Travis County Commissioners Court
May 20, 2008
Housing Finance Corporation
Let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. The first item to take appropriate action on request to -- for Travis County to perform administrative accounting and clerical services from October 1, 2008, to septuplets 20th or 30th? >> September 30th.
>> September 30th of 2010.
>> right.
>> two years.
>> yes.
>> yes, two years.
>> I’m harvey Davis, manager for the corporation. Here with mary mays, the Travis County vest manager. The contract -- investment manager. The contract is similar to contracts that we've had in the past being two years and the -- and the amounts that the corporations would pay Travis County is based on our department's budget and in which we take our budget, take out items that are directly related to the investment function and 50% of that amount is -- is the amount that we recommend the corporations pay Travis County for -- for basically our services. We -- we included a three percent innation factor for each of the years. Inflation factor for each of the years. The contract provides for fy twine twine. The -- '09 the transfer would be
>> [indiscernible], for fy 010,
>> [indiscernible], and this item was -- was approved on consent by -- by Travis County this morning. The --
>> [papers shuffling - audio interference] the payment by the corporations would be as in the past would be based on what their fund balance is at the end of the year. The ratios. Then that ratio would be applied to each corporation to determine what it would pay Travis County.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. With director Davis an absent, he will be absent the rest of the meeting. 2. Consider and take appropriate action on request to review the investment policy and strategies.
>> and public fund investment act require the corporation or any public entity under the act to -- for the governing body to review the investment policy each year and so that is the purpose of this agenda item. The -- the corporations do not have a complicated investment strategy. The funds are either in -- our depository bank at j.p. Morgan chase or for the case of two of the corporations that have larger fund balances, we have an account at the -- at tex pool. And so -- so we -- we recommend a few minor changes. The first one, the -- the one is to add the -- the Travis County cultural education facility finance corporation to the investment policy because it now has a bank account. It has funds. It didn't prior to this year. And the other -- the other minor changes is to take out an account that housing finance corporation closed an escrow account that was closed and to make clear in the -- in the policy that -- that the depository accounts are money market type of accounts.
>> those changes have been made?
>> and they are in the legislative style in your backup, yes.
>> discussion?
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 3. Consider and take appropriate action on results of compliance review of $100,000 grant to Austin habitat for humanity.
>> good afternoon, my name is mike gonzalez, senior staff financial analyst. Staff initiated a compliance review of the $100,000 forgivable loan made back in 2006 to Austin habitat for humanity. As you all recall the $100,000 was to purchase 8 lots in
>> [indiscernible] colony. It's forgiven as each lot is sold to a qualified home buyer, forgiven and a release of lien is executed. We looked at -- at the time of the audit that actually closed on 3 and one was currently under construction. When we looked at the home buyer files, what we looked for was that the family income was actually below 50% of the median family income. The family had the ability to pay on the mortgage, but the family's need for assistance was well documented. We also looked at -- that there was far more documentation for at least 400 hours of what they call sweat equity which is where they help work on other people's homes as well as their own. And they also have 24 hour mandatory home buyer or home owner classes. Again, based on the review they do a great job of documenting all of these requirements. One thing that's interesting when you look to the home buyer files, they are pretty substantial, they pretty much anticipate any question that an examiner or auditor might have. They already had documentation in place. So we feel confident that they are meeting with the requirements of -- of the agreement and all of the home buyers that are in there do qualify and do meet the requirements. As a snapshot, I would like to highlight just one to kind of have an idea of what they are doing out here. One of the homes that was sold was single mother, with two daughters. It was a three bedroom, one and a half bath, 1,000 -- 113 square foot home built without a -- 113 square foot built without a garage. This is pretty much by bedrooms, three is -- four bedroom is 65,000, a five bedroom it will be 70,000, when they actually execute a contract, they will do it for 60,000 plus the closing costs. In this example it was 60,000, the closing cost was about 2400, according to the h.u.d. 1 total sales price on this was right around $62,000. And one thing that you might find interesting is part of it they do an appraisal, the comparables for this one property range between 93,000 to 72,000. This -- this specific home was actually appraised right at 85,000, so it's pretty interesting to see for the contract price of 62, $62,000, that -- that they are essentially gaining a home that's appraised at 85,000. The other thing that was specifically interesting about this is their payments. On the mortgage the principal is $260 a month. Insurance is 41, taxes are nearly. And again what was interesting on this is they pay a total of about $454 and just looking on the review, where they came before they were renting a two bedroom apartment for $649. So you can see it's a pretty significant improvement to just their overall quality of life.
>> what a successful program.
>> yeah, it's really amazing the work that they do. For being such a -- such a complicated program with a lot of variable, they really manager is very well, very efficiently. And again you can just look into the documentation, you kind of -- it's easy to start to see the home buyers stories because they document everything, you kind of see what they are going through, it's very clearly documented that these people have a real need and that they -- they actively want to work on this program and that they are -- that they are committed to -- to achieving the goals that they set.
>> great.
>> good news. It's again great management, great program, they are really helping a lot of people.
>> super.
>> what action do you need from us?
>> only action is approval of the compliance review reports that was submitted, you know, once you all approve it it will be submitted over to Austin habitat.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> number 4 is to 4. Consider and take appropriate action on request to reimburse eight families for their homebuyer education expense.
>> the amount I’m requesting that you approve is $600, $75 per family and the -- what I do represent to you is that each of these families have -- have paid the $75 for the home buyer education course and have purchased the home, have closed on the home using the program and with the program guidelines is that we reimburse home buyers for their home buyer education card -- cost.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Let's sends them a congratulations with that $75 check, mr. Davis.
>> we will. Yes. That's what we've done on the other ones that we've done.
>> okay.
>> a letter. Actually signed by you, if you don't mind doing it this time.
>> I thought that was an original idea of mine
>> [laughter] okay. I will keep doing it. Number 5, consider and take appropriate action on request to approve payment of an invoice from consumer credit counseling service.
>> consumer credit counseling is the entity that we have contracted to do the home buyer education and the invoice is for $225 to -- for three -- for prices for three families.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes unanimously.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 8:51 PM