Failure 1

blocked by local planning boards, elected officials and neighbors, even when units could be had for free or for greatly reduced costs over building on site Lesson: get buy-in or build where buy-in is not part of the equation
Almost all of us associated with KC advocacy failed to appreciate the difficulty of changing the way business is usually done, whether we’re talking infrastructure planning, zoning, housing finance or construction Lesson: system has inertia. We must be 100x better faster stronger.
As disaster recovery researchers note, the push in the wake of the trauma is to get things back to the way they were as quickly as possible. Lesson: don't work in acute trauma scenario - just trauma.
To many, smaller implied settling for less; and manufactured housing, no matter how sophisticated the design or the quality of materials, translated to “trailer park.” Lesson: OSE/OBI is not manufactured housing.
‘It’s hard to think about ways to drain the swamp when alligators are biting your ass.’”
There’s this, as well: The efficiencies of cottage neighborhood approaches are fully realized only in infill locations. What makes living in a 400 to 800-sq.-ft. home work is access to lots of choices beyond its walls: Close-by schools, work places, shopping,

Failure 2

From [1] - Katrina Cottage was unbuildable (ie, was expensive to build). Or put another way:
Mobile home industry cannot change overnight.
Dream was about homes 1/2 size and 60% cost. For OSE/OBI, it's same size and 1/3 cost. That is 6x better out of the box.