Broward County Commission Regular Meeting
Director's Name: Leonard Vialpando
Department: Resilient Environment Division: Housing Finance Division
Information
Requested Action
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MOTION TO APPROVE use of Housing Finance Authority (“HFA”) funds as (1) Local Government Contribution (“LGC”) commitments countywide, and (2) one Local Government Area of Opportunity (“LGAO”) commitment for a development located within the Broward Municipal Services District (“BMSD”), with commitments to be sized to meet the minimum Florida Housing Finance Corporation (“FHFC”) requirement per application for the 2024-2025 FHFC Programs, subject to such commitments being replaced with federal Community Development Block Grant (“CDBG”) or HOME Improvement Investment Program (“HOME”) funds, other County housing resources, or bond allocation, and to publish notices regarding the availability of such funding. (Commission District 8)
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Why Action is Necessary
Board approval is required for use of HFA funding.
What Action Accomplishes
Allows the HFA to provide up to $2,000,000 from its reserve account to provide an LGC (estimated value of $100,000 per project) and one LGAO commitment (minimum of $640,000 for the project) for the 2024/2025 FHFC RFA’s, subject to replacing the HFA funding with CDBG or HOME federal funds, or other County affordable housing resources if one or more projects are selected by the FHFC.
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Previous Action Taken
None taken.
Summary Explanation/Background
THE RESILIENT ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT AND THE HOUSING FINANCE DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the Board’s Value of “Ensuring residents have an affordable place to live by offering sustainable, compatible, innovative, accessible, affordable housing options for all income levels, including integrated, permanent supportive housing and zoning that helps residents build equity."
On March 26, 2024, the FHFC advertised the “Florida Housing Finance Corporation Tentative 2024/2025 Funding Amounts/Timelines (All Information Subject to Change)” (“Timeline”), which provides estimated funding amounts and deadlines for FHFC programs including 9% tax credit financing, State Apartment Incentive Loan funding, and other anticipated FHFC Requests for Applications (“RFA”). To assist affordable housing developers to achieve maximum points, certain applications are anticipated to require a Local Government Contribution (“LGC”). Without the LGC, projects would likely not achieve maximum scoring, and therefore, would not be competitive in the FHFC process. The current Broward County (“County”) contribution to meet the FHFC LGC requirement is at least $100,000 per project. Historically, between three to five projects receive FHFC funding annually.
Additionally, within the RFA ranking process, applications that meet the Local Government Area of Opportunity (“LGAO”) requirements have priority over applications without such commitment. The minimum LGAO is currently $640,000. A local government may only contribute to one application that qualifies for the LGAO designation. To assure that developments within the Broward Municipal Services District (“BMSD”) are eligible to qualify for the LGAO, it is recommended the HFA’s commitments includes $640,000 for one application for an affordable housing project located within the BSMD. HFA staff recommends funding be awarded first to an elderly housing development. If there are multiple elderly developments, the development with the greatest number of affordable housing units would be ranked higher. If a tie continues, the award will be determined by lottery.
Therefore, to provide developers an opportunity to achieve local match certification during the RFA funding cycles, the HFA, at its April 17, 2024, meeting, approved Resolution 2024-004 (Exhibit 1). The HFA’s Resolution authorizes the use of up to $2,000,000 from the HFA’s reserve account to provide the LGC and LGAO commitment for the 2024/2025 FHFC RFA’s, subject to using future CDBG, HOME or other available County affordable housing resources to replace the use of HFA funds if one or more projects are approved by FHFC. The HFA Resolution 2024-004 was approved as to legal sufficiently by the Office of the County Attorney.
Source of Additional Information
Ralph Stone, Director, Housing Finance Division, 954-357-5320.
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact/Cost Summary
All selected projects will require future Board approval for the allocation of any CDBG, HOME, or other available County funds in calendar years 2024 or 2025.