TAISMHO NFMHO

NFMHO
National Foundation of Manufactured Home Owners

Chairman's Office: 62 Hawthorne Circle Willow Street, Pennsylvania 17584 717-284-4520 pamhoa@aol.com

Dear Congressman/Senator

On Friday September 8, 2000 we delivered to some members of Congress a report entitled "The Current State of Affairs in "The National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Program", as well as a critique of HUD's Ninth Report to Congress on same. Our conclusions:

(1) Congress enacted the above to reduce the number of personal injuries and deaths to manufactured home owners from accidents involving manufactured homes.

(2) Congress mandated that HUD promulgate CONSTRUCTION and SAFETY standards and any other standards necessary to carry out the purposes of the Act and enforce standards governing their construction, design, and performance to ensure they were (a) built with quality materials, (b) durable and (c) safe for consumers.

(3) The original intent, purpose and objectives of Congress in passing the Act, have been arbitrarily applied, interpreted and ignored by HUD since 1974.

(4) Congress mandated a comprehensive report from HUD every two years which was to include "thorough statistical compilation of (a) the accidents, injuries and deaths involving manufactured homes (b) lawsuits initiated and settled and (c) recommendations for improvements in manufactured housing construction and safety".

(5) This report to Congress has never been comprehensive and has consistently lacked substantial information required by federal law.

(6) HUD no longer gathers these statistics and its last report issued in 1996 represented a survey of only a small percentage of the 17 million manufactured home owners in the United States in 1991-1992. In addition, the report may have failed to include, (a) manufactured homes in many geographic areas of the United States where millions of manufactured home owners reside; and (b) thousands of home owners living in areas of the United States subjected to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters which occurred in 1991-1992. As a result of the aforementioned, Congress has been unduly kept in the dark regarding manufactured housing problems in this country.

(7) The 1974 Act however, as originally passed does contain what is necessary to deliver what Congress promised to manufactured housing consumers in this country. All Congress has to do, is see that HUD or someone, implements and enforces the Act to protect manufactured housing consumers and legitimate manufacturers, as Congress originally intended when they passed the Act in 1974.

(8) The 1974 National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act, is identical to in many ways, the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Act which provided the security of the DOT with what was needed to prevent the current Firestone tire debacle.

Now take a minute to read what the Los Angeles Times just said about the "Firestone Crisis", and see if any of this sounds familiar!

(1) "Efforts to strengthen vehicle safety standards have languished year after year because of lengthy delays, extremes of caution, and shifting priorities within the nation's traffic safety agency".

(2) "Many safety regulations are weak or out of date or fail to address important causes of traffic injuries and deaths. Critics say countless deaths have occurred as a result".

NHTSA has acknowledged that a number of its standards are weak, out of date or fail to address important causes of traffic injuries and deaths. But fixing the problem has proved elusive.

A review of government documents and court records going back 30 years revealed numerous examples.

(3) After 25 years of research and internal debate the NATIONAL Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has yet to take effective action on vehicle rollovers, which killed an estimated 10,133 last year.

(4) NHTSA has not substantially revised its standard on fuel tank safety for more than 25 years, despite the agency's findings that thousands of deaths and injuries occur annually in fire-related crashes, and that the standard is ineffective.

(5) The agency has failed to upgrade its 30-year old standard on head restraints.

(6) Bowing to the auto industry, NHTSA declined to set a minimum strength requirement for latches on rear liftgates of minivans, acting only after reports of 37 deaths of people ejected from the rear.

(7) The agency repeatedly rejected appeals to address the risk of people, especially young children, dying in locked trunks.

(8) Strengthening vehicle standards is a difficult task. On top of the technical complexities, NHTSA faces the powerful resistance of automakers.

CONCLUSION

(1) Congress, in light of the aforementioned about Firestone tires and the National Highway Safety Administration, is not about to repeal the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Act!, as a solution to make tires safer for consumers.

(2) Congress, in light of the aforementioned about manufactured homes and HUD, is about to in effect repeal the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act by passing HR 1776, Title XI and S 1452, as a solution to make manufactured homes safer for consumers.

DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE TO YOU?

We use the Firestone issue to compare, because to restate, the laws contained in the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Act, and in particular, the sections that govern the collection of data by the DOT, and the Notification of the correction of defects, are identical to those contained in the National Manufactured Home Construction and SAFETY Standards Act which HR 1776, Title XI and S 1452 would in effect repeal!

We also believe this Congressional oversight has been driven by the promulgation of deceptive and inaccurate information by the regulated manufactured housing industry, and the enforcer of the regulations (HUD), which they provided to Congress.

This should ring warning bells in your ears since this is the same thing that you (Congress), in public hearings, have been accusing Firestone and DOT of doing. Why is it so difficult for members of Congress to believe that the manufactured housing industry and HUD are not capable of doing the same thing that Firestone and DOT have done? In light of the fact that Congress has no creditable data with which to determine how many people are being killed and injured by defective manufactured homes, it is incomprehensible that, (1) Congress would pass any legislation that would completely do away with any mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of these new standards to protect the public from any unreasonable risk of injury or death, (2) pass any legislation until an accurate assessment could be made into the causes and severity of this program's failures to protect the public. Most certainly this would seem inappropriate until Congress is sure that these program failures have not been caused by the same inaction or failures of the DOT to carry out its duties to assure the public safety under an Act, which is identical in many ways to the NMHCSS Act. If the owners of $25,000 - $35,000 dollar luxury vehicles are entitled to safe tires, then why aren't the consumers of manufactured homes which can cost over $100,000 entitled to safe homes?

Both S.1452 and H.R. 1776, Title XI, effectively eliminate any effective record keeping for this industry, and any report to Congress to let them know if this legislation, if passed into law, is increasing the number of injuries or deaths, or reducing injuries or deaths to manufactured homeowners. Again, we must point out that in the wake of the Firestone firestorm, Congress is promising to strengthen, if necessary, the laws to protect consumers from this type of unconscionable activity by a manufacturer of consumer products (tires), while on the other hand, Congress is moving to weaken the consumer protections for manufactured home owners by doing away with more than half of the unimplemented consumer protections in the current 1974 Act. Why? Aren't manufactured home owners entitled to "equal protection" under the law? Congress mandated that they were in 1974. They gave HUD the responsibility to ensure that. HUD failed to carry this out; and now Congress is about to "look the other way" and forgive HUD for not carrying out its responsibilities! Regardless of HUD's failure to enforce the law, the manufacturers have an obligation as citizens of the Untied States to obey the laws of this country. It would appear based on Congresses propensity to go along with this legislation (S.1452 and H.R. 1776) that many in Congress are willing to forgive the manufacturers of this product for not complying with the laws of the United States and in general the same behavior that they are not willing to forgive Firestone and Ford for.

What gives?

Respectfully,

Deborah J. Chapman, Chair
National Foundation of Manufactured Home Owners (NFMHO)

John Taylor,
The American Internet Society of Manufactured Home Owners (TAISMHO)

LETTERS AND RESPONSES

TAISMHO HOME PAGE

(1)	Congress enacted the above to reduce the number of personal injuries and deaths to manufactured home owners from accidents involving manufactured homes.
(2)	Congress mandated that HUD promulgate CONSTRUCTION and SAFETY standards and any other standards necessary to carry out the purposes of the Act and enforce standards governing their construction, design, and performance to ensure they were (a) built with quality materials, (b) durable and (c) safe for consumers.
(3)	The original intent, purpose and objectives of Congress in passing the Act, have been arbitrarily applied, interpreted and ignored by HUD since 1974.
(4)	Congress mandated a comprehensive report from HUD every two years which was to include "thorough statistical compilation of (a) the accidents, injuries and deaths involving manufactured homes (b) lawsuits initiated and settled and (c) recommendations for improvements in manufactured housing construction and safety".
(5)	This report to Congress has never been comprehensive and has consistently lacked substantial information required by federal law.
(6)	HUD no longer gathers these statistics and its last report issued in 1996 represented a survey of only a small percentage of the 17 million manufactured home owners in the United States in 1991-1992. In addition, the report may have failed to include, (a) manufactured homes in many geographic areas of the United States where millions of manufactured home owners reside; and (b) thousands of home owners living in areas of the United States subjected to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters which occurred in 1991-1992. As a result of the aforementioned, Congress has been unduly kept in the dark regarding manufactured housing problems in this country.
(7)	The 1974 Act however, as originally passed does contain what is necessary to deliver what Congress promised to manufactured housing consumers in this country. All Congress has to do, is see that HUD or someone, implements and enforces the Act to protect manufactured housing consumers and legitimate manufacturers, as Congress originally intended when they passed the Act in 1974.
(8)	The 1974 National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act, is identical to in many ways, the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Act which provided the security of the DOT with what was needed to prevent the current Firestone tire debacle.

(1)	"Efforts to strengthen vehicle safety standards have languished year after year because of lengthy delays, extremes of caution, and shifting priorities within the nation's traffic safety agency".
(2)	"Many safety regulations are weak or out of date or fail to address important causes of traffic injuries and deaths. Critics say countless deaths have occurred as a result".
	NHTSA has acknowledged that a number of its standards are weak, out of date or fail to address important causes of traffic injuries and deaths. But fixing the problem has proved elusive.
	A review of government documents and court records going back 30 years revealed numerous examples.
(3)	After 25 years of research and internal debate the NATIONAL Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has yet to take effective action on vehicle rollovers, which killed an estimated 10,133 last year.
(4)	NHTSA has not substantially revised its standard on fuel tank safety for more than 25 years, despite the agency's findings that thousands of deaths and injuries occur annually in fire-related crashes, and that the standard is ineffective.
(5)	The agency has failed to upgrade its 30-year old standard on head restraints.
(6)	Bowing to the auto industry, NHTSA declined to set a minimum strength requirement for latches on rear liftgates of minivans, acting only after reports of 37 deaths of people ejected from the rear.
(7)	The agency repeatedly rejected appeals to address the risk of people, especially young children, dying in locked trunks.
(8)	Strengthening vehicle standards is a difficult task. On top of the technical complexities, NHTSA faces the powerful resistance of automakers.