Jim Demitrus President 440/465-8236 www.amhro.org
Christmas will soon be here.- As you come together this year with family and friends, we leave you this thought to consider: If there wasn’t a Christmas, there could not be an Easter!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You
and Yours from Your AMHRO Officers.
In October - My wife Kathy and I were in Washington D.C. at a manufactured home resident’s convention. The major purpose of our efforts was to introduce manufactured housing issues to legislators. The Department of Housing and Urban Affairs rules on manufactured housing is the basis of our state laws. Kathy and I met with the staffs of Ohio Senator Portman and Congressman Tim Ryan who represents Portage County. We were asking for their support to change HUD rules so our homes change from “personal property”
to “real estate”.
The concept of one party owning the land and a second party leasing the land to build commercial buildings is quite common. The practice never spread to single family homes. Maybe because people refer to their homes as trailers and mobile homes, the public gets the impression we are transient people. The fact is that we are anything but transients; we stay in our manufactured homes, at the same address as long as any other home owner, if not longer.
We all know about the difficulty getting a mortgage under 12% when site- built housing is now getting 4% mortgages. Our homes becoming real estate is a win-win situation for all. Better mortgage rates would make buying and selling our homes easier, lower insurance costs, increase our home value and increase all manufactured home sales. Along with a change to real estate, lenders would require long term leases with some predictability of future rent increases. This would bring new buyers into manufactured housing whose objections have been the short lease worries of future rent increases.
New manufactured home sales in Ohio are about 10% of those of a few years ago and that is a large part of why we have about 15 vacant lots in Lakeside Terrace. The cost of operating this community is the same for 100 homes as it is for 220 homes. Now imagine what a 4% mortgage rate would do to fill in those lots. A full community goes a long way to holding down rent increases. Continental Communities is our management and our real estate partners, we need each other. Jim Demitrus
MHOAA - You may remember, AMHRO is a member of MHOAA (Manufactured Home Owner Association of America, Inc.). Prior to 4 of the AMHRO Officers going to their convention, a letter was sent to Senator Portman and Representative Ryan requesting an appointment for us to speak with them. We represented AMHRO and MHOAA at the same time. The following letter was sent to both their Legislative Assistants:
Dear Mr. Toy: Are you available to meet with 4 constituents of Senator Portman’s who are attending the Manufactured Homeowners Association of America annual conference next week in Silver Spring? They are available on Friday, October 21 at either 2:30 or 3:00 p.m.
Russ McPherson, Lois McPherson, Jim Dimitrius and Kathie Dimitrius, MHOAA members from Ohio, would like to discuss a few policy priorities with you.
1. Support resident-owned communities - One of MHOAA’s primary goals is to achieve tax parity for home owners in resident- owned communities. Owners of homes in resident-owned communities should be able to deduct the mortgage interest paid on the community as a whole. §216 of the IRS code needs to be changed to make that possible. MHOAA also supports a tax credit for community owners to encourage them to sell to resident associations or other non-profits that will guarantee long-term security of tenure. A federal tax credit would encourage owners to preserve long-term affordability and avoid displacement in communities when hundreds of low-income families suddenly lose their homes. We do not currently have a sponsor of the bill but would like to share some draft language with you and hear your feedback.
2. Provide a bill of Rights for Manufactured Home Owners - Many people living in manufactured housing communities lack fundamental freedoms: freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom from retaliation, and the right to equal protection under the law. While there is no specific bill in place to address these fundamental freedoms they could be attached to other bills and would require jurisdictions who are awarded federal HUD funding to guarantee that this “Bill of Rights” is enacted to protect the manufactured home owners living in those jurisdictions.
3. Support The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Assets for Independence Act Reauthorization (H.R. 1623). This bill would provide down payment assistance and housing counseling for low-income buyers of new and replacement manufactured homes. H.R. 1623 reauthorizes an EXISTING program to enable owners of outdated mobile homes to replace their homes with ENERGY STAR manufactured homes. The down-payment assistance is through an existing program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This program is authorized by Ways and Means and the Senate HELP Committee.
The attached one-pager provides more details regarding MHOAA’s legislative priorities. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. You can reach me at 202-595-2692 or by e-mail.
Thank you, Katherine Lucas-Smith (CFED)
As a follow-up letter, the following was sent to each one:
Senator Portman,
As a manufactured home owner and speaking for a multitude of others, we need your support regarding manufactured housing issues. Please advise me of your support on these very important issues listed below.
Sincerely, Russ McPherson, Olmsted Twp., Ohio 44139 440/465-8235
ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS FOR MANUFACTURED HOMES - Building energy codes are among the most successful and cost-effective energy policies in the United States. Codes have eliminated the need for dozens of new power plants and have improved air quality, while enhancing comfort in homes and saving home owners money on their utility bills. The energy efficiency standards in the HUD Code have been updated only once, in 1994. By contrast, the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which applies to most site-built homes, is updated every 3 years.
WHAT’S AT STAKE - There are nearly 9 million manufactured homes occupied in the United States today,
(1) representing over 6% of the housing market and 5% of residential energy consumption. These homes are disproportionately occupied by low-income families, with 80% of manufactured home owners being low-income, and 28% living below the poverty line.
Building high efficiency manufactured homes in a factory, costs significantly less than renovating existing homes because of the inherent benefits of factory construction; consistency, improved quality control, waste reduction, and faster completion time. Retrofit costs to raise inefficient manufactured homes to a respectable level of performance can easily reach $7,000-$13,000. Higher efficiency manufactured homes, such as Energy Star-certified homes, also offer substantial energy savings above base level HUD Code homes at a fraction of this cost. (5) And, manufactured homes last a long time. By some estimates, over 60% of manufactured homes in use today are over 20 years old, and many of these were built before the HUD Code was in place. Without updated energy standards for manufactured homes, this pool of inefficient homes will grow, and place greater burdens on home owners and on the utilities that supply them.
THE BOTTOM LINE - Department of Energy (DOE) has expertise with energy efficiency of manufactured homes both at the agency and in its national labs. It also has the leading federal role on building energy codes and experience setting cost-effective efficiency standards in the appliance standards program, often in cooperation with manufacturers and other stakeholders. If DOE’s authority to establish these standards is rescinded, there will be a long delay before HUD updates its standards. Consequently, buyers of new manufactured homes will continue to get homes that do not meet minimum standards for site-built homes, and continue to pay too much in their utility bills. Those who have concerns about the forthcoming standards can participate in the rule-making process at DOE.
DOE should retain authority and funding to set efficiency standards for manufactured homes.
1. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable ds_name=ACS_2009_5YR_G00_&-
2. $500-800 annually, depending on fuel source and climate:
http://www.research-alliance.org/pages/es_retail.htm#price
AMHRO’s Annual Meeting, October 12, 2011 was held at the North Olmsted Library at 27403 Lorain Road, North Olmsted at 1:00 p.m. President, Jim Demitrus welcomed everyone and invited Tom Patton to speak first. Tom stated that the State of Ohio inherited an 8.3 billion dollar deficit from the past administration. Therefore, the Senate had to come up with a workable budget with tax cuts they could be proud of. He feels they accomplished that. Other matters they had to handle were the all-electric homes issues, the possible sale of the turnpike and third party water bills. He will meet in the future with the AMHRO Board regarding legislation and he pledged his support to AMHRO.
Prizes were given out for the youngest person in attendance, those who came the greatest distance and for the one who brought the most attendees.
The minutes from the Annual Meeting held September 18, 2010 were read. There was one correction. The following statement read as follows: “The minutes from the August 9, 2010 were read by Lois McPherson, Secretary etc.” The date should have been August 9, 2009. With that correction noted, Marlene Fink made a motion to approve the minutes, Bob Kmiecik seconded the motion and everyone approved.
Brenda Kocevar reported the election results as follows:
Vice President - Bill Geniella Treasurer - Kathie Demitrus
Russ will continue to serve AMHRO as a board member.
Kevin Borden spoke, representing the Center for Community Change, a non-profit organization. Kevin has been with the organization for ten years. They work on neighborhood issues and their purpose is to assist in community organization/education regarding Medicare and Social Security. He stated they presently have two positions open which pay a stipend.
Bill Geniella reported on the Peace Community in Columbus. This is a community that Bill has been working with at the request of Emily Crabtree, a legal aid attorney in Columbus. The owner of this community is not at all familiar with the rules and regulations, etc. but he is at least willing to learn.
Bruce Kimball shared an update on their community (Sands in Madison, Ohio) and Russ requested that he put this in writing so that this information could be shared in the Residents’ Advisor.
Mike Piepsny (CTO) and Sherry Lippus (Olmsted Twp. Trustee) were present and addressed the group, voicing their support to AMHRO.
Brenda reported on Senior Voice. This is a non-partisan coalition representing organizations from local agencies, state and county programs, retired labor groups, senior housing and congressional representatives. Their purpose is to educate seniors and the general public on the issues of protecting Social Security benefits and restoring Medicare viability. Bill gave a report on the subject of legislation, giving us an overview of all that is involved in getting laws passed. It is a long, drawn-out process.
Russ gave a report on MHOAA. Their Annual Convention will be October 20-22 at Silver Spring, Md. Jim and Kathie Demitrus and Lois and Russ McPherson plan to attend. The convention was purposely planned close to Washington, D. C. so that appointments could be made to meet with legislators. The purpose of meeting with the legislators is to remind them that there are approximately 250,000 manufactured home residents living in every county in Ohio – many of these residents are qualified voting adults. Also, another purpose of meeting is to emphasize the security and protection needs of manufactured home residents in Ohio and to ask them to lead the way in legislation to do this.
What to do Before It Gets Too Cold - If you haven’t turned on your furnace, this is an excellent time to turn on the heat to take the chill out of the house – to make sure the furnace is working properly.
I tried our furnace for the first time when it dipped into the upper thirties. The next morning I turned on the furnace again and nothing happened. A blower motor failed and had to be replaced. The lesson learned: The heating part of the furnace sits all summer unused and needs to be run several times for a few hours to discover any problems. Check the filters too. If they are dirty, they probably need replaced.
Remember the heat tape and insulation on the water line under the house. Feel the tape. It should be warm to the touch and insulation must cover the entire length of water line and water meter.
The small plastic box, about the size of a bar of soap, is the sending unit. It converts the meter reading to a digital signal that the Water Department reads monthly. The actual meter is a metal casting with a metal freeze plate on the bottom. These plates naturally get rusty. Many of our meters were installed below ground level on a crock that was often wet, causing even more rust. A few freeze plates will break prematurely due to the rust. Should the meter freeze during the winter, replacing the plate or the water meter can be at the home owner’s expense. A new meter was $225 and a rebuilt meter was about $125. It is cost effective to check the heat tape and insulation.
In previous issues I’ve stated that the home owner is responsible for the utilities after the gas, electric and water meters. But it is the home owner’s job to protect the meter and water line from the point it leaves the ground to inside the home. Jim Demitrus
AMHRO continues to be a valuable source for those with questions - Recently, AMHRO Officers have been contacted by someone in Ravenna, Olmsted Township and Lima. Each had a different need. In two cases, a suggestion was made that they form their own home owner association.
Sands - The judge in our rent escrow case in Painesville Municipal Court has made a decision in our favor. We dismissed several of our claims but we transferred the biggest one, the $100 a month rent increase, due to the sewer cost to our class action lawsuit we filed in the Lake County common pleas court. The judgment was that our rent stayed at the $310 a month rate from May 2010 to the present. It took 15 months in court to win our case. Thanks to all the help and support we received from AMHRO and representatives from Columbia Park. I know that there has not been many cases won by residents in a rent dispute but this is big. Again we thank all of our supporters. Thanks, Bruce Kimball
Return on Investment - Our homes are the biggest investment most of us make in our lives. It’s in our best interest to maintain that investment because some day every one of us will need the money from the sale of the home for other living arrangements. For those who plan on living alone and dying suddenly, ignore this. For the rest of us, keeping up the house and yard on a regular basis is easier on you and your wallet. The first rules of real estate are location, location and location. The neighborhood ( those houses around you) have an impact on the value of your home. We owe this to each other to maintain our homes. The act of buying into your community is the implied acceptance to keep up your home and yard with the grass mowed and flower beds weed free. This benefits you and the community.
AMHRO continues to be a valuable source for those with questions - Recently, AMHRO Officers have been contacted by someone in Ravenna, Olmsted Township and Lima. Each had a different need. In two (2) cases a suggestion was made that they form their own home owner association.
It’s that time of year. Just as a reminder, our by-laws state that all AMHRO Memberships expire at the end of the year. AMHRO exists only on your membership and donations. If your check is dated before December 31, 2011 your membership and donations are tax deductible. Please take the time to write your check and mail it today. Thank you. The year your membership expires is noted after your last name on the envelope or on your e-mail address.