Travis County Commissioners Court
January 29, 2008
Travis County Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. One item, consider and take appropriate action on request to prepare a grant application for funding from the Texas department of housing and community affairs.
>> I知 harvey Davis, manager of the coorption. As you know, the mission of the corporation is to help families with rental assistance, with our bond program for multi-family apartments and help low and moderate income that are first time home buyers acquire the dream of homeownership. Within the homeownership part of our mission, we have basically two areas that we work on and one is our bond program or mortgage loan program where we issue bonds and provide mortgages for first-time home buyers. And the second is with our downpayment assistance program where we apply for grants from the Texas department of housing and community affairs to provide downpayment assistance to first-time home buyers. First-time home buyers whose income are either below 80% of the Austin area median family income or below 60% of the Austin area median family income. These funds, they come from h.u.d. Through the state and the state then issues opportunities for local government and non-profits to apply for grants for these downpayment assistance funds. Last time they issued request for application was two years ago and they have just issued this request that -- asking the board to allow us to prepare a grant application. The grants are due March 8th and I have prepared an outline of how we would apply for these funds which is similar to the grant application that we prepared two years ago. Your housing finance corporation has prepared -- we have had six programs in the past. We have assisted through these home funds and we've assisted more than 150 families acquire the american dream of homeownership. So the outline for this grant is that we would apply for a grant of $300,000. The corporation as a match would put in $36,000, and we would also get an administrative fee from the grant of $12,000. This would provide us the ability to help 40 families with a forgivable loan of $8,000 each and we would have then other costs associated with our consultant, the legal expenses, the inspection that we have to do which would come to about -- which would come to $700 per family. Specifically a couple of parts of the plan that I知 presenting -- I知 asking you to approve that are different from what we did two years ago is on the home buyer education part of it, I知 asking permission to negotiate again with consumer credit counseling to do the home buyer education. They've done a good job and they've provided the home buyer education for the last three programs. What I知 suggesting that we do this time is to pay them up front $75 per home buyer for the grant, and with the understanding that people come and take the classes that don't close so that if we fully originate, they would actually teach more than 40 families. But if we don't fully originate, they may teach less than 40 families, but they would still get the $75 per family. And the rationale for that is that it just -- we pay them one time and we're finished, we don't have to collect checks from families and then pay consumer credit counseling, it just eliminates the administrative fees. The second change that I知 recommending is on the current program we require the home buyer to use a bond program. The home buyer has to use either the county's bond program, the state's bond program or the state's mortgage credit certificate program. And I知 suggesting that we allow the home -- we encourage the home buyer to use the bond program because they can get additional downpayment assistance, but we also allow the home buyer to -- for the first mortgage to use an f.h.a. Insured loan. The rationale for that is that at this point with interest rates declining, mortgage interest rates declining, it is going to be difficult for the bond programs to -- for new bond programs to be initiated and for them to be competitive because, as you well know, when you start a bond program, you set the interest rate at the beginning and if interest rates decline during the origination period, they become uncompetitive. So this removes the danger of the downpayment assistance program being caught and requiring people to use a bond program, all of which are not competitive.
>> so are we requiring use of the bond program or encouraging it?
>> we would encourage use of the bond program, but not requiring it.
>> okay. We're still together then.
>> right.
>> and again, similar to the last program I知 requesting permission to use the county's internet service to solicit the citizen survey for Travis County employees and the public through putting the survey form on the internet. The grant application requires that we obtain surveys from potential home buyers saying that they -- they meet the income limits of the program and they may buy a home and use the program. So if we apply for 40 -- for a grant to help 40 citizens, then we have to have at least a survey from 40 qualified citizens. So I知 asking permission to use the website to make the solicitations. In the past county employees have responded very well and really have made the difference and are getting enough surveys to qualify for those funds. So with that if you have any questions or --
>> questions?
>> when will this actually go into effect, harvey?
>> I think in my writeup I said I predicted November of 2008 that we would be able to start.
>> 2008?
>> we have since talked with the state and they have told us that they are more efficient and they are going to approve these applications quicker than they have in the past. And so they predict late summer. They've also told us, and as you know, I sent you a revised plan in which the contribution is less than I知 asking the corporation to plan for, 36,000, 75,000, and that is because in the past they've awarded points for match which has been up to 25% match you got the most points, and the way the scoring has been, we have needed all those points in order to have enough points to be competitive with other people. They've changed at this time this time around and they've said, well, we're not going to score them anymore. You have to meet -- you have to do certain things in the grant, one of which is to provide a match -- you have to provide a match of 7%, which is a lot less than 25%. So I致e reduced the match part of it that -- you know, with that information.
>> I move approval of the preparation of the
>> [inaudible].
>> any more discussion? You are recommending approval.
>> I知 certainly recommending, yes. Strongly recommending.
>> strongly?
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:09 PM