OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: April 14, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Housing and Property

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, I would argue that the fact that home sales are increasing for manufactured homes is even more of a reason for us to want to be protective of some kind of an industry that is growing.

I represent areas in which there are a number of manufactured homes throughout the rural parts of Missouri that are included in the Fifth Congressional District. I am a capitalist. I believe that people ought to be able to make money. I think they ought to make money in the manufactured home industry, and I would like for them to make money in the Fifth Congressional District.

Yet I think that everyone in here would agree that we have all had questions about what happens when a car is purchased and the driver drives it around the corner and loses about $1,200 in depreciation. Nobody I have ever met or had a conversation with said, Oh, I understand that. The car depreciates almost as soon as you sign the note. What happens is that this is an unintended reason for more, I think, congressional oversight of this particular industry because these homes also lose value like automobiles. Let me give you an example from the Seattle study. This is sad, and I will try and do this quickly, Mr. Speaker.

Tiffany Galler is a single mother who was living in Florida in 2005. She bought a mobile home for $37,165. With the loan she purchased from 21st Mortgage, she then rented the home out. She made payments for 8 years, payments totaling more than the sticker price of the home. Galler lost her tenant in November of 2013, and she fell behind on her payments. She arranged to show the home to a prospective renter 2 months later, but when she arrived at her home site, Ms. Galler found barren dirt with PVC pipe sticking up from the ground. She called 911, thinking someone had stolen her home, but she found out later that her home was 30 miles away and was up for sale for $25,900.

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Mr. CLEAVER. That is a real reason for us not only to look at this industry but to protect people as it is growing.

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