Title
Florida Housing Finance Corporation Workforce Housing Innovation Pilot Program (NB)
This item proposes to authorize the City Manager to apply for a grant from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation's Workforce Housing Innovation Pilot Program (CWHIP) for the Kennedy Homes site.
Explanation
The CWHIP is a new pilot program administered by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) that proposes to award up to $50 million as grants/loans to cities/counties on a competitive basis to develop affordable rental or owner occupied housing for essential services and other workforce personnel. The maximum request for CWHIP funding may not exceed $5,000,000.
Florida Housing intends to fund projects in as many different counties as possible, at an amount up to $5,000,000 for each project consistent with the goals set for each category, in the following order: 1) high cost counties; 2) high growth counties; and 3) innovative projects. Each county has been ranked according to growth and housing cost, so the City's competitive situation on this application may not be strong, but staff considers it worth pursuing. Alachua County has been ranked in the middle of the bottom tier for both growth and cost. The City has a history of being innovative with projects such as Cedar Grove II, and thus hopes, despite the ranking on growth and costs, to compete for the funds.
The maximum income limit for the CWHIP Program is 140% of median family income adjusted for family size, which currently is $76,300 for a family of four in the Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area. However, if the City combines SHIP, CDBG or HOME funds to match the CWHIP funds, the income limits will be 80% to 120% of median family income adjusted for family size for any units assisted also with those funds.
The innovation strategy categories are land use, local and other. The threshold items that every application must have to be considered complete are: public/...
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