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 the Local Government Contribution (“LGC”) and Local Government Area of Opportunity (“LGAO”) commitment for Broward County affordable housing projects submitted to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (“FHFC”), via the solicitation outlined within the 2025/2026 FHFC Requests for Applications (“RFAs”) cycle; and to authorize future use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) federal funds, or other available Broward County affordable housing resources to replace the HFA’s reserves funds, in an amount up to $2,000,000, if one or more local projects are selected by the FHFC.
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Why Action is Necessary
Approval of the use of HFA funding is required by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners.
What Action Accomplishes
Allows the HFA to use up to $2,000,000 from its reserve account to provide LGC commitments (estimated at $100,000 per project) and one LGAO commitment (minimum of $640,000 for the project) for applications submitted under the 2025/2026 FHFC RFAs cycle, subject to replacement of HFA funding with CDBG, HOME federal funds, or other County affordable housing resources if one or more projects are selected by 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 June 13, 2025, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (“FHFC”) approved the “Florida Housing Finance Corporation Tentative 2025/2026 Funding Amounts/Timelines (All Information Subject to Change)” (“Timeline”), which outlines estimated funding amounts and deadlines for FHFC programs, including 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, State Apartment Incentive Loan (“SAIL”) funding, and other anticipated FHFC Requests for Applications (“RFAs”). To help affordable housing developers maximize application scores, certain applications are anticipated to require a Local Government Contribution (“LGC”). Without an LGC, projects are unlikely to achieve maximum scoring, and therefore, would not be as 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 Housing Finance Authority’s (“HFA”) commitments includes $640,000 for one application for an affordable housing project located within the BMSD. 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.
Further, each year the Housing Finance Division advertises for applications for use of the annual Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) federal fund allocations. The incongruent timing between County and FHFC funding cycles may preclude the Board of County Commissioners (“Board”) from timely provision of CDBG, HOME, or other housing funds to serve as the LGC or LGAO commitment for the recently announced FHFC 2025/2026 RFAs. Therefore, to provide developers an opportunity to achieve local match certification during the RFA funding opportunities, the HFA, at its April 16, 2025, meeting, approved Resolution 2025-003 (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 2025/2026 FHFC RFAs, 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 2025-003 was approved as to legal sufficiently by the Office of the County Attorney.
All selected projects will require future Board approval for the allocation of any CDBG, HOME, or other available County funds in calendar years 2025 or 2026.
Source of Additional Information
Ralph Stone, Director, Housing Finance Division, 954-357-5320.
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact/Cost Summary
No fiscal impact.