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.

The Beardall Center
800 S. Delaney Street, Orlando, FL 32806

Located at northeast corner of Orange Avenue and Gore Street.
The meeting will be in the multi-purpose, room #1

Future Meeting Schedule: October 27, November 17, December - No Meeting

Nonprofit Housing Roundtable
Meeting Minutes from September 29, 1999 Meeting

Present: Julie Rice, John Huguenard, E. Stewart Forrester, Deb Melochko, Susan Caswell, Sandra Glenn, Elena Rodriguez, Barbara Conover, Linda Norman, Marty Crean, Jose Hoyos, Jim Gibson, Dawkins Hodges, Louis Laubscher, Ivan Cruz, Fran James, Jed Baumwell, Mike Julian, Lisa Stanley, Lynda Hinckley, Melman May, Robert Molia, Kevin O'Rawe

Agenda Item 1 -- Approval of Minutes

Approved unanimously.

Agenda Item 2 - Guest Speaker: Darby Neptune from Neptune, Green and Associates

• John Hazelroth indicated that the Collaborative is going to host a workshop in which Neptune, Green will help assist providers of homebuyer counseling. This workshop is intended to help refresh and introduce new presentation skills to those agencies providing homebuyer counseling.
• Ms. Neptune was on-hand to briefly talk about their company and the expectations of this upcoming workshop.
• Neptune, Green works with corporations and over 150 nonprofit organizations. They often do strategic planning and team building.
• The purpose of the effort with the Collaborative will be training the trainer. In this program, the goal is to strengthen presentation skills and introduce new ideas with reference to simplified graphics.
• It is a fun day and one which tries to capitalize on creativity already in place amongst counseling providers.
• Some of the items that will be discussed is how to maintain audience attention, strategies on how to help people retain and learn information, how to make visuals more pleasing, how to design and present presentation information, and how to coach those individuals and agencies which are guest speakers at homebuyer workshops.
• The workshop will be a half-day and will last approximately four hours. It will be fun and it will involve a lot of participation.
• The class will be limited to somewhere between ten and fifteen individuals. All costs will be paid by the Collaborative and attendance is free. At this point in time, the date is not certain, but Randy Sprayberry and Ms. Neptune are talking about late October and early November.
• For more information, it is suggested that interested individuals contact Randy Sprayberry at 407-872-7773.

Agenda Item 3 -- Guest Speaker: Countrywide Mortgage (Elena Rodriguez)

Elena was on-hand to discuss the products which Countrywide offers in their affordable housing program.

• Countrywide does have a counseling center and is approved to provide such counseling.
• The following is a brief summary of those loan products which are offered:

Cash Saver Plug Program

- No down payment (3% pledge from National Association of Housing Partnerships) for buyers at 120% or below HUD median income

- Closing costs may be fully gifted or from seller contributions (up to 3%)

- Fixed rate, fixed payment

- Loans up to $240,000

Three Percentage Down Payment Program

- Our 3% down program is flexible enough to allow gifts, unsecured loans, even credit card funds to be used toward the down payment or closing costs. On top of all this, our local Countrywide Branch Managers can approve your loan right up front at the time of application.

No Payment Shock Mortgage

- Monthly mortgage payments as low as your rent

- a low down payment (3 or 5 percent depending on family income)

- free home

-- This is an exclusive mortgage for newly constructed, single-family, detached homes in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Volusia Counties.

You're a Good Candidate if:

- You have a very good credit history

- You had no delinquent payments on housing or installment loans in the last 24 months

- You had no late payments on revolving loans in the last 24 months

- You have verifiable income for the last 24 months

- You have resources equal to two months' rent

Your Down Payment Can be a Low 3% if:

- Your family income (for a family of 4) is less than $44,500 (contact your local Countrywide branch for details)

- Home loan payments do not exceed current rent payments

- Your total debt ratio is not more than 45%

For more information contact:

Elena Rodriguez, Branch Manager /Linda Young, Home Loan Consultant / 407-370-7110 or pager 407-767-6336

Agenda Item 4 - Guest Speaker: East Central Florida Regional Planning Council (Sandra Glenn):

Ms. Glenn was on-hand to talk about the new role that the Planning Council has developed in order to meet the expectations of local and county government officials.

• The original concept of the Council was heavy into reviewing large projects called Development of Regional Impact. In addition, they were also involved growth management issues. In the early 90's this regulation regarding Development of Regional Impact was changed and rendered the Council's review as not critical.
• There are now eleven Regional Planning Councils throughout the state.
• The Councils still look at growth management and large development. Their role within these reviews is strictly advisory. One of the elements of their review has to do with affordable housing. The Council believes that large developments should have some role in providing housing, particularly if they generate lower paying jobs.
• The real role in the past and the role that's being emphasized now is one of facilitator. The Planning Council sees themselves as the facilitator in helping solve problems and making communities better.
• The Planning Council now has a proposal in front of the Florida Department of Community Affairs. It involves partnering with the Shimburg Center at the University of Florida to collect and distribute data over a two year period. The Council is now asking DCA for funding to support such an effort. This data would greatly impact and assist affordable housing developers and those involved in this arena.

Agenda Item 5 - Miscellaneous Business:

• Barbara Conover was present from HANDS and indicated that they will have a homebuyer workshop for Hispanic speaking individuals on Saturday, October 16^th. Randy Sprayberry has information on all the other HANDS seminars. For more information, contact Randy.
• Bob Ansley was on-hand for the City of Orlando's HAC Committee. The City is concerned that the state is placing all their emphasis on programs and tax-credit programs on new development and not enough on re-developing areas of greater need.

Agenda Item 6 - Review of the Counseling Collaborative:

Randy Sprayberry is not in attendance and he is participating in a certified counselor's course. In his absence, John Hazelroth will briefly touch base on several of the initiatives which the Collaborative is working on:

- Summit Meeting: The Collaborative is intending to meet with local government officials and those certified homebuyer counseling agencies. The goal of this meeting is to discuss the current delivery system of homebuyer counseling workshops. Ultimately, the Collaborative would like to see some type of a standardized curriculum from which the local governments can then develop their certification criteria. In addition, the Collaborative wants to initiate a dialog between both providers and receivers of services to determine if there are any niches or unmet needs within the community.

- Center for Independent Living Homebuyer Education Workshop: The Collaborative in conjunction with The Center for Independent Living is coordinating a homebuyer workshop at 1:00 pm on October 16^th. The trainer will be Cora Fulmore. Although this workshop is open to all individuals, it is being tailored to those issues impacting persons who are physically and developmentally disabilities. Should this venture be successful, the Collaborative will continue to work as an ombudsman and to encourage other niche homebuyer workshops. The Collaborative will not directly provide the workshops, but will only partner with agencies wishing to provide the workshop itself.

- NFHC Certified Training Course: The Collaborative has coordinated and is sponsoring a national certified training program for homebuyer counselors. This program is now taking place and is a three-day conference which ends with a test. The Collaborative has issued six scholarships for persons attending this training. The training has attracted over 25 individuals from throughout the State of Florida. Another training course will tentatively be offered next spring.

- Train the Trainer: The firm of Green, Neptune will provide a four-hour workshop for homebuyer counselors on developing and improving presentation skills. This workshop is slated to happen in October or November. The Counseling Collaborative will pay and there will be no charge to individuals attending. For more information contact Randy Sprayberry at 407-872-7773.

- Pending Grant Applications: The Collaborative put in three separate grant applications. Seminole County does not have any grant application dollars now for general capacity building. Randy Sprayberry will be contacting the City of Orlando. We have not received any feedback yet from the City. We have received feedback from Orange County. Orange County is tentatively looking at providing up to $5,000 to the Collaborative for capacity building activities. This is not definite and still has to proceed through the proper channels.

- Homefest Update: The Collaborative participated in the Homefest Homebuyer show this month. The show was well attended and the Collaborative provided a booth which housed information from several different nonprofits.

Report from John Hazelroth on the Roundtable:

• The Roundtable now has 33 members and its mailing list is over 180 individuals.
• The Roundtable has developed its first directory of these 180 organizations. This directory was mailed to all members and is available for distribution at meetings. John Hazelroth will make corrections as needed on a quarterly basis and reprint the document. Should you have any changes on the directory, please contact John at 407-645-1129.
• John reminds all nonpaying members to try to get in their payments as soon as possible. The dues for nonprofit organizations is $100.00 per year.

This concludes the end of the meeting minutes. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 27^th. The meeting location has been changed to the Rollins College Library and we will be provided a presentation from the Nonprofit Resource Center.

Guest Speaker - October, 1999

The Nonprofit Resource Center has been functioning in Central Florida for several years. It is a great organization for both nonprofit and for-profit agencies and organizations. It provides resources, training, tools, contacts and consulting to agencies in a variety of different capacities. Recently, the Nonprofit Resource Center moved and realigned themselves with Rollins College. The goal is to establish a partnership so that this Nonprofit Resource Center can even access greater resources throughout the community. This month's meeting will move out of the Beardall Center and will be at Rollins College Library. Sherry Abbott will take time to talk about the Nonprofit Resource Center and how this expanded version of the old center can help positively impact agencies throughout Central Florida.

This could be one of the more relevant meetings of the year. It will present nonprofits and for-profits with a great opportunity to learn and familiarize themselves with one of the great resources that our community now offers. We encourage your attendance. Enclosed is a map which shows the location of the meeting and where to park.

Directions: Take I-4 east, take exit 45, Fairbanks, and travel east two miles to Park Ave. in downtown Winter Park. Turn left at the light onto Park Ave., then turn right on Holt Avenue. The Hauck Auditorium will be located on your right. Parking can occur at the SunTrust parking garage on Lyman Avenue and Park Avenue. The Philanthropy Center will validate parking tickets. The auditorium is on the first floor at the very end. I'll have signs. If you get lost call 975-6414.