Stay Informed!

By Lauren Williams on 10/25/2011 @ 05:00 PM

Tags: Events, Housing and Homeownership

On October 5 & 6, CFED staff convened about 75 nonprofit and industry leaders from the manufactured housing field in Knoxville, Tenn., for the 2011 I’M HOME retreat. The two-day event was full of engaging conversations about tackling the challenges facing the manufactured housing field, and I can say with confidence that each of my colleagues left Tennessee feeling excited and energized about taking the next steps in advancing our goal of enabling owners of manufactured homes to take advantage of their homes’ affordability while building wealth.

Here are just a few of our top takeaways from the event. If you attended, I hope you’ll consider sharing your takeaways in the comments section below.

• Innovation is critical to success. CFED’s two social ventures, Next Step™ and ROC USA™ demonstrated a very important point at the Knoxville retreat: that innovation is central to the success of affordable housing initiatives. The Next Step™ Network was well-represented and highlighted their work with Clayton Homes, the largest manufacturer of homes in America, while ROC USA™ presented creative ways to promote energy efficiency in resident-owned communities and highlighted new opportunities for financing homes in communities that help lower- and moderate-income families protect their homes as assets..
• Single-family finance is a major priority for I’M HOME. Throughout the day, we heard repeated reminders of the significance and need for high-quality, safe and secure single-family financing options for owners and buyers of manufactured homes. The availability of better products is critical for the asset-building potential of manufactured homes. During the finance panel, speakers emphasized the importance of protecting and improving federal financing alternatives like USDA’s Rural Development 502 program; improving the way appraisals of manufactured homes work; supporting new partnerships like ROC USA®’s with San Antonio Credit Union; and shared new opportunities that have come to the forefront as a result of I’M HOME’s Single-Family Finance initiative.
• Partnership matters. On Thursday, CEO and President of Clayton Homes, Kevin Clayton, delivered the keynote address and emphasized his willingness to work more closely with the nonprofit manufactured housing sector to provide affordable, high-quality, energy efficient manufactured homes. It became clear throughout the retreat that industry alone and manufactured housing nonprofits alone cannot make affordable homeownership for all Americans possible. Instead, synergies between the nonprofit manufactured housing field, the manufactured housing industry and the mainstream affordable housing field are key to the future of the field.

As you can imagine, we’re busy at work building on the momentum from the I’M HOME retreat. If you have questions about the retreat or would like to request more information, send us an email!As you can imagine, we’re busy at work building on the momentum from the I’M HOME retreat. If you have questions about the retreat or would like to request more information, send us an email!

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