Subject:
Title
Approval: RE: Repair, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Housing Policy (HS-028) for the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) Program
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Fiscal Impact:
FY 22/23 - There will be no impact to the General Fund.
Dept/Office:
Housing and Human Services Department
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board approved the attached changes and updates to the Housing and Human Services Department’s Repair, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Housing Policy (HS-028) for the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) Program.
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Summary Explanation and Background:
Brevard County receives State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) Program funding through the State of Florida’s Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) to assist with its housing program activities. FHFC requires that local policies are in place to provide guidance for implementation of the Department’s housing programs in accordance with State Regulations. The Board of County Commissioners last reviewed and approved updates to the Repair, Rehabilitation, and Replacement Housing Program Policy (HS-028) on April 25, 2017.
This policy update is designed to improve efficiency for homeowners and internal operations with two significant requested changes regarding (1) adding an assistance strategy and (2) updates to eligible household assistance levels:
1. Added a Limited Repair strategy to provide assistance for households between 121% and 140% of Area Median Income (currently up to $113,680 for a family of four) if approved as part of the Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP).
2. Construction costs have increased 59.2% from May 2017 (month following last adopted changes) to May 2022 per the Producer Price Index by Commodity, Special Indexes: Construction Materials from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPUSI012011). Assistance levels (lien amounts) for direct (hard) construction costs and other costs (calculated as a percentage of hard costs) have been updated throughout the Policy and the Department is requesting (as part of the policy) permission to update these assistance levels annually (every May) based upon this index.
Attached for review are a summary of the proposed changes, a strike-through copy of the changes (to include correction of scrivener’s errors and other changes to facilitate the operation of the program), and a clean copy.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
None