§ 90-68. Establishment of housing assistance program.

(a)

The county housing assistance program is hereby created and established. This program shall apply to the unincorporated area of the county and to the incorporated areas of the county to the extent permitted by article VIII, section 1(f), of the Constitution of the State.

(b)

The intent of the county housing assistance program is to increase the availability of affordable housing units by combining local and cost-saving measures into a county housing partnership and using private and public funds to reduce the cost of housing.

(c)

The county shall use the funds received from the state pursuant to the State Housing Initiative Partnership Act to implement the county housing assistance program. The detailed design specifications for the use of the trust fund moneys will be adopted in the county housing assistance plan, after review of the statutory requirements and the local needs. The board of county commissioners will, after giving due deliberation to the recommendations of the affordable housing council, and considering the advice of the department and the comments of the public, adopt the county housing assistance plan.

(1)

A percentage of the funds may be used by the county to implement the following locally designed strategies:

a.

A percentage of this distribution may be reserved to provide construction and rehabilitation assistance for affordable housing preservation and production.

b.

A percentage of this distribution may be used to provide for homeownership training to housing program beneficiaries.

c.

The county shall work with banks and savings institutions to meet their obligation under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to affirmatively address the credit needs of the entire community. In meeting their obligation, banks and savings institutions shall be encouraged to engage in activities that include, but are not limited to the following: increase efforts to make loans for home mortgages and home improvements in conjunction with government insured lending programs such as FHA and VA and to make loans with high loan value ratios when there is private mortgage insurance; provide assistance to existing community-based housing development programs or assistance to emerging community-based organizations; extend lines of credit and other financing to community-based organizations; and provide a secondary market for community-based organization development loans.

d.

The county shall seek lending institutions to work with the affordable housing council and eligible sponsors or eligible persons in providing low-cost loans, interest point buy-down programs and other cost saving mechanisms in order to facilitate homeownership for very low-income, low-income, or moderate-income persons and persons who have special housing needs.

e.

To facilitate the production of eligible housing by community-based organizations, the county shall assist community-based organizations to structure financial packages from a variety of sources such as, banks and other lending institutions, or consortia, corporate and philanthropic organizations, foundations, and/or insurance companies.

f.

The county shall provide incentives for the preservation and production of affordable housing for eligible persons to include, but not limited to, donating or otherwise making available low-cost land or land lease arrangements, assistance in the construction of infrastructure, tax forgiveness or abatements, impact fee credits or payments, and/or security deposit credits or payments.

(2)

A percentage of the funds may be used to provide the local matching funds in order to obtain federal housing grants including, but not inclusive of the HOME program and other state and federal affordable housing programs.

(3)

A percentage of the funds may be used to provide emergency repairs by the department under the state weatherization program, pursuant to F.S. §§ 409.509—409.5093.

(4)

A percentage of the funds may be used to supplement existing Florida Housing Finance Corporation programs being used within the county.

(5)

A percentage of the funds may be used to further the housing element of the local government comprehensive plan adopted pursuant to F.S. § 163.3184 specific to affordable housing.

(d)

The county hereby specifically finds the cost of administering the county housing assistance program shall exceed five percent of the funding received from the state pursuant to the State Housing Initiative Partnership Act. The board of county commissioners will adopt a resolution concurrent with the adoption of the ordinance from which this section derives to authorize the use of up to ten percent of the SHIP funds and five percent of any program income received from investment of the housing distribution received by the county in a fiscal year for administration of the housing assistance program.

(e)

The county housing assistance program shall include all other lawful objectives not previously listed if said objectives have been adopted into the county housing assistance plan in the manner provided for by F.S. § 420.907—420.9079 and F.A.C. rule 67-37.

(Ord. No. 93-03, § III, 3-2-93; Ord. No. 94-12, § III, 4-19-94; Ord. No. 99-37, § III, 5-25-99; Ord. No. 08-16, § III, 5-20-08)

State law reference

Local housing assistance programs, F.S. § 420.9075.