NPHR Meeting Minutes May, 2000

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NONPROFIT HOUSING ROUNDTABLE OF CENTRAL FLORIDA AGENDA

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 @ 8:30 A.M.

MISSION: To increase the supply of decent affordable housing provided by nonprofit organizations to low and very low income families through coordination among nonprofits to enhance capabilities, expand funding opportunities, maximize training, and develop new partnerships.

Time (Min)					Agenda Item	
8:00-8:30		Networking between members and guests 	
8:30-8:35		Introduction of members/guests (Katie Porta)
8:35-8:40		Approval of minutes
8:40-9:25		Sponsor/Speaker -- Stan Fitterman (Florida Housing Coalition)
9:25-9:40		Other Items:  
     County HAC Report 
     City of Orlando HAC Report
     Counseling Collaborative
   New Business:
     Review correspondence
Next membership meeting -- Wednesday, June 28, 2000 @ 8:30 am 
Adjourn	(TOTAL MEETING TIME -- 1 HOUR AND 45 MINUTES)

The City of Orlando, 400 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801
Located at northwest corner of South Street and S. Orange Avenue
The meeting may be located on the second floor - Conference Room

Future Meeting Schedule:
For the year 2000, meetings are as follows: June 28, July 26, August 30, September 27, October 25, and November 29. No meeting in December.

THE NONPROFIT HOUSING ROUNDTABLE OF CENTRAL FLORIDA - ACTION PLAN

Goal 1. To educate the entire community on the role of the nonprofit sector as an important partner in the housing delivery process. a. Communicate housing and nonprofit needs to local area government b. Develop quantifiable goals for the Roundtable to allow for evaluation of this organization's effectiveness. c. Invite guest speakers to speak monthly. Pick out topic relevant to nonprofit housing providers (i.e. management, development, underwriting) and have speaker make 30 minute presentation. Goal 2. To pool skills and resources of nonprofit housing producers and housing support agencies a. To use the nonprofit Roundtable to gain organizational and functional strength to achieve our mission by convening regular meetings to share information, and to plan and coordinate activities of the participating nonprofits b. To evaluate and prepare an annual plan that quantifies projects and funding needs of the participating nonprofits and prepare joint funding support request to the various funding entities c. To promote and support emerging nonprofit housing organizations. Goal 3. To pursue various partnership opportunities and linkages with for-profit developers and builders. a. Strengthen relationships between nonprofits and private sector b. To become active participants in the Homebuilder's association to cultivate support of for-profit developers and builders and to seek out opportunities for joint-ventures, other business relationships and mentoring. Goal 4. To pursue activities that would increase the availability of low cost funds to nonprofits. a. Subscribe to legislative, funding resource. Monitor and report on upcoming funding programs. b. Develop calendar of funding source with contact, deadline and summary information. Goal 5. To pursue activities that would encourage governments to provide grants and loans to nonprofits for technical assistance and housing production.

Nonprofit Housing Roundtable
Meeting Minutes from May 31, 2000 Meeting

Present: Stan Fitterman, Katie Porta, John Huguenard, Stacy Starke, Adrienne deSouza, Steve Chitwood, Jill McReynolds, Chelsea Brown, Rafael Polanco, Fred L. Maxwell, Rolando Cintrow, Bob Ansley, Linda Larkin, Mike Daly, Kevin O'Rawe, Gloria Oliver, Fran James, Huey Davis, John Hazelroth

Agenda Item 1 -- Approval of Minutes

Motion made by Kevin O'Rawe and seconded by Bob Ansley to approve the minutes. Approved unanimously.

Agenda Item 2 -- Stan Fitterman from the Florida Housing Coalition

Stan is from the Florida Housing Coalition. His talk covered numerous topics including legislative changes and services offered by the Coalition.

The Coalition, along with supporters, have recently been working on Bill CFCSSV2578. It has gotten through both the House and the Senate is now awaiting the Governor's signature. The following are some key elements of this legislation:

Local government is no longer required to monitor rental projects when they involve both SHIP dollars and tax credit and/or HOME, dollars. Should sponsors only use SHIP funds, then monitoring will still have to be put in place. The reason behind this is that when using tax credit or HOME funding, those funding sources have their own monitoring requirements and it was found that there was duplication of this effort. It is important to note, however that should the local municipality have requirements over and above the SHIP guidelines, they will be responsible for monitoring the funds to adhere to those guidelines.
Housing providers have found that the maximum sales price has not been keeping place with inflation. Data used in municipalities to determine maximum sales price was somewhat dated. The new legislation allow individual groups or municipalities to submit their own data to establish higher maximum sales price values. In many instances, the local housing finance authority will have data on-hand and groups can use this data. Should this not be the case, an housing study to determine the value costs approximately $2,500 for an independent consultant to do.
In the past, when developers renovated homes or properties, the valuation of the rehab was added to the assessed or appraised value. Often times, this led to loans that were not approvable because they exceeded the value of the property. Under the new legislation, the value is only increased when changes increase the actual size of the structure. If renovation work does not increase the size of the structure, then it is not added to the assessed or appraised value.
There have been several changes to the pre-development loan program. The new program will now consist of a line of credit for $500,000. The interest rate is between 0-3 percent. Should a deal not materialize, the entire amount of funds spent is forgiven. There currently is 11 million dollars in this program which is now available and, in the future, there will be allocating 2 million per year. The new program will have a $1,200 application fee. The idea now is to have a true line of credit of which this amount is paid off when permanent financing is secured.
For more information on this and other programs, two web sites are available. The web sites are www.floridahousing.org or www.flhousing.org.
The entire issue of property tax exemption for nonprofit organizations was clarified. Should organizations serve low to moderate income individuals and they are charitable, these properties can be exempt. This goes up to 120 percent of the median income. It also eliminated any reference to the use of State funding.
The Coalition is a state-wide organization consisting of a 24 member board. The board is a working board and often times staff uses the board to procure information and the board is also used to teach classes. The Coalition will do eighteen days of workshops this year and these include rules, development, planning, strategy sessions, etc.
The Coalition, either by calling 800-677-4548, or their web site at www.flhousing.org.
The Coalition also puts out a newsletter and provides technical assistance on SHIP funding, small cities CDBG, and HOME funding. The technical assistance is very beneficial for organizations. Who are in need of a second pair of eyes to look at their deal. In addition, the Coalition helps with administration, strategy session, program design and other relevant topics.
In his travels, Stan has seen many different home ownership programs. He observed that the programs that are often not successful involve down payment assistance programs which provide too little income to reduce mortgages in areas which are needed. He used the example of Tampa, which only provided $3,000 worth of down payment assistance money to a new home in a tough section of Tampa. The problem here is that the mortgages were not reduced enough to meet the income criteria of the individuals who are most likely to purchase these homes.
Stan also mention the Florida Community Loan Fund which provides 5-7 percent financing. The Coalition provides technical assistance in conjunction with loans made by the Florida Community Loan Fund. The maximum loan is $350,000. The Coalition is now working in South Florida as a technical assistance provider on both home and community development block grant programs. By establishing contacts with HUD, it will help all providers throughout the State of Florida.
The Coalition has four people in the field and five in the office for a total staff of nine. Field people include Stan in Inverness, White Gregor in Jacksonville, Gladys Schneider in Ft. Myers.

Mike also made an announcement that the application for the 2000 nomination process for HUD Best Practices would be available after the meeting and he suggested that nominations be made prior to the May 31st deadline.

Agenda Item 3 -- Miscellaneous Business

Mike Daly was on-hand from HUD. He did not have anything to report other than HUD is now in the 2001 budget cycle and is working their way through that.

John Hazelroth mentioned that dues will be sent out to all members and he asked for assistance in returning these at their convenience.

Huey Davis was on-hand from the RAN Foundation. This Foundation is a recently developed foundation in Titusville working on single family properties. The Roundtable will ask Huey to come back later and talk about their program.

Representative from the One Stop Career Center were on-hand. The One Stop Career Center is placing door hangers on properties so that people can access their services. For information in getting door hangers, call Chelsea Brown at 407-599-8388, ext. 2031.

This concludes the end of the minutes. The next meeting will be held Wednesday, June 28, 2000, at 8:30 am, at Orlando City Hall. Please note that there may be a change in the meeting room, so consult your agenda.

Guest Speaker - June, 2000

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