Travis County Commissioners Court
February 26, 2008
Housing Finance Corporation
Let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. First item is to consider and take prept action on request to approve rengs letter to be provided to deloitte and touche, llp regarding 2007 annual ought.
>> I’m harvey Davis along with mike gonzalez. This is the letter that is executed each year at the end of the annual audit. You approved earlier a similar letter for the county, and it represents that we have disclosed all material matters to the auditor during their examination.
>> that's why I move approval. Questions, discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Number 2 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding results of compliance examination of the park at wells branch apartments project located at 1915 wells branch parkway, Austin, Texas, 78728.
>> good afternoon. On January 30th, 2008, staff initiated a compliance audit of the park at wells branch apartments. The audit focus odd performance requirements set forth by the regulatory agreement. Staff reviewed a total of 30 low income tenant files and five eligible tenant files. The apartments are required to have a minimum of 20% of the units to tenant who then do not exceed 50% of the Austin area median income and a minimum of 90 percent of the dwellings whose incomes did not exceed 120 percent of the Austin median income. Based on our examination we found that the park at wells branch are in compliance with the regulatory agreement. We cited only minor oversight. Management was instructed to review their policies and procedures and to do an internal review of all their low income tenant files to make sure their properly recording them on their quarterly reports. Staff recommends approval of the examination report and asks for your authorization to afford them a letter acknowledging the findings of the report.
>> questions? Discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Number 3 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to approve a grant application for funding from the Texas department of housing and community affairs for a 2008/2009 home buyer assistance program.
>> this is the grant that you he authorized us to prepare late in January. And the grant is ready to go. Let me briefly go through the main features of the grant. We're applying for a 312,000-dollar grant from the Texas department of housing and community affairs. These are home funds. They'll be used to provide $8,600 forgivable loans to 40 first-time home buyers whose income is less than 80 percent of the Austin area median family income. The grant of the matched funds, in other words, the money that the corporation is putting into the grant, is $36,500. And this was reviewed with you in January when we asked permission to prepare this grant. The only increase in the budget is I’ve added a 500-dollar marketing item, and that was after reading the grant they do expect an affirmative marketing effort. And so I feel like we needed a little bit of money for marketing efforts. The grant -- in the grant application there's a memorandum of understanding with consumer credit counseling which provides that they would be paid $75 per home buyer at the front end of the grant, so assuming that we're approved for 40 homes, then we would pay them $3,000 at the front end of the grant. They would understand that they would give the classes to as many people as we send their way. So of course there would be people that would not be able to close on a home, but they went ahead and took the course. Also there is a 30-dollar application fee that's owed to the state and that's -- and in approving the grant. There's a check in here that would be -- you will be authorizing spending that money. Other than that I think it's pretty much how I laid it out last time. The match there is -- we have to keep $50,000 in a reserve account or hold in reserve because when people close on these loans, we front the money and then once the state gets all the proper documentation, then they reimburse the corporation. So we have this pool of money in reserve to make those loans.
>> and that's forgivable loan that's conditioned upon what?
>> it's forgivable over 10 years, it's forgiven 10% a year, and it's forgiven -- for each full year the home buyer remains in the home, and that's their principal place of residence.
>> and if they do not go to the 10-year cycle, they are expected to do what?
>> there's a lien on their house, and so -- a second and a third lien, and they have to repay whatever portion they didn't fulfill as far as the 10-year period. So, for example, if they lived in the house five full years, then they would have to pay back half of the loan. The loan is a zero interest loan, so there's no interest accruing on it.
>> how much marketing can you get for 500 bucks?
>> well, what we've done in the past is prepared a press release and sent it to all -- we have a pretty extensive list of news media. And for example, the "austin american-statesman" will put a little article in the paper. They have in the past. We've really not had to spend -- I think maybe a couple of programs back we spent a little bit of money in advertising, but you're right, you can't do a whole lot, but the press release gives a lot of free marketing.
>> and I think we've asked this before, but how would someone interested in this go about finding the program on the website?
>> under county departments there is a section for the Travis County housing finance section, and we have a flyer, we have the press release, we have a lot of information. And we get calls every single day from people that have looked on the website and have found us. We also have a central Texas flyer, and this briefly describes all the programs that are offered by governments in central Texas, because a first-time home buyer, there are these wonderful programs like we have, but other people have too, and so we have this flyer and that way somebody can look and they can see, well, there's programs that the state, the city of Austin, capital area housing finance corporation that serves the counties surrounding Travis County, Travis County, etcetera. So we don't mind putting our competitors, so to speak, on here.
>> that's a wonderful thing. I’m wondering is there any kind of catalog, regional catalog, for affordability tools? Like this, like we've been talking also about -- previously about tax deferral programs and other affordable housing that's available, whether it's section 8 or whether it's chodos. Is there any single clearinghouse?
>> not really. The way it's really driven is by the professionals, the lenders and the realtors that really serve as this initial or this market. -- this niche or this market. They do a good job of informing themselves of everything that's available. That's really been our biggest success is using professionals like that that are familiar with the program, familiar enough to actually take their home buyers through the whole process. So that's really where that come in. I think over the last few programs we've built bment a good rapport of realtors and lenders that are comfortable and familiar with the program. So that's been a big benefit. And to touch on the $500 you mentioned earlier, we found some success trying to use that more on the local community papers, got a lot more bang from the buck trying to reach out to those. And really represent the home buyers that have been actively going through this program. So that's probably the best use of that $500, which is pretty limited, I agree.
>> Austin tenants' council also publishes a booklet that lists affordable housing apartment complexes for renters that they -- about annually they'll come and ask us to update the county's information.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> any other discussion?
>> [ laughter ] all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Number 4 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to execute two partial releases of liens on two lots on acers lane in Austin colony owned by Austin habitat for humanity incorporated.
>> and this relates to a fund we assisted Austin habitat to purchase this land. It was eight lots. And we placed a lien on this and said they had four years to build homes on the lots to appropriate home buyers in their programs, and we would release liens on the lot as they were ready to sell the homes. I think in -- these are the first two. I think this was done in 2006, and they forgot about the lien and so when they were ready to close on these houses and then they did the title search and found that we had the lien, so they are asking us, the corporation, to release the lien. We recommend approval. Our attorney cliff blunt has reviewed the documents, and has said that it is appropriate for the board to release the lien.
>> so move.
>> second.
>> they forgot, but we didn't about those liens.
>> that's right.
>> and we had them filed.
>> in fact, I’ve thought about it once over the years.
>> 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, February 27, 2008 8:09 PM