Title
Local Housing Assistance Plan - State Fiscal Years 2005-2007 (B)
Explanation
The Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP) was prepared for the City's participation in the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program, in compliance with Section 420.907, Florida Statutes and Chapter 67-37, Florida Administrative Code. The SHIP Program is implemented and administered by the City of Gainesville Housing Division. The LHAP describes program activities and management plans for the utilization of funds through public/private partnerships to develop and preserve affordable housing in the City. The LHAP addresses affordable housing needs in the community such as homeownership, housing rehabilitation, new construction, rental activities, downpayment assistance, mortgage foreclosure intervention, and special needs housing. The LHAP will provide affordable housing opportunities for eligible residents within the incorporated areas of the City, except as may otherwise be provided through an Inter-Local Agreement with Alachua County (County) for the Special Needs Housing Program (Exhibit H in the LHAP).
The LHAP proposes to update the existing Inter-local Agreement with the County and the SHIP Special Needs Housing Program Guidelines to continue to jointly fund projects for the Special Needs Housing Program. In summary, the current Inter-Local Agreement requires: 1) the City and County to jointly advertise funds and approve project applications; 2) the City to deposit its funds in the County's housing trust fund for funded projects; 3) the County to handle all financial expenditures for funded projects; and 4) the City to monitor all funded projects over the required compliance period. The new Inter-local Agreement and SHIP Special Needs Housing Program guidelines will streamline the joint process by allowing the City and County to continue to jointly advertise funds and approve project applications; however, the City and County will each separately handle its financial expenditures and compliance monitoring for each funded project by the City or County respectively. The Inter-local Agreement does not restrict eligible special needs housing facilities as to geographical location, but the facilities must be located within Alachua County.
In addition, the LHAP proposes to continue on-going housing programs such as downpayment assistance, new construction, mortgage foreclosure intervention, house replacement and special needs housing. The demand for housing rehabilitation services is high, and the construction costs to abate all code violations continue to rise. In an effort to continue addressing the City's waiting list backlog and to counterbalance the rising cost of construction, the LHAP proposes to modify the existing housing rehabilitation programs to concentrate on health/safety violation priorities versus abating all code violations on housing units as follows: 1) Delete the Roof, Emergency Repair, Moderate Rehabilitation and Full Rehabilitation Programs, which concentrate on abating all housing code violations; and 2) Add Emergency Roof Repair Program, Minor Rehabilitation and Major Rehabilitation Programs to address health/safety violation priorities such as plumbing, electrical, roof, heating, handicapped accessibility and structural repairs. The Emergency Roof Program will have a separate short-term waiting list and will assist only those housing units that have actively leaking roofs. The Minor Rehabilitation Program will address health/safety violations such as, plumbing, electrical, roof, heating, handicapped accessibility. The Major Rehabilitation Program will address all items listed in the Minor Rehabilitation Program with the addition of structural issues.
All housing units will be evaluated initially under the Minor Rehabilitation Program. If the housing unit needs structural repairs, then it will be evaluated under the Major Rehabilitation Program. Modifying the housing rehabilitation programs in this manner will allow more flexibility to address the health/safety violations on a priority basis based on the condition of the housing unit, and reduce the overall cost to rehabilitate the housing units. In addition, this will assist in reducing the waiting list backlog, and provide a cost savings to the City because a homeowner will only be eligible to receive housing rehabilitation assistance once versus having to receive assistance from several programs by remaining on the waiting list long-term for the abatement of all housing code violations. There may be some housing units that may require the abatement of all code violations. In cases such as these, the housing unit will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. On a smaller scale budget, the Full Rehabilitation Program will continue to be funded under the HOME Program, which requires the abatement of all housing code violations.
Fiscal Note
The LHAP has been prepared in accordance with the Florida Housing Finance Corporation estimated SHIP Program allocation for the City in the amount of $875,981 for each state fiscal year 2005-2007.
Recommendation
The City Commission: 1) approve the Inter-local Agreement and Special Needs Housing Program Guidelines; 2) authorize the Mayor to execute the Inter-local Agreement and all necessary documents pertinent to the agreement for the Special Needs Housing Program; 3) approve the Local Housing Assistance Plan for State Fiscal Years 2005-2007; 4) authorize the Mayor to execute all necessary documents and certifications pertinent to the Local Housing Assistance Plan; 5) adopt a resolution approving the Local Housing Assistance Plan, as required by the SHIP program; and 6) authorize the submission of the Local Housing Assistance Program for review and approval by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.