Travis County Commssioners Court
May 4, 2004
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Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. 1. Consider results of compliance audit of arboretum oaks apartment, and take appropriate action.
>> good afternoon, I知 harvey Davis manager for the corporation and we recently did a compliance audit of the arboretum oaks apartments. They are located at 9615 -- the 617 great hills drive, next to the arboretum shopping center, it's a very nice apartment complex. They have 252 units. These -- the bonds that -- that the corporation issued originally were issued in 1983, they were refunded, refinanced and -- in 1996. And we -- we looked to see if they are in compliance with their low income tenant requirement. 20% of the units had to be leased to tenants whose income did not exceed 80% of the Austin median income. As -- as you -- as you may well know, recent bonds or not recent, bonds that were issued since mid 80s, the low income requirement is at 50% of the Austin area median income. So there -- their requirements are a little bit higher than more recent bond issues. I did find that they are in compliance with both the low income and eligible tenant requirements, I did find three units, two of which they misclassified the tenants, they classified them as low income, they were actually eligible tenant and then in one situation they -- they did not obtain all of the income certification of all of the tenants in the unit and so -- so that was not qualified. But these were not enough to -- to cause them to not be in compliance with these requirements I知 asking the board to approved the attached letter to send to the owners of the apartment complex. It states they are in compliance but they should be more careful in certificate tying the tenants due to these three units that were not properly classified.
>> any questions about the letter.
>> move approval of the letter.
>> second.
>> move approval of the letter and also the audit and audit results.
>> seconds of the results.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 2. Review and take appropriate action to: a. Approve budget amendment and transfer; and. B. Approve an invoice for grant preparation services.
>> I知 requesting approval of an invoice for $856.48 to -- to hunter and hunter consultants, that is for preparation of the 2004 home down payment assistance grant that we submitted about a week and a half ago. I do represent to the board that he did prepare the grant and it was file understand a timely fashion -- file understand a timely fashion and I recommend the board approve the budget transfer that allows us then to approve the invoice.
>> we agreed on the amount that we would pay him before.
>> yes, sir, we did, $750 up to $200 expenses.
>> that's why I move approval.
>> second.
>> also move approval of a budget transfer to cover this, right?
>> yes, sir.
>> that's part of the motion. Second. Discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 3. Review and take appropriate action to approve marketing plan for first-time home buyer assistance program. Mr. Davis did distribute to us a moment ago a revised little advertisement and there was just one change in that.
>> there were actually two small changes in the flier that was from the original backup. As you know we have been awarded a $300,000 grant to provide 60 forgivable loans to first time home buyers who buy a milburn or main street home in Travis County. Last year mr. Hunter and myself and mary mays went and did the lender training, which did good, had good participation, what I知 asking the board approval is -- is I would like to take certain steps to get the word out about the -- about the -- this program. In the backup is a press release and a flier that I would like the board to approve. I would like to -- to -- permission to -- to do a public announcement, notice that would be sent by e-mail to Travis County employees that would have the press release and the flier as an attachment to the notice so that -- so that Travis County employees are -- are informed about this -- about this new program, when we applied for the grant which was in March of 2003, a part of the application requirement was to do a survey and we obtained 60 surveys that was an integral part of us being awarded the grant. So I知 asking the board's approval to send a letter to the people that took the time and effort to fill out the survey, that we send them a letter, the flier and the -- and the press release so that we're sure that they know about this program. I知 asking permission to put on the Travis County website the flier. There is, you know, in the county departments there is a section for the Travis County housing finance corporation. Then I知 asking permission to -- to put a -- a notice about this program on the Travis County tv station. Most of the developments that are qualified subdivisions for this assistance are located in the eastern part of the county. And so I have listed some various organizations that I would like to make a little special effort to contact and make sure that they know about -- about this program and so I would send them an e-mail or telephone to -- to be sure that -- that organizations on the east side and others, you know, in the whole community, are aware of this program and can -- and can -- of course any other ideas that you all might have to -- to better communicate to the community about this -- about this program that -- that is very nice. I do -- I do want to recognize a couple of people. One is steve stokes from bank one is -- has come and bank one has provided the county a -- or the housing appropriation, a $1,000 to -- a $5,000 grant to help this program out. The flier was not prepared by me, it was prepared by joyce stallings in the county's health and human services department. So I certainly appreciate her effort.
>> it's just now, this all struck me at the last minute in terms of not saying something ahead of time. You can't really tell from the flier why it is that this thing is being focused on main street homes and d.r. Horton homes, but when you read the press release you find out that part of the forgivable grant piece of this is because those two developers are kicking in dollars. And I知 just wondering if that needs to be clarified, judge, because it struck me when you look at it just okay it hits you cold why are we pushing d.r. Horton and main street homes? As opposed they are partners along with Travis County with this forgivable loan concept. That's not really made clear. I can see where that could be misunderstood because we had gotten that criticism before with people saying why are you sending me stuff that appears to be a solicitation on behalf of a developer versus it was part of a partnership. I知 -- I知 just thinking now that I知 seeing it again cold, that we need to explain that because that might strike somebody as why are they pitching these two home builders. The reason is they are part of the grant program.
>> uh-huh.
>> is that the reason?
>> yes, sir, that is.
>> [indiscernible] printed up.
>> I printed up, I have 10 -- 10 year and your backup and that's it.
>> going to be a whole lot more costly than I thought mr. Davis [laughter]
>> to me that strikes me as --
>> you all need to approve this.
>> which is why we approve these.
>> so shall we put partners -- snooj last dot where I have back one provided funds for additional citizens, I think that I would incorporate that in that section of it.
>> bank one, d.r. Horton and main street because that really does highlight all of our partners in on this. And people will go ah okay I get it now.
>> right.
>> thanks.
>> just to review, they are providing $1,250 in grant for each of the 60 loans. That -- that insistence was we use that assistance to obtain match points in this very competitive grant application.
>> okay.
>> I would stick it in that bank one bullet. Make it have instead of has.
>> uh-huh.
>> put all of three of them in there because then it really does explain what the gig is.
>> [indiscernible]
>> no, no. We have until December 2005 to spend this money.
>> I知 talking about as far as the advertisement [indisernible]
>> no.
>> i'd like to see the final version [indiscernible] but anyway --
>> I don't think a week would make a -- a big difference and I certainly would want to make sure that everybody on the board is comfortable with what we are going forward with.
>> I would like to see --
>> also, I can use my college degree, my mother is very proud when I actually get to do that. Two places we have main street as one word, at the bottom we have main street as two words. Whichever it is, it be consistent.
>> your mother would be proud.
>> she's so glad when I actually do kick in and use that, that journalism degree [indiscernible]
>> I believe it's one word. Okay.
>> thank you. I was very good at copy editing.
>> anything further? We have it back on your agenda next week after you've made the changes that have been recommended today.
>> I sure will.
>> all right. Move adjourn.
>> that will be may 11th. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote, also, thank you very much .
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 5, 2004 7:38 AM