Fifth Third is going to put a vote before its shareholders to accept TARP funding.  The meeting is scheduled on Dec. 29th.  Fifth Third will receive $3.46 billion in funding through the US Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program.

You could argue that making a major capital decision with public money on a two-day work week between Christmas and New Year’s is a little bit opaque.  That would hardly be out of character with recent events, though.  Remember that Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch was approved on the Friday after Thanksgiving. And of course there was Paulson’s initial plan to not allow any oversight of the $700 billion TARP.

So it should not be that surprising that banks are turning out to be less than forthcoming about how they are actually using our public money.

There is an article by the Associated Press today, revealing that the 21 banks that have already received TARP funds are uniformly hush-hush on how they will use the money.  So, although they are taking public money, there is no oversight function for its use.

• “We’re not sharing any other details. We’re just not at this time.” — Comerica
• “I just would prefer if you wouldn’t say that we’re not going to discuss those details.” – Bank of New York Mellon
• “We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking,” — SunTrust

Secrecy is a bad policy.  The truth has a way of coming out.  Being secretive, as was most evident by the spokesperson for Bank of New York Mellon, encourages inquiring minds to dig deeper.  Certainly, they have already drawn the ire and curiousity of Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who sits on the House Financial Services committee.

The banks are going to be caught holding the money, or making the same kind of loans that led to the credit crisis.  Wait until we hear that TARP money is fueling payday lending, RALs, or pawn shop lending.

Manufactured Housing Reader would like to extend greetings to its readers.  Thanks for following the news on this industry for the last year.

Beginning in 2009, Manufactured Housing Reader will undergo some changes.  The focus of this blog is going to expand to include the fields of affordable housing, mortgages, and consumer finances.  So many of the issues that matter to residents of manufactured housing connect to financial issues shared by other groups.  We will stick talk about some of the nuts and bolts of manufactured housing.  However, we will also discuss some of the issues facing working class consumers in the United States.

The new redesign will prompt a new name for this blog.

It is my hope that the change will allow this site to host more interesting debates.

On Friday, Fleetwood received formal notification from the NYSE that it is non-compliance and that its stock will be delisted.  The NYSE requires that issues traded on its exchange maintain a price of at least $1.  Fleetwood’s stock has fallen below that level and it currently is trading for just nine cents a share.

On Friday, Fleetwood also announced that it had refinanced $100 million in subordinated debt.  It will issue preferred shares that pay a fourteen percent dividend in order to exit the older debt.

Champion (CHB) may be next.  Today, there stock is at 89 cents.  One difference is that the board at Champion has been buying up the firm’s own stock.  In November, insiders purchased a little over 300,000 shares in their company.  No one at Fleetwood has bought any shares since September.

President-elect Barack Obama nominated Shaun Donovan to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Obama named the appointment during Saturday’s Democratic Radio Address.

Donovan is currently the Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development.  He formerly worked for Prudential.  He holds a graduate degree from Harvard and has authored articles at the University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

His experience in New York gives him ample time to understand how to run an organization with a large budget.  Obama praised Donovan for his work in developing an affordable housing plan for the City.

His experience has touched upon not just development, but also issues related to finance and zoning.  He has worked to help New Yorkers avoid subprime loans. The affordable housing plan includes incentives for developers to put affordable units in upscale development.

Donovan does not appear to have any experience with manufactured housing.  He is an eastern urbanite with a focus on preservation of housing.  Nonetheless, his credentials as a “houser” are excellent and speak well for his ability to revitalize HUD.  The agency has been wounded, following the resignation of Alphonso Jackson.

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NPR has a great story highlighting the plight of families being forced out of their mobile homes in Washington State.

It is a combination of increasing land prices, a lack of public concern, and lack of available resources that contribute to the problem, according to the report.

States like Florida, Nevada, and Washington are among the states with the greatest turnover, says NPR reporter Austin Jenkins.  In spite of its status as our nation’s largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing, no national response exists to address the needs of the manufactured housing sector.

Yet many local initiatives are burgeoning.  Jenkins’ story highlights the co-op model in New Hampshire.  It also acknowledges the need for complementary approaches, such as acquisition through the non-profit model when land costs exceed the buying power of residents on their own.