News Stories Highlight Importance of Media Education on Manufactured Homes

PORT ALLEN, LA, December 22, 2010 (Press-News.org) Recent news stories highlight the importance for the manufactured home industry of providing reporters and editors with the information necessary to get the terms right. As several recent cases concerning fires in likely pre-HUD Code mobile homes demonstrate, new reports frequently and inadvertently paint manufactured homes in a bad light, when the homes in question are not modern manufactured homes at all.

Channel WAFB in Louisiana ran a story December 14 titled Flames destroy manufactured home in minutes. We asked an expert, who says visual evidence from the photo suggests this is a pre-HUD Code mobile home, not a manufactured home built to the federal safety standards established by the HUD Code. Thus by definition, the home is most likely not a manufactured home; it's a mobile home.

Port Allen Fire Chief Rick Boudreaux gave credence to our determination that the home in question was not a manufactured home built to the HUD code. Boudreaux says while he couldn't definitively confirm the year the unit at the Dudes Trailer Park was built, the inspectors were unable to find a manufacturers plate, found on HUD Code homes. "It's a safe assumption," Boudreaux responded when asked if he thought the home was built before 1976. "Most of the units there are from the 50s, 60s and 70s."

"This story demonstrates why it's important to get the terms right and use them consistently," says MHMSM.com Publisher L.A. 'Tony' Kovach. "It's also important to continuously educate the media on the proper use of the terms. It is unfair to the millions of manufactured home owners when they and others are given the impression that manufacured homes are fire risks. In fact, as an earlier report we did demonstrated, they are as safe or safer against a fire as conventional housing. We believe the mainstream media wants to get it right, but informing them of the distinctions between mobile homes and modern manufactured homes is important to their credibility in such stories."

A separate story, this one in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette in Ohio states, "for owners of manufactured homes, it's even more important to make sure your home is fire-safe. Manufactured housing has the highest risk of fire deaths because fires spread faster--particularly in homes built before new safety standards took effect in 1976."

"If you're following closely, you know that manufactured homes were not built before June 15, 1976," says Kovach. "So a home built before that date is a mobile home, that was built to different standards. Manufactured home or manufactured housing are the terms properly given to the homes upon the adoption of the HUD Code in June 15, 1976."

MHMSM.com recently interviewed insurance experts who confirmed a manufactured home built to the HUD code is no more prone to fire than a site-built home. Insurance stuties confirm they are as safe or safer than conventional housing. The article, entitled "Do Manufactured Homes Burn Faster? Experts Say No" is available here:
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/industry-news/industry-in-focus .

In addition, MHMSM.com has prepared a fact sheet for reporters on the use of common terms including manufactured home, HUD Code home and mobile home. It is available here http://www.mhmsm.com/manufactured-home-fact-sheet-for-reporters .

About MHMSM.com - Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal, a.k.a. MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or MHMSM.com, is the largest and most popular media outlet that focuses on factory built housing, including top feature writers and industry focused news.

Note to media: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com staff and Industry experts are available to discuss issues related to modular, prefab and manufactured housing, the federal HUD code for Manufactured Housing and other factory built housing topics. Call us at 847-730-3692.