ere's the familiar story. Planning commissions vote down proposals from manufactured home community developers. Local residents turn out in droves at Board of Zoning Appeals meetings to object to "mobile homes" in their neighborhoods, so officials relegate it to distant, undesirable land. State legislators often are unaware of the magnitude and growth of the manufactured housing industry and of the importance of its concerns.

These problems all have the same old roots-the lack of education among government officials, and a lack of involvement by industry members in educating them. "People still associate the industry with trailers, and I know that's an image you've been working to correct for a generation, but that image is still there," said Jeff Reynolds, director of the Division of Affordable Housing of the Nashville mayor's office. "That's why the education angle is so important."

Industry members have a vital interest in changing that image, whether through political action, public relations efforts, education or even simply voicing their concerns to elected officials in letters, e-mail, phone calls or at meetings. "The more you have an interested stake, the more you should get organized and begin to lobby the appropriate government authorities," said Richard Pride, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. "That's the American way. You could appeal directly to the legislative body, or work through public relations campaigns, but it's often better to work directly with the decision-makers themselves and have them make the changes you want."

A bottom-up approach is often the strongest. "If you don't fight the battles in the trenches on the local level, then you have no support when you go up to the capitals and that hurts," said Dennis Keene, president and chairman of Country Living Homes in Wilder, Ky., and chairman of the Zoning Committee for the Kentucky Manufactured Housing Institute (KMHI).

STATE GOVERNMENT

KMHI sought a statewide zoning law that would eliminate discrimination against manufactured housing in all Kentucky counties. "We thought instead of fighting each battle, if we attacked on the state level, and got the state to make a law saying they couldn't discriminate, we'd kill a lot of battles with one fight,'' Keene said. "We did a grassroots campaign all over the state. We organized people. . . had them contact their individual state senators and state representatives, and by the time it came up to committee in Frankfort, the support was so overwhelming that many of our issues went through the House of Representatives unopposed." In the end, the measure didn't pass, but the grassroots support was powerful.

The Louisiana Manufactured Housing Association (LMHA) has higher hopes for a tax measure pending in both houses of its state legislature. "We've been fighting a sales tax bill for some years, but we really got on the radar screen this time with statewide elected officials,'' said Lenny Kopowski, director of governmental affairs for LMHA.

In Louisiana, Kopowski said, owners of manufactured housing are effectively "double taxed." The homes are taxed as "movable" property, and local sales taxes apply. Then when the house is sold, both taxes apply again. "It's a double taxation,'' said Kopowski.

LMHA notified their members of the pending legislation and distributed state senators' and representatives' e-mail addresses, mailing addresses and telephone numbers. A massive campaign utilizing calls, e-mails and faxes ensued. "They weren't out there picketing and waving signs, but they were on the phones," Kopowski said. "We really mobilized our membership to show a united front to the legislature . . . and we showed up on the radar screen and got our issue taken seriously."

LOBBYING/POLITICAL ACTIVISM

"Lobbying the legislature doesn't mean wandering the Capitol building, whispering and handing out cigars. A lot of people misunderstand lobbying," Reynolds said. "There's nothing dirty about it. It's expressing a point of view or an interest, saying here's what we think is important and here's why."

Fran Hirsch, director of property management for San Jose, Calif.-based Brandenberg Staedler & Moore, regularly advocates the manufactured housing industry to all levels of government. "It's necessary to know your local officials and to be in a position to lobby them," Hirsch said. "Even if there are no issues on the horizon, it's kind of an insurance policy to have that access."

And political action means getting involved in the processes. "It's a political process, that's what lobbying is about," Reynolds said. "It's about changing people's minds or reinforcing ideas they already have."

Hirsch recommends forming a lobbying group. Pride, a professor at Vanderbilt, agreed and offered the following example: "I'd find young people who want to buy homes but can't afford to live in them, and help them form an organization in favor of manufactured housing. They would need to be accommodated with new zoning laws to allow that. They could then pool their resources and their numbers and make a difference in their community."

In Iredell County, N.C., Sandy McCurdy not only worked to make sure her local government officials knew about manufactured housing, but also used her knowledge to attempt political change. "We got behind the scenes, we interviewed all of our commissioners and found out who was really against manufactured housing and who just didn't understand it. We supported those who understood it,'' said McCurdy, president and owner of All Mortgage Connections Inc. in Mooresville, N.C.

"We sent letters to all the manufactured housing residents in the county saying 'This is the candidate you need to vote for because he understands manufactured housing and the issues.' "

Last but not least, think about what speaks loudest when campaigning time rolls around-money. "I think it's absolutely necessary to be politically active in every way you can, and that includes contributing,'' Hirsch said. "That's a First Amendment right, and in this state it's clearly a cost of doing business."

"I recommend that they get in their local and state representatives' offices and press the flesh," Keene said. "Let them know that they're voters, and that when this legislation gets turned down, they're stepping on their livelihoods."

RUNNING FOR OFFICE

The ultimate in involvement is actually running for office, or getting appointed to area planning commissions and zoning boards. "We haven't had any members do it here yet, but I wish some would start," Kopowski said. "Those planning and zoning boards that oversee things like zoning text changes-those jobs aren't always full. We could get those appointments. Homebuilders do it. Realtors do it. A number of entities in competition with us, they do it. Why shouldn't our people do it?"

Those who have a vested interest in the future of the industry should market themselves as a ready and willing source of information, a way to make things easier, McCurdy said. "Make these folks aware that they're available for task forces or study forces. We have a wealth of knowledge we can give them,'' she said.

"There's no reason our local people can't get involved. It's about time we got some voices on the other side of the fence."

McCurdy herself hopped that fence last July. Commissioners appointed her to the county planning board, and she says she has every intention of running for county commissioner in the future. Previously, the manufactured housing industry had had some major issues with the commissioners, McCurdy said. "I got very involved in trying to educate and fight the battles that were out there. In the process we decided we needed to be proactive."

"Because we'd sat back and not made any contributions to commissioners until they became anti-manufactured housing, they had trouble getting their views represented," McCurdy said. But since she was appointed, she's been able to affect some changes, including a recent one on proposed criteria for footer requirements.

"We know these guys now,'' McCurdy said. "And with me sitting on the planning board, I was able to make an amendment to help the industry."

An example of her influence was when the board wanted to require 8-foot-by-8-foot porches at both front and side entrances to manufactured homes, McCurdy pointed out that side porches were not required for stick-built homes.

Another time, she said, there was a movement to disallow sales of any manufactured home that was more than 20 years old. "They envisioned these old trailers sitting out here that were falling in,'' McCurdy said. She explained the change in the standards for manufacturing of the homes after 1976, and that the expected life of a manufactured home is now 60 years. "They could have stripped the public of equity,'' in their older homes, McCurdy said.

Andrew Winterkorn has also been quietly working to change the practices and attitudes in Plattsburgh, N.Y., from his seat on the Town Council, his job as general manager of LTS Homes of Plattsburgh Inc., and with his residence. "I've been able to bring knowledge to the town of Plattsburgh firsthand," he said. "I just put my own manufactured home in an exclusive subdivision here in Plattsburgh, and I didn't get one complaint."

Winterkorn said he got into politics after, among other things, being told by a former city leader that his 20-year-old family business had done enough for Plattsburgh and could take its business elsewhere. "I felt we were discriminated against . . . That was a good portion of the reason I decided to get involved." He was elected to a four-year town council term in 1998. Through his influence over appointments to the zoning and planning boards, he has been able to further his industry's inroads in Plattsburgh.

"I've educated these people, the other board members, the codes enforcement officer, the board of zoning appeals, the planning board," Winterkorn said. "There's more knowledge here than there was before I took office."

And in Stony Point, N.Y., there are more ordinances on the books than there were before Fred Bohlander took office. Town councilman and general manager of Mountainview Mobile Home Park, Bohlander says, "Sometimes the only way you're going to be able to get things straightened out in a town is to become part of it. You can't sit on your hands and expect somebody else to do your bidding."

The manufactured housing industry in Stony Point was having trouble because there were no ordinances addressing the use of the homes. To put a manufactured home on a piece of property, or to make improvements or changes to an existing home, the owner had to apply for a zoning variance. "That took up to two and a half months," Bohlander said. "I started pushing almost ten years ago with some of the other supervisors to start recognizing that manufactured homes are here to stay."

If there are no rules in a town about manufactured housing, and the town just perceives it as the "other side of the track kind of housing where the cops are going to be, then often that is how it happens,'' Bohlander said. But with rules governing their placement and use, new communities have to conform to those rules, which can be written to keep stereotypical "trailer parks" from forming.

The Stony Point's present board, Bohlander said, has been very receptive, and the town now has a law that has endured three challenges so far. "Now if you meet certain criteria for replacement, a little stricter requirements for newly developed lots, you get a permit. It's made a 100 percent difference, and you can carry on with your business."

EDUCATION

Even if some of local officials know about the new era of manufactured housing, the majority don't. And it falls to industry members to educate them.

Winterkorn does a little bit of that every year. We have an open house every year at our sales center,'' Winterkorn said. "I invite supervisors, town board members, planning board members-the people who are going to be making the decisions.

"Then they're educated. They understand that it will be a nice subdivision."

Bohlander is also taking things to the state level. "In May we're going to have a 'House on the Hill,' right next to the legislative building in Albany. We put a manufactured home on the concourse and all the government people are invited to come through and actually see what a year 2000 home is like," he said.

"When people get a look at the inside, and at what's available and how they're built-they basically hold their own with the latest stick-built homes. You can get whatever you want, the only limits are imagination and money," he said.

Industry members need to educate themselves, too. They need to know how their local governments work, the processes involved in making change. "A lot of times I think people are just intimidated by local politicians and zoning boards, and they just don't go and do this stuff," Keene said.

It's not difficult to begin keeping up, Kopowski said. Many town and county governments have their meeting agendas published in local newspapers and some will either fax or mail agendas to area residents who request them.

"We don't speak up," Keene said. "That's the whole problem. We need to be proactive and go to the local zoning board meetings and get involved in those issues." McCurdy agreed. "I can't encourage these people enough-let's be active and not wait. You have to face these people. They're human just like we are, and they need to understand our industry,'' McCurdy said. "They're very reasonable once they do. And the ones that aren't? You get them out of office."

© 2000 by Manufactured Housing Institute. All rights reserved.