Looking Back on a Lost Opportunity
In 2005, damage from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina felled a substantial number of dwellings in the Southeastern United States.
The response for immediate replacement housing was met by FEMA, through contracts with travel trailer and mobile home suppliers. Clayton Homes booked a substantial amount of revenue from government contracts, although they were hardly alone.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems with how those contracts were fulfilled. It has become fairly well known that levels of formaldehyde in trailers exceeded acceptable limits. When the health of so many people was put at risk by a government intended to otherwise help them, it made the factory built housing industry look very bad.
In 2008, how will recent history influence the events surrounding this year’s disaster response? In 2006 and 2007, the hurricane season was mild. There was no dramatic event. Already, though, Gustav has roared through with high winds. Ike may be far worse, in particular if it goes through Miami and up along the East Coast. The damage could depend more upon the path of Ike then upon the relative ferocity of the winds.
If a lot of homes are damaged, it might be an opportunity for huge sales in manufactured housing. If only because no other product can adequately house so many people in such a short amount of time.
But any opportunity will be thwarted by memories of how things went just three years ago.
David Oxhandler
September 6, 2008
The problems stem from the government using travel trailers. Manufactured homes build to the federal HUD code were found to have lower than acceptable levels of formaldehyde. The problems were with travel trailers that are not regulated by the federal building code. Using the travel trailers indicates that the folks at FEMA had no real idea what they were ordering or worse just didn’t care. Either way the level of incompetence was typical of the last 7 years of the Bush administration. One more case of huge no bid contracts. Once the money was spent they let the homes sit in storage while people in the gulf region remained homeless. The guys that were driving the purchasing should be fully investigated to see which way the nickels flowed.
Manufactured housing has matured greatly over the past several years into a very reliable and economical alternative to site building. Factory built housing makes a lot of sense. If you were going to buy a new car would you purchase all the parts and get some guys to build it in your driveway? The same scale of economy and benefit of assembly line production can be found in today’s modern factory build homes.
There is a great video on line with Architect Sarah Susanka describing manufactured or prefab housing and why manufactured housing is built in a controlled environment by craftspeople may be of higher quality than a home built on site. at http://mfdhousing.com/portal/stories.php3?nid=6587
Anonymous
September 9, 2008
Great point…I couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t make any sense to leave your materials out in the rain. It doesn’t save money to have to run out to the Home Depot across town in order to get more caulk.