Title
Grant to the Charles R. Perry Construction Institute at Santa Fe Community College (NB)
This item proposes to award a $46,500 grant from the Infill Housing Program to the Charles R. Perry Construction Institute at Santa Fe Community College to construct a 1000-square-foot residence that will be owned by the City, and resold to an income-eligible homeowner.
Explanation
Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) has created an innovative program that will involve students enrolled at the Charles R. Perry Construction Institute working with construction faculty to build new homes in a classroom environment. The completed homes will be relocated to available City-owned lots and resold to income-eligible homebuyers. This program will provide students with hands-on knowledge, skills and experience in all of the residential construction trades.
The new homes will be modeled after the "Katrina Cottages" house plans, and will be approximately 1000 square feet. Cost is estimated at $65,000 for the materials to construct each new home. The cost to build the new homes will not have any direct labor costs because the manual labor will be performed by students through this program. SFCC is seeking state matching dollars at a 60/40 rate for all qualified donations. For SFCC to access the matching funds during calendar year 2007, the City must deposit its funds in the Santa Fe account by January 15, 2007. This type of project is eligible for federal HOME funds; but, federal law prevents the drawdown of federal funds prior to the expenditure of these funds. Since federal funds are on a reimbursement basis, staff is recommending that the City Commission approve the use of General Funds to advance the funds to SFCC and then reimburse the General Fund from HOME funds as the funds are expended to build the new home.
The City will own the completed house, and can relocate it to a vacant lot for resale to an income eligible homebuyer. The site will need to be prepa...
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