Manufactured homes, such as the one pictured, are under threat from government policy, say industry leaders.

Industry representatives of the manufactured home business are prepping for a Wednesday testimony before the House Financial Services Committee that will, according to reports, spotlight the critical failures of legislation dating back to 2000.

As described in a HousingWire report, the Chairman of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform, John Bostick, will testify that key measures of 2000’s Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 were not properly implemented, and as a result, the reputation and health of manufactured homes has suffered.

“Bostick claims a failure to change this reputation has pushed Ginnie Mae to announce higher loan securitization requirements for manufactured homes when compared to other types of FHA-insured loans,” the report states.

Though the legislation was created to ease regulatory pressure on the manufactured home industry and allow for easier financing, Bostick claims the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has done the exact opposite by restricting credit and undermining the value of manufactured properties, especially through unfair demands on builders.

“Specifically, FHA Title I (stipulates that) manufactured housing lenders must have (a) minimum net worth of at least $10 million — as compared with $2.5 million for site-built lenders — plus 10 percent of the dollar amount of all outstanding manufactured housing mortgage-backed securities,” Bostick will say in his testimony, according to HousingWire.

As HousingWire has reported before, times have been tough for the manufactured home industry. In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Kevin Clayton, the CEO of Clayton Homes and leader of the Manufactured Housing Institute, cited some stark numbers on the industry’s present progress.

“Since 2005, the pace of new manufactured homes sold in the U.S. has declined by 65 percent (146,881 in 2005 versus 50,046 in 2010) and there has been a decline of nearly 80 percent since 2000 (when 250,419 new manufactured homes were produced),” he said.