Minutes 02/14/1989 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

TUESDAy, FEBRUARY 14, 1989 The above program, in my opinion, is a real opportunity for the City to provide the mechanism whereby new affordable housing can be made available to low and moderate income persons. It should be recognized, too, that in the screening process there will be a number of applicants who will probably not qualify for various reasons and in such cases we must rely on other forms of housing, such as conventional rental units to meet their needs or on housing units available under the' Rental Assistance Program, but under no circumstance would I suggest that we consider meeting their needs through public housing. Begin a program of publicizing the programs that are now available related to financing new housing through VHDA and the Department of Housing and Community Development~s Partnership Fund and any other known opportunities that are now available or that might become available in the future. The Housing Office should become a source of information to those interested in all categories of housing. Existing Housing Our current efforts to upgrade and maintain existing housing in the City through Community Development Block Grant Pro- grams has been very effective. This program makes available grants or loan/grants to qualified property owners in neigh- borhoods targeted for rehabilitation. The VHDA matching grant program available to owners of rental property is also used to assist in upgrading the housing stock in the targeted areas. Under this program, an owner of rental property can receive a grant ~f between $6,500 and $8,500 for rehabilitation purposes, dependent upon the size of the housing unit and predicated on the applicant expending a matching amount of private capital to accomplish the improvements. It is my understanding, never- theless, that it is possible for such individuals to borrow the private required contribution from the Virginia Partnership Housing Fund at a 4% interest rate; therefore, this offers a great incentive for landlords to upgrade property. Loans are also available through the City from the Virginia Partnership Fund at an interest rate of 4% for use in rehabing multi-family and single-family housing units with deferred payback on that portion that is used for energy conservation for a 4-year period and a full forgiveness of that part of the loan over an additional 4-year period. The City now has an allocation of $215,000 under this program. Also, VHDA has a Revolving Fund of $200,000 allocated to the City which is available for loan at 7% interest.