Travis County Commissioners Court
October 24, 2006
Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation, three items. Number one is to consider and take appropriate action on request to approve, a, contract for construction management between Travis County and the Travis County housing finance corporation, and b, agreement with Texas department of criminal justice for the visitation center. We need this item back on the agency next week. We are still working on that matter and so we need to postpone that one, plus the one for the Commissioners court as we did this morning.
>> yeah.
>> two is to consider and take appropriate action on adoption of initial resolution and approval of agreement to issue bonds for issuance of bonds to finance residential development for the college houses, incorporated.
>> good afternoon. I'm harvey Davis, manager for the corporation with cliff blunt, our attorney and alan robinson, who is the executive director of college house co-op. And they submitted an application for the corporation to issue approximately $10,545,000 in bonds, and this is to is construct a new or tear down a house and then construct a larger co-op at 1905 and 1907 nueces street. And if it's okay, I'd like to turn it over to mr. Robertson to make a presentation.
>> president Biscoe and board members, my name is alan robinson, I'm with college houses. We've been providing affordable housing to students since 1964. And at this point we have a chance to add to that. As you may know, housing in west campus is very, very expensive. All the new developments going up, the typical is a $1,600.000 square foot apartments without utilities. On the other hand, we're providing housing say for a single room for $605 a month. That includes 17 meals a week and utilities. You strip all that out and you're talking about, say, 3 $375 for the rental portion. For a double is $469, so that's even more inexpensive. That means we can serve people between 15 and 25 percent of median family become income. The city has recently rezoned the area near campus and the neighborhoods over a two year period came to an agreement wrf they thought density made sense. And where we are, we could theoretically pupt a building that's about 175 square feet. We're planoga seven story building. We're very excited about the project and in terms of affordability, by getting taxes and bonds we're going to save between one percentage and one and a half percentage points, maybe up to two, and that's 40 to $60 a month that we don't have to charge our members. So through our help we can help -- we can make this an affordable project. I thought I would just let -- we've got claude mccracken and leslie patterson, members of our co-op, I thought I would let them explain what it's like to live at the co-op.
>> during the summer I was a chef at the co-op and what that means is I helped cook essentially a meal for over 100 residents of the house. We essentially run the house forward and back. We essentially manage everything. I'm an officer at the co-op. I'm essentially their pc group is what my official title is, but in between us and all the officers, we run the house. It's a complete democratic environment. Everyone has an equal vote in, say, how their houses are shaped. On top of that it's just a great community. I mean, everyone knows everyone by their name. They know them by their face. There's just a greater security and community by living in a co-op because just because of that, just because you know your neighbor and everything else. And the great thing on top that have is it's affordable. I wouldn't be able to live right next to u.t. If it wasn't for these co-opens. I would be paying easily over a thousand dollars for month for what I'm getting here at the co-op for just 600. And that includes everything, all utilities, food. I can go at one a.m. And go get a midnight snack and it's no big deal because it's my house. I get to go do that. I think it's a great benefit just for the west campus area and everywhere else.
>> is there any room for us?
>> [ laughter ]
>> I'll turn it over --
>> snack.
>> [ laughter ] if we're going to do this deal, we ought to get something out of it.
>> hello, I'm leslie patterson. And I've lived in the co-ops for about three and a half years now, since I was a freshman in '03. I have to say that living in the co-ops is the best thing that I've ever done in my life. I've met people from australia, from england, japan, korea, everywhere in the world. And currently I'm ceferbing as director of the pearl street co-op, which is down the street from where claude lives, and we have an amazing community of 1 is 20 students -- 1 is 1 twenlt 120 students from u.t., a.c.c. I go to st. Ed's. We are students and we achieve a successful running house. We make sure people do their labor. We're all required to do four hours of labor every week and I'm just really proud of my organization and I'm proud that Austin is one of the premier towns in the united states that can provide such an opportunity for people above living in your own apartment, which is outrageously expensive in west campus. And people always ask me how can you afford to live in west campus? And I tell them about the co-ops and I get to walk five minutes to my job, I get to walk five minutes to the bus stop to go to saint he'd ed's and I would never trade this experience for anything. Thank you for considering our issue.
>> you have made arrangements with the financial institution to purchase the bonds?
>> we're actually issuing them to the market. So, for instance, institutional buyers will get 100,000 increments and then a bank, which is going to be wachovia.
>> the arrangement with wachovia is pretty firm?
>> yes, sir.
>> judge, whe a conference call at 30:30 and the bank representatives were on the phone aingd the written -- and the written commitment, it's supposed to be revised this week, so they are, stind, on board and really to go. One other thing I would like to quickly point out is the resolution, we weren't sure of the amount when thee drafted these. It's in the amount of not greater then 15 million, but I think the bond issuance will be 10.7. I believe that's what I heard earlier on the conference call. The schedule is hoping to close the first week or two of December, so I would anticipate bringing final documents back and a full package of all the details towards the end of November or the first of December for final approval.
>> any down side that immediately comes to one's attention?
>> from a financial perspective, the party take the risk will be wacho via and the party issuing the bonz, so there's no real financial risk to the corporation and of course not to the county. And my understanding from everything I've learned about college houses over the last month or two is that it's a very interesting organization that does a good job.
>> it's changed a whole lot since you've been in college, mr. Blunt.
>> that is correct.
>> but unfortunately so have the prices. 'I was stunned when we met last week and we heard what the prices are now for apartments. And my first apartment there were three of us sharing a 315-dollar a month apartment, and that was all bills paid, 33rd and speedway. So you add that on top of all the increases on tuition because those were the good old days of four dollars a semester hour, you quickly see that to go to a flag flagship university like the university of Texas, it's tough and y'all don't count in terms of affordable housing set asides in communities for poor people, y'all are in that category, but you don't count in term of those alotments. So this will allow y'all to go to a fine institution, multiple fine institutions. And I think it's great.
>> ad valorem taxwise, no implications for --
>> the co-op is exempt from property taxes.
>> so the co-op is -- so this property will be off the tax rolls. So all of the projects that we do are off the ad valorem tax rolls?
>> this project is. The land -- they already own the land, so they're not --
>> the financing will have no bearing on the tax exemption.
>> I didn't think that those were necessarily tied.
>> they are not, correct.
>> but this one is because of prior --
>> well, because of the nature of the organization and their ownership of the property, they're a 501(c)3 organization that qualifies under the property tax, not the internal code, but the property tax code of the state of Texas.
>> how much property in that area do you think has those sort of exemptions?
>> I would say that college houses and icc co-opens are the only ones, so we've got a total of six right now.
>> eight. A total of 14 properties.
>> because the exemption is fairly specific, for 501(c)3 organizations providing housing for students. So it's very narrow.
>> the other thing toipt point out in terms of procedure, is because college house sz a 501(c)3 organization, we do not have to go through the bond review board and get an allocation from the state. We do have to go through the attorney general's office and have the attorney general approve the bonds and the documents. So it's a little bit different than what we normally have to do.
>> any other questions? Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> [ applause ]
>> we've never had clapping before.
>> [ laughter ] you can come back more often.
>> we've had clapping, not necessary floi twha we've done. -- not necessarily for what we've done. Bring some of that food over here. We'll see how well you prepare that food.
>> it comes with chores.
>> number 3 is is to consider and take appropriate action on request to stop payment on check number 1156 and issue a replacement check payable to Texas dent of housing and community affairs.
>> the amount of this check that was issued in may of this year was for $1,562 and it was sent to the state for reimbursement of one of our down payment assistance loans that was repaid. And the state, they never cashed it, so I finally called them and they can't -- they have no record of having received the check. I have no idea of what happened to it, so I'm requesting permission to issue a replacement check and to place a stop payment order on this particular check.
>> so that means that we know for a fact that this check has not cleared.
>> yes.
>> our chk.
>> yes, we know that. We doubled checked that.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> move adjourn.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote also.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 24, 2006 7:59 AM