactured homes and communities. The association has a moderated panel discussions, and is presenting a bus tour in coming years to expose attendees to two communities and a regional retail location.
“Cumulatively, I believe these efforts are working to chip away at those stigmas that live today… especially among local units of government,” Lindley said. “All corners of Michigan are suffering from a housing supply and affordability crisis, and as we continue to educate decision-makers and consumers through initiatives like these, more and more are looking to manufactured and modular housing as the solution we already know they represent.”
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