DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood and Housing Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Verónica R. Soto, AICP
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
Briefing on the City’s Affordable Housing Business Plan progress for the months of October and November.
SUMMARY:
Briefing on the monthly progress regarding the implementation of the City’s Affordable Housing Business Plan.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The FY 2019 Adopted Budget includes $25 million for Affordable Housing initiatives including $17 million in new funding. The $25 million budget includes $11.7 million for housing preservation and repair, $3.2 million for homebuyer assistance, $1.4 million to develop a coordinated housing system, $7.7 million for gap financing, and a $1 million risk mitigation fund. In November, the City received a $1 million private sector donation for additional funding for our Under 1 Roof program.
ISSUE:
The table below provides a summary of the work scheduled and completed in the months of October and November for four program areas.
|
Activity |
Oct/Nov Target |
Oct/Nov Actual |
Variance |
|
Under 1 Roof (Completed) 1 |
40 |
33 |
-7 |
|
Owner Occupied Rehabilitation (Qualification of clients) 2 |
57 |
47 |
-10 |
|
Homebuyer Assistance (Number of actual home closings) 3 |
19 |
13 |
-6 |
|
Risk Mitigation Fund Public Input Meetings |
4 |
4 |
0 |
Notes:
1 Contractors were unable to replace roofs 13 out of 43 work days due to excessive rain in October and November. A large volume of client contracts that needed approval in November required additional staff to meet the demand. That staff was provided in mid-November and they will continue into FY 2019 as necessary. There are a total of 15 roofs scheduled to be completed before December 14 and an additional 18 applicants are in the final stage of qualification for December roof installations. These actions will eliminate the variance and satisfy the target goal through December.
2 The Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD) worked to qualify 100 applicants for the program. Of those 100 applicants, 48 applicants became ineligible for the program due to title issues and residents withdrawing from the process. NHSD currently is reviewing applications in order to qualify 25 residents who were previously selected through the lottery. This should result in a sufficient number of clients and should eliminate the variance by the end of December.
3 NHSD has pre-approved 11 clients for homebuyer assistance. These clients currently are searching for a home within their lender approved price range.
In addition to the housing production activities outlined above, the following three initiatives also were addressed in November:
• 11 of 12 new positions were hired in October to support affordable housing. NHSD selected an external recruiter in November to conduct a national search to fill the final Affordable Housing Administrator position. The Affordable Housing Administrator is expected to be hired in January.
• The Risk Mitigation Policy was drafted with input received at four public meetings. NHSD has two final stakeholders meetings to gain final input to finalize the draft risk mitigation policy. Staff anticipates having the final draft policy to the City Council Comprehensive Plan Committee in mid-January and City Council approval in late January.
• Staff completed interviews to select a consultant to perform an organizational assessment of the San Antonio Housing Trust. NHSD staff will negotiate with the selected consultant in December and will bring their proposed contract to City Council in early January for consideration of approval.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This report is for briefing purposes only
RECOMMENDATION:
This report is for briefing purposes only