Title
State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program Local Housing Assistance Plan-State Fiscal Years 2020-2023 (B)
This item requests the City Commission approval of the proposed SHIP Local Housing Assistance Plan covering State Fiscal Years 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, resolution and required certifications.
Explanation
Since 1992, the City of Gainesville has participated in the SHIP Program, which provides Florida cities and counties with funds to implement programs to promote and preserve affordable housing and home ownership. State law requires cities to adopt a Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP) to receive SHIP funds. The LHAP describes program activities and management plans for the utilization of funds through public/private partnerships which expand the production and preservation of affordable housing within the municipal limits of the City of Gainesville. The LHAP addresses several affordable housing needs in the community, including home ownership, housing rehabilitation, new construction, down-payment assistance, mortgage foreclosure intervention, and rental housing. The goal of the plan is to provide affordable housing opportunities for income eligible residents within the City.
During the development of the LHAP, staff solicited public input and neighbor participation through a series of meetings held in December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020. Participants included neighbors, housing providers, realtors, social service providers and other groups involved in the provision of affordable housing.
Through public input, the community affirmed that the City’s existing housing programs address many of their affordable housing needs. In particular, the community supports Owner Occupied Rehabilitation and Down Payment Assistance, which are the programs that generally receive the most applications for assistance.
In General, the proposed LHAP contains strategies that are similar to the current version. However, to incr...
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