Florida Housing Coalition's Housing News Network Fall 2013

THE HOMELESS ASSISTANCE MODEL YOU KNEW

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT SUCCESS STORY:

THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET REVIEW

THE LAND BANK OPTION:MAKING THE BEST DECISION

FOR YOUR PROGRAM

IN CELEBRATION OF SHIPPERFORMANCE, TRANSPARENCY,

& ACCOUNTABILITY

IS HISTORY

2013 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEEd Busansky, CHAIRFirst Housing Development Corporation

Wight Greger, VICE CHAIRWsG and Partners, LLC

Jaimie Ross, PRESIDENT1000 Friends of Florida

Ben Johnson, TREASURERSeltzer Management Group, Inc.

Robert Von, SECRETARYMeridian Appraisal Group, Inc.

Mark Hendrickson, AT LARGEThe Hendrickson Company

Jeff Kiss, AT LARGEKiss & Company, Inc.

Melvin Philpot, AT LARGEProgress Energy Florida

George Romagnoli, Immediate Past ChairPasco County Community Development

BOARD OF DIRECTORSBob AnsleyOrlando Neighborhood Improvement Corp.

Suzanne CabreraHousing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County, Inc.

Charles ElsesserFlorida Legal Services

Bradford GoarFlorida Power and Light

Don HadsellCity of Sarasota

Jack HumburgBoley Centers, Inc.

Barbara InmanHabitat for Humanity of Florida

Cecilia la Villa-TraviesoNeighborhood Lending Partners, Inc.

Deana LewisSunTrust Bank

Bill O’DellShimberg Center for Housing Studies

Susan PourciauBig Bend Homeless Coalition

Aileen PruittPNC

Lori SandonatoHomes for Independence

ADVISORY COUNCILDavid ChristianRegions Bank

Marilyn DraytonWells Fargo

Helen Hough FeinbergRBC Capital Market

STAFFADMINISTRATIONCharlene Chen • Finance ManagerPam Davis • Workshop CoordinatorStan Fitterman • Chief Operating OfficerJohnitta Richards Wells • Conference & Operations Manager

TECHNICAL ADVISORSAida Andujar • South Florida OfficeMichael Chaney • North Florida OfficeStan Fitterman • Central Florida OfficeLisa Hoffmeyer • South Florida Office (sabbatical)Rose Phillips • Central Florida OfficeGladys Schneider • Southwest Florida Office

THE HOUSING NEWS NETWORKVOLUME 29, ISSUE 3

1 From the Editor

2 Civic Engagement Success Story: The People’s Budget Review

3 The Homeless Assistance Model You Knew Is History

9 The Florida Nonprofit Housing Advocates Network

10 The Florida Community Land Trust Institute

12 Building Performance: Cost Effective Ideas That Work

13 Surplus Lands for Affordable Housing

16 Not Excited About Excel? Let’s Work on That

19 The Land Bank Option: Making the Best Decision for Your Program

24 Outreach to a Network of Community Resources: The Recipe For Helping Veterans

25 Principal Reduction and More Added to the Hardest Hit Program

26 SHIP Clips

28 About the Florida Housing Coalition

29 Affordable Housing Consulting Services

30 Sometimes a National Expert is Living Right Next Door

32 Affordable Housing Conference Highlights

42 Save the Date

FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION, INC. 1367 E. Lafayette Street, Suite C | Tallahassee, FL 32301 | Phone: (850) 878-4219 | Fax: (850) 942-6312

The Florida Housing Coalition is a nonprofit, statewide membership organization whose mission is to act as a catalyst to bring together housing advocates and resources so that Floridians have a quality affordable home and suitable living environment. The Housing News Network is published by the Florida Housing Coalition as a service to its members, housing professionals and others interested in affordable housing issues. Jaimie Ross, Editor, with assistance from Lynne Takacs, Communications Manager • Email: [email protected], Website: www.flhousing.org.

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19

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THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION | FLHOUSING.ORG

IN THIS ISSUE:

11

HOUSING NEWS NETWORK | VOLUME 23, ISSUE 3 | NOVEMBER 2013 1

Training and technical assistance with every conceivable type of af-fordable housing issue, from nurtur-ing to fruition the seed of a start-up’s development idea to fine-tuning the program implementation of a seasoned housing administrator, is

the everyday work of the Florida Housing Coalition.

So, why is the statewide annual conference such an im-portant event? Because it is the one and only time each year when housing professionals, from start-ups to sea-soned administrators come together to share their expe-riences, to compare and contrast the differences in their respective corners of the housing world, and to move the state’s housing policy agenda forward.

And so it was with the 2013 statewide annual conference. Approximately 600 housing professionals participated in public policy discussions including the future of the GSEs, substantive caucuses covering topics such as end-ing homelessness, and workshops addressing energy ef-ficiency, land banking, housing homeless veterans, state-wide housing finance programs, federal housing finance programs, avoiding and overcoming NIMBYism, finan-cial literacy, social media for nonprofits, housing preser-vation, new market tax credits, community land trusts, the Community Reinvestment Act, and more.

Our banking and other funder Partners for Better Hous-ing are able to meet with the affordable housing devel-

opers and nonprofits throughout the state that they are working with. They are also meeting others whom they may be funding in the future. Give and take between and among all the conference participants is palatable; the air is energized with the excitement of what can be.

The Florida Housing Coalition occupies a precious space in the affordable housing world, which is a responsibility we take seriously. We are the big tent that supports other statewide housing organizations, regional housing groups, local housing groups, and individuals.

Our Partners for Better Housing know that when they support the statewide conference they are supporting the work of affordable housing from Miami to the Pan-handle. The richness of the learning at the statewide an-nual conference is equal parts experts from the dais, and experience and expertise from the audience. Therefore, on behalf of the Florida Housing Coalition’s board and staff, I thank our Partners for Better Housing for with-out their financial support there could be no statewide conference. I also thank our entire membership for par-ticipating in the annual conference. Without all of you, there would be no there - there.

I hope you enjoy the photos and articles highlighting the Florida Housing Coalition’s statewide annual con-ference 2013 and I hope you all mark your calendars to come together again on September 7-10th at the Hilton Orlando.

FROM THE EDITOR >

BY JAIMIE ROSS

> FROM THE EDITOR

HNN

THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION | FLHOUSING.ORG2

Community organizing and civic en-gagement are fairly commonplace in the Northeast; places like Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and where I practice law, in Miami. But civic engage-ment on behalf of low income issues in

most of the southern states as a whole, including Florida, not so much. So I was delighted to learn in the session Community Organizing and Civic Engagement at the Florida Housing Coalition’s 2013 conference that we have more community organizing going on in Florida than I realized.

Last year in St. Petersburg, a coalition of advocacy groups united to become the People’s Budget Review (PBR). The People’s Budget Review consists of members from SEIU Florida Public Services Union, the League of Women Voters, Council of Neighborhood Associations (CONA), Agenda 2010 and Beyond, NAACP, Awake Pi-nellas, Suncoast Sierra Club, St. Pete Polls, as well as lo-cal business leaders and activists.

They came together to make changes to the city’s bud-get. They understood that the city’s budget is the city’s priorities. And they wanted those priorities to include what mattered most to the hard working, lower income families in the community. After surveying the neighbor-hoods, they narrowed the “ask “to three priorities: mon-ey for reducing youth unemployment; money to work on

the plan for reducing poverty in South St. Petersburg by 30% in 7 years; and mon-ey for the new Sustainable Projects Program designed to empower residents to di-rectly enhance the economy, environment, and equality of their neighborhoods. The to-tal cost was $450,000.

Rick Smith, with other members of the PBR, testified in front of City Hall that “These budgets are political state-ments. You cannot have policy without them… the biggest voting day of the year won’t be on Nov. 5 — when regis-tered voters choose their mayoral and city council candi-dates — but on Sept. 26, the night that the City Council will vote on a final budget for 2014”. And so it was. The PBR, through community organizing and civic engagement, was successful in getting their priorities into the City budget.

It was September 9, 2013, when Smith explained the PBR work at the Florida Housing Coalition conference; at that time we were impressed by the effort; now we can marvel at the result. I hope this report provides inspira-tion to all those individuals and organizations who are trying to effect positive change in their communities.

> CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT SUCCESS STORY: THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET REVIEW

LEFT: THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET REVIEW MEETS WEEKLY TO DISCUSS STRATEGY AND EXPLORE ORGANIZING OPPORTU-NITIES AS THEY ARISE AROUND ISSUES OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE ST. PETERSBURG COMMUNITY.

RIGHT: MORE THAN 300 RESIDENTS PACK A LOCAL RECREATION CENTER DEMANDING INVESTMENT FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS IN A COMMUNITY WHERE 1 IN 4 CHILDREN ARE LIVING IN POVERTY.

BY CHUCK ELSESSER

Chuck Elsesser is an attorney with the Community Justice Project of Florida Legal Services, specializing in representing community orga-nization involved in affordable housing litigation and policy advocacy.

Rick Smith, SEIU, presenting at the Community Organizing and Civic Engagement Workshop at FHC

Conference.

HNN


INTRODUCTION

The past few years have seen a renewed fervor for addressing homelessness—and a new sense of confidence that we can successfully prevent and end it. We’ve also heard some new terms circling

around, including Housing First, Rapid Re-Housing, and Permanent Supportive Housing. These new approaches to homeless assistance are described as “evidence-based” and “data-driven” . . . but what does that mean? What is the evidence exactly? And what roles do transitional housing and supportive services play? This article de-scribes the history of homeless assistance policy in the U.S. and the emergence of the best practices that now dominate federal policy.

HELPING PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS: A BRIEF HISTORY

Homelessness emerged as a national social problem in the early 1980s, driven by the perfect storm of deinsti-tutionalization, rising housing costs, and stagnating wag-es. In 1987, Congress passed the Stuart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, a landmark bill that created funding programs for emergency and transitional shel-ter, job training, health care, and other services for the homeless, and required that homeless children have ac-cess to public education. In 2001, it was renamed the McKinney-Vento Act 1,2.

By 1992, four major HUD programs had been estab-lished under the McKinney Act, all of which still exist in modified forms. The Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG)

THE HOMELESS ASSISTANCE MODEL YOU KNEW IS HISTORY

BY ROSE PHILLIPS

> HOMELESS ASSISTANCE


provided funding to state and local governments on a formula basis for renovation of structures for emergency shelters, shelter operation, essential services, and limited prevention activities3. In addition, HUD offered three competitive grant programs. The Supportive Housing Program (SHP) was the most diverse, supporting devel-opment, operation, and service provision for Transition-al Housing (TH), Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for people with disabilities, and safe havens4. Shelter Plus Care provided rental assistance for homeless per-sons with chronic disabilities; and the Section 8 Moder-ate Rehabilitation Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Pro-gram helped finance rehabilitation and rental assistance for SRO units for formerly homeless persons5.

HOMELESS ASSISTANCE AS WE KNEW IT: THE CONTINUUM OF CARE MODEL

Initially, housing and service providers applied individu-ally for HUD’s competitive McKinney funds. In 1994, however, HUD introduced a process that is used to this day. Homeless service providers were required to orga-nize themselves into geographically delineated “Conti-nua of Care”, or systems for planning, coordinating, and delivering services to people in all stages of homelessness. Within the CoC, individual project applications for all three competitive programs are pooled into a joint appli-cation submitted by a designated “lead agency”. By col-laborating on funding applications and year-round plan-ning efforts, providers ideally avoid duplication of efforts, identify gaps, coordinate with mainstream services, and are able to seamlessly make client referrals.

The term “Continuum of Care” also refers to the lin-ear model of homeless service provision that dominated through the 1990s and early 2000s. The archetypal cli-ent would enter emergency shelter for initial stabiliza-tion, be accepted into a Transitional Housing (TH) pro-gram after an initial period of sobriety, and “graduate” to permanent housing after completing the TH program and saving up enough money for relocation costs. McK-inney-Vento-funded TH programs serve clients for up to 24 months, and many (though by no means all) are congregate facilities that require residents to accept men-tal health/substance abuse treatment, participate in life skills training classes, and abide by various house rules6.

THE ASCENDANCY OF “HOUSING FIRST”

Although the CoC model dominated homeless assis-tance policy and practice until recently, it did not hold a monopoly. In the late 1980s, Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) models were developed for homeless per-sons with disabling conditions, such as physical impair-ments, mental illness, and/or substance abuse. These individuals are often chronically homeless, a subgroup that comprises a minority of all those who experience homelessness in a given year, yet consumes a majority of homeless assistance resources. PSH providers offered these individuals full tenancy rights in “regular” units, and participation in supportive services was encouraged but not required as a condition of tenancy. Between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, several studies of PSH pro-grams showed that large majorities of participants main-tained housing stability for at least a year7,8.


ALL HOMELESS PERSONS IN US 2012 POINT-IN-TIME COUNT (TOTAL = 633,782)

Unsheltered persons in HHs with at least one adult and one child - 8%

Unsheltered persons in HHs w/o children - 30%

Unsheltered persons in HHs with children

only - 1%

Sheltered persons in HHs with children only - 0%

Sheltered persons in HHs with at least one adult and one

child - 30%

Sheltered persons in

HHs w/o children -

31%

ALL HOMELESS PERSONS IN FLORIDA 2012 POINT-IN-TIME COUNT (TOTAL = 55,170)

Unsheltered persons in HHs with children

only - 1%


HHs w/o children -

22%


HHs with at least one

adult and one child - 13%Sheltered persons

in HHs with children only - 1%

Unsheltered persons in HHs w/o children - 42%

Unsheltered persons in HHs with at least one adult and one child - 21%


The term “Housing First” was probably coined in 1988 by Beyond Shelter, a nonprofit in Los Angeles, CA, that offered “rapid re-housing” services to homeless fami-lies9. The premise was that stable housing is a basic right and serves as a platform for other interventions to suc-ceed. Much of the research on Housing First, though, addresses PSH programs for single adults with severe mental illness. The first such program—and the most heavily studied—was Pathways to Housing, founded in New York City in 1992. Homeless persons are referred to Pathways by outreach teams, shelters, drop-in centers, jails, and hospitals, and Pathways maintains relationships with a network of private landlords willing to lease to its clients. Each participant is linked with a staff team of professionals in fields such as medicine, psychiatry, and vocational rehabilitation. Program participants are required only to pay 30% of their income for rent and meet regularly with a case worker, although their staff teams strongly encourage them to use available services. Many Housing First programs around the country have developed variations of the same basic model that Path-ways pioneered10. The spread in popularity of HF was driven by several lines of evidence, in addition to the success of PSH. First, most people who enter emergency shelters exit homeless-ness without formal assistance and do not return within the study horizons. As a result, a disproportionate share of homeless assistance resources are consumed by the minority of people who are chronically or episodical-ly homeless. Second, the public costs incurred by the

chronically homeless in hospitals, jails, shelters, and other institutions may be largely offset by providing PSH11,12,13. And third, surveys found that homeless people themselves prefer permanent housing to transitional housing14. In 2002, these findings motivated the Bush administration to set a national goal of ending chronic homelessness in ten years, largely by developing PSH. In the last half-decade, studies of HF programs other than Pathways proliferated, and most have found that participants have high rates of housing stability and reductions in use of costly public ser-vices. Not all studies have control groups (e.g. Transitional Housing participants), but those that do generally show better housing outcomes for HF participants. However, the evidence is mixed on whether HF reduces mental ill-ness and substance abuse15,16,17.

Research on Housing First approaches for homeless families is more limited, but several studies show that receipt of a housing subsidy is a major predictor of housing stability for families exiting homelessness18. Preliminary studies of family PSH programs have also found some successes19. One study in Upstate New York found that PSH programs for families are more expen-sive than TH, but have better outcomes20. Additionally, a landmark study in four cities found that families who stayed in emergency and transitional shelters the longest did not have higher social service needs than those who exited shelter and did not return21. As a result, many ad-vocates have promoted a “Rapid Re-Housing” (RRH) model for families (as well as individuals) with relatively few barriers to housing stability. RRH programs provide


2012 POINT-IN-TIME COUNT: PERCENT OF HOMELESS PERSONS IN SELECTED SUBPOPULATIONS

Per

cent

of

Tota

l Ho

mel

ess

Po

pul

atio

n in

201

2 P

IT C

oun

t

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Chronically

HomelessSeve

rely

Mentally

Ill

Chronic Substa

nce

AbuseVeteran

s

Persons w

ith

HIV/AID

S

Victim

s of

Domestic

Violence

Unacco

mpanied

Youth (U

nder 18)

US

FL

CHANGES IN HOMELESS SUBPOPULATIONS IN US POINT-IN-TIME COUNTS 2007-2012

(UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Total HomelessPopulation

-5.7%HomelessIndividuals

-6.8%

HomelessPeople in Families

-3.7%

Chronically Homeless

-19.3%

HomelessVeterans-17.2%

*2009 to 2012

0%

-5%

-10%

-15%

-20%

-25%


just enough assistance to quickly stabilize these families in permanent housing—outreach to landlords, security and utility deposits, moving costs, temporary rental subsidies, and tempo-rary case management addressing behaviors that directly affect a client’s housing stability22. In early 2009, HUD created a Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), a 3-year demonstration. In the second year, nearly 90% of the participants who exited the program went to permanent housing, and HUD classified about two-thirds of exit des-tinations as “stable” housing23. Several com-munities also report that RRH programs have lower costs, higher rates of exits to permanent housing, and lower rates of return to homeless-ness after 12 months than TH programs24.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CATCHES UP: THE

HEARTH ACT, OPENING DOORS, AND BEYOND

The growing emphasis on Housing First and prevention culminated in the Homeless Emer-gency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009, which reau-thorized and updated the McKinney-Vento Act for the first time since 1992. The definition of homelessness was expanded to include house-holds that will lose their housing in 2 weeks25, as well as unaccompanied youth and families with children who are living unstably. The defini-tion of “chronic homelessness” was expanded to include families as well as unaccompanied individuals26. The Emergency Shelter Grant, meanwhile, was renamed the “Emergency So-lutions Grant”, and its share of HUD’s McK-inney Vento funds doubled from 10% to 20%. Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) was added as an eli-gible component, and the 30% cap on home-lessness prevention activities was removed and replaced with a 60% cap on street outreach and emergency shelter. The competitive grant programs were consolidated into a single, more flexible “Continuum of Care” program, and RRH was added as an eligible activity. The ap-plication and scoring process was revised to em-

phasize outcomes, including reductions in total homeless populations and in rates of return to homelessness. The HEARTH Act also created a new Rural Housing Stability Program (RHSP), in which rural communities can compete more effectively for funding. RHSP allows a broad array of activities (including repairs needed to make homes habitable) that reflect the unique nature of rural housing instability27,28.

The Obama administration followed up in 2010 with Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, the first compre-hensive planning document for federal homeless assistance policy. Chronic homelessness had de-clined by one-third in the preceding five years, and Opening Doors built on the momentum by pledging to end chronic and veteran homeless-ness by 2015, and family and youth homelessness by 2020. Similar to the HEARTH Act, Opening Doors embraced Housing First, and provided guidance for homeless assistance providers to coordinate more effectively with mainstream so-cial services29. It drew on emerging federal pro-grams, including HPRP and HUD-Veterans Af-fairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH). In the latter program, the VA provides social services to qualified veterans while HUD provides a Sec-tion 8 voucher30. Around the same time Open-ing Doors was released, Congress authorized the VA to create the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, which provides home-lessness prevention and rapid re-housing assis-tance to veteran families who might not qualify for other VA benefits31.

The HEARTH Act, Opening Doors, and recently released HUD rules all promise to change the process of homeless assistance as well as the substance. In particular, HUD’s in-terim Continuum of Care rule requires CoCs to implement “Coordinated Assessment” pro-grams for intake and referral of homeless cli-ents. In many communities, the homeless as-sistance network is fragmented, and homeless

“PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF FAMILY PSH PROGRAMS HAVE ALSO FOUND SOME SUCCESSES. ONE STUDY IN UPSTATE NEW YORK FOUND THAT PSH PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN TH, BUT HAVE BETTER OUTCOMES.”

“IN THE SEC-OND YEAR, NEARLY 90% OF THE PAR-TICIPANTS WHO EXITED THE PROGRAM WENT TO PER-MANENT HOUS-ING, AND HUD CLASSIFIED ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF EXIT DESTINATIONS AS “STABLE” HOUSING. SEVERAL COM-MUNITIES ALSO REPORT THAT RRH PRO-GRAMS HAVE LOWER COSTS, HIGHER RATES OF EXITS TO PERMANENT HOUSING, AND LOWER RATES OF RETURN TO HOMELESS-NESS AFTER 12 MONTHS THAN TH PROGRAMS”



persons must approach multiple providers before finding one who will accept them. The services a client receives may be based more on which provider is able or willing to admit them than on their actual needs. With coor-dinated assessment, clients enter the homeless assistance system through well-defined entry points. Providers col-lectively assume responsibility for matching clients with the right programs, and agree on a set of intake ques-tions and referral criteria32,33.

REMAINING CHALLENGES

With Housing First approaches and massive emphasis on system coordination, our generation’s push to end home-lessness might just be the one that works. As one exam-ple, the 100,000 Homes Campaign has already housed over 70,000 people. A national grassroots effort led by a New York-based nonprofit, 100,000 Homes targets the most vulnerable individuals experiencing chronic home-lessness34. However, challenges remain at all levels, from federal policy to local implementation. As always, fed-eral funding is stretched and uncertain. Although Con-gress has been relatively generous with McKinney-Vento funding in the past few years, the current funding is not enough to cover renewals for projects that have already been developed35,36. Some of the “mainstream” resourc-es we need to create paths out of homelessness, such as public housing, CDBG, and community health centers, have seen significant cuts37. Others, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid, receive non-discretionary federal funds and can grow with demand. However, the recently proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or “food stamps”), show that even these programs are vulnerable.

The new federal approach to homelessness is also pushing communities to diminish the role of Transitional Hous-ing (TH). The downsides of TH have been somewhat exaggerated—the limited scholarly research finds that most TH clients who complete their programs are satisfied with their experience and find permanent housing, and programs do not generally “cream” the easiest-to-serve clients. However, “screening out” and attrition of the hardest-to-serve clients are common, especially for single adults38,39. And, as noted above, some communities have had better results with Rapid Re-Housing. TH provid-ers can stay competitive and protect their investments by “retooling” their programs. Some providers may wish to tailor their programs to populations that need them most, such as domestic violence survivors and recovering addicts. Programs may increase retention and avoid having empty beds by easing admission standards, such as requirements for sobriety and treatment compliance40. Some programs are even shifting their service models toward emergency shelter, interim housing for people awaiting a PSH or RRH unit, or permanent supportive housing, depending on the physical structure of their units41.

Advocates for the homeless have also struggled with the role of supportive services and how to pay for them. In Permanent Supportive Housing programs, McKinney-Vento grants are a critical funding source for support services. However, beginning in 1999, HUD established requirements and incentives for CoCs to shift spending from supportive services toward housing. The HEARTH Act shifts funding priorities even further toward housing. Medicaid is another vital funding source, but not all ser-vices are eligible for reimbursement, and not all people exiting homelessness would necessarily qualify for it.


INVENTORY OF BEDS FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE IN THE US

Source: National 2012 Point-In-Time Count

PUBLIC SHELTER USE AMONG SUBPOPULATIONS OF HOMELESS SINGLE ADULTS IN PHILADELPHIA

DURING A 3-YEAR PERIOD

Source: Kuhn and Culhane 1998, in Culhane and Metraux 2008.*Note: “Transition-al shelter users” means users who had just one brief shelter stay within the study period. “Episodic users” cycled in and out of shelters repeatedly, and “chronic users” stayed for months or years at a time.


While other federal funds exist, particularly from the De-partment of Health and Human Services (HHS), none has been sufficient to fill the gap left by shifting McKin-ney funds42.

The greatest risk, though, may be for families who need ongoing services that Rapid Re-Housing programs do not provide, yet may not have severe enough impairments to qualify for PSH. Some analysts accept the principles of Housing First, but worry that families will lose access to services as Transitional Housing programs decline43,44. Al-though previous research suggested that families with long shelter stays do not have higher service needs, some needs may have flown under the radar. For example, PTSD and depression are widespread among homeless mothers, and may be major predictors of long-term housing stability. However, they seldom require hospitalization and often re-main undiagnosed45,46.

Of course, internal issues of program design are just as important as external funding sources. The issue of serv-ing higher-need families is closely tied to that of design-ing eligibility criteria for RRH programs. Even RRH’s staunchest advocates recognize that a program with broad eligibility criteria may become much more expensive than anticipated, by drawing many unstably housed families out of the woodwork. Moreover, if RRH programs accept families who need longer-term support, they may have a high and politically damaging rate of return to home-lessness47,48. Similarly, despite the documented success of

PSH, a substantial minority of tenants leave within two years for less favorable living arrangements. It can be dif-ficult to predict which tenants will “fail”, so PSH programs should strive for constructive tenant-staff relationships, an ability to detect the early warning signs of a relapse, and attractive units in neighborhoods that tenants like49.

CONCLUSION

In recent years, homeless assistance has received unprec-edented political support, largely because of document-ed successes in housing the chronically homeless. With-out a doubt, the supply of affordable housing may put an upper limit on our efforts to prevent and end homeless-ness. But if we can successfully help the populations tar-geted by the HEARTH Act to regain stable housing with the resources we do have, we can make a stronger case than ever that affordable housing prevents homelessness, saves taxpayer dollars, and helps people live more pro-ductive lives. With policy makers watching closely, we have to do it right. Providers of housing for the homeless should carefully define their target populations and help them connect to mainstream resources. Support service agencies who want to venture into housing development should recognize how it will change their capacity needs and organizational culture. And all players should com-municate early and often, bringing new stakeholders to the table, educating themselves about best practices, and retooling local programs based on what works for their communities.


HNN

Citations for this article can be found online at FLhousing.org. Select this article in the Journal under the Publications Tab.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

93%

70%

49% 49%

21%26%

SIGNIFICANT IMPAIRMENTS FOUND IN STUDY OF HOMELESS MOTHERS

AA/NAAttendance

Taking Depression Medicine

PTSDSexually Assaulted

Physically Assaulted

History of Trauma


Three new items for 2013-14 put on the plate of the Florida Nonprofit Housing Advocates Network, are:

1. Making the case for increasing operating and adminis-trative support for nonprofits;

2. Additional capacity building trainings, including we-binars, from the Florida Housing Coalition specifi-cally targeted to nonprofits;

3. Providing regular updates on federal housing issues.

We will take on these issues and we will attend to issues that need to be readdressed. Most notably, the bulk of the work the FNHAN did last year on the Universal Ap-plication is no longer meaningful. The FHFC made a change this year from the Universal Application to a Re-quest for Application process. The system put in place for tax credits has effectively turned tax credits back into a lottery in which for-profit developers can and have sub-mitted multiple applications. Florida’s community based nonprofits are again left without a reasonable opportu-nity to participate in the tax credit program.

The FNHAN meets the second Wednesday of every month from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. It is open to all nonprofit members of the Florida Housing Coalition. There is no charge. If you want to join the FNHAN, just email [email protected] or call the Florida Housing Coalition at 850-878-4219 to have your name added. You will re-ceive call-in information and the draft agenda for each monthly meeting by email. We also have ad-hoc sub-committees to address issues on our strategic plan. We welcome your participation!

THE FLORIDA NONPROFIT HOUSING ADVOCATES NETWORK

THE FLORIDA NONPROFIT HOUSING ADVOCATES NETWORK (FNHAN) WAS LAUNCHED IN FALL 2010 TO FURTHER THE FLORIDA

HOUSING COALITION’S VISION THAT FLORIDA HAVE AT LEAST ONE COMMUNITY-BASED NONPROFIT HOUSING PROVIDER

WORKING IN EVERY JURISDICTION.

> THE FLORIDA NONPROFIT HOUSING ADVOCATES NETWORK

< Florida Housing Coalition Board Member, Suzanne Cabrera, led the Florida Nonprofit Housing Advocates Network Caucus at the 2013 Affordable Housing Conference in Orlando, Florida.

HNN

At our in-person meeting (which takes place annually at the statewide con-ference) we reviewed our successes from last year, including:

1. Sadowski Education Efforts (ongo-ing) www.sadowskicoalition.com

2. Inclusion of affordable housing as a cross cutting issue in the Governor’s (DEO) 5 year strategic plan: http://bit.ly/PBhxIE;

3. Progress on financing for community land trusts (see article on page10);

4. Recommendations to FHFC to improve the process for tax credit allocation;

5. Repeal of the section of 196.1978 that was threaten-ing the future of affordable housing;

6. Ensuring that the AG Settlement monies were used for housing;

7. Progress in preventing and ending homelessness;

8. Fighting NIMBYism and Promoting Fair Housing;

9. Working on implementation of surplus land statute and land banking (See articles on pages 13 and 19)

10. Educating local and state elected officials on the im-portance of affordable housing (ongoing).


Earlier this Summer, the South Florida Community Land Trust, along with

the National CLT Network, Florida CLT Institute, the South Florida CLT Net-

work and other CLT’s hosted a forum for lenders to learn about the benefits

of community land trusts to prospective homeowners as well as lenders.

Over 60 people attended the event including representatives from 12

financial institutions, local lead-

ers, and CLTs. The event was

covered by network news out-

lets and in Tallahassee on the

Capital Soup Blog.

> COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

The Florida Community Land Trust Institute has been working on the is-sue of financing for CLT homebuy-ers since May 2012 when we first met with HUD in Washington DC to address the problem caused by having FHA as the only practicable

home loan product for low income homebuyers. Prior to the housing recession, community land trust homebuyers were using Fannie Mae, with the CLT lease rider to obtain loans that were saleable on the secondary market. That progress for the community land trust movement was put in reverse when Fannie Mae’s lending guidelines removed it as a reasonable option for first time home-buyers. And while FHA provides a saleable product for first time homebuyers, it does not have a lease rider for community land trust properties and an FHA mortgage letter ruling contains vague and confusing lan-guage regarding deed restrictions, making FHA financing unworkable for lenders looking to sell the CLT loans on the secondary market. The result is that community land trust homebuyers need to find lenders willing to portfolio the CLT homebuyer loans.

In June, 2013, Florida Community Land Trust Institute members, including the South Florida CLT, the Hous-

ing Leadership Council of Palm Beach, Adopt-A-Family, Delray Beach CLT, and the Palm Beach County CLT held a lender forum to educate and rally support. The event, dubbed Community Land Trusts: Partners You Can Bank On, had over 60 people in attendance, including representa-tives from 12 financial institutions.

With testimonials like those of former banker, Marcia Bar-ry-Smith, who took the microphone to say, “ I was entirely

against community land trusts when I first heard about the idea. But then I learned about CLTs and now I can’t

think of a better way to provide affordable home-ownership” and from CLT homebuyers brought to the forum by Palm Beach County CLT execu-tive director, Cindee LaCourse Blum, kept from CLT homeownership “only because of the lack of lending”, hearts and minds were opened.

Right now, South Florida (especially Palm Beach County) is a hotbed of community land trust activity. Indeed, but for the lending problem outlined above, the Florida CLT Institute es-timates that more than 250 homes would have been put into permanent affordable stewardship.

Mandy Bartle, executive director of the South Florida CLT deserves a great deal of credit for pulling the lender forum to-gether. It drove home to local lenders that investment in com-munity land trusts is the safest community reinvestment

THE FLORIDA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INSTITUTE

BY JAIMIE ROSS


THE FLORIDA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INSTITUTElending that a financial institution can make. And to that end, we honor Nancy Merolla, of Florida Community Bank, the first one to step up at the forum.

“We are excited to be the first lender in South Florida to engage in CLT related transactions. With the real es-tate market on the rebound, it is more important than ever that local banks are able to offer worthwhile home-ownership solutions to every resident. This is just one important example of

FCBs profound commitment to the communities we serve.” - FCB VP, CRA Officer, Nancy L. Merolla

In a sustained effort to continuously identify unique and innovative ways to evoke positive

change in the community and foster economic de-velopment, Florida Community Bank (FCB) is leading the way by becoming the first Bank in South Florida to participate as a lender in Community Land Trust (CLT) transactions. CLT’s provide individuals and families with access to affordable land and housing whom otherwise due to financial circumstance would not have this opportunity.

FCB, the 5th largest independent Bank in Florida with over $3.2 billion in assets, has built a model in which constructive, impactful Community Involve-ment and Development activities are incorporated into every aspect of its business. FCB is relentless in its quest to continuously pinpoint critical areas of need within each of the communities it operates and determine the most effective methods to act upon them. Throughout its history, FCB has exhibited an equal commitment to strengthening the economic health and improving the lives of its communities the Bank serves, as it has to providing valuable personal and business banking solutions to its clients.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY BANK Stepping Up in South Florida

> COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

“As a testament to the lender forum’s success, on October 30, 2013, the Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County’s first homebuyer closed on a beautiful home in Oakland Park, Flori-da. Florida Community Bank provided the mortgage.”

- Cindee La Course Blum,

Executive Director Palm Beach County CLT

NANCY MEROLLA

Florida Housing Coalition President and founder of the Florida CLT Institute, Jaimie Ross, among those interviewed for televised

coverage of the Forum.

HNN

COMMUNITY LAND TRUST SESSION HELD AT THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONFERENCE IN SEPTEMBER

THE FLORIDA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INSTITUTE IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN TWO STATEWIDE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, 1000 FRIENDS OF FLORIDA AND THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION. IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN JANUARY 2000 AND HAS BEEN PROVIDING EDUCATION, TRAINING, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, AND LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY ON BEHALF OF CLTS IN FLORIDA SINCE THAT TIME.


BILL LAZAR is the Executive Director of St. Johns Housing Partnership (SJHP), providing affordable housing for 24 years in Duval, St. Johns, and Clay Counties. Using ARRA weatherization funds, SJHP weather-ized over 1200 single family homes and 36 multi-family properties, cre-ating a direct economic impact of over $14 million. SJHP is committed to increasing the quality of services throughout the affordable housing industry. Lazar serves on the boards of the Florida Green Building Co-alition and the Florida Weatherization Network.

Many of us are looking forward to better news in 2014. It’s a good time to look around at some of the good work we saw at the FHC annual conference and think about using those ideas. Hopefully with more SHIP funding on the horizon, it’s time to dust off our housing documents and improve on old plans.

It’s always good to be looking ahead in construction, es-pecially with new energy code upgrades. Florida’s Energy Codes changed in 2012 and another increase in efficien-cy is predicted in two years. In new construction, those changes can be important to a healthy home. Back in the 80’s, air sealing efforts were more manual. Many times they weren’t that scientific, and unin-tended consequences were too tight sometimes unhealthy conditions.

With new building materials and construction techniques many homes are built more airtight than before. When you hear improved building performance, just think best building practices. We want to see the im-proved performance reflected in the sales price. When you make improvements and there is no corresponding change in appraisal, that’s a dis-incentive. If the changes increase marketability, then at least there is a positive trade off. If the costs are not immediately reflected in increased value, we need to design changes as cost effectively as possible.

If you have a building partner who is not that familiar with energy efficiency, reach out to them. Most builders know they have to adapt to changes, but they want to under-stand why, not just because “you have to.” Most would appreciate cost effective ideas that work.

Especially in affordable housing, we know that costs are crit-ical. Designing performance can be a less expensive way to achieving efficiency than buying products. There is a lot of good work and research from some of our partners here in Florida. The Florida Solar Energy Center has produced

a white paper on “Deep Energy Retrofits” http://fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/FSEC-RR-444-13.pdf on less expensive ways to conserve. The Florida Green Building Coalition has produced a handout of inexpensive ways to achieve green “Cost Effective Actions for Greening Your Home.” The Florida Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Services has created a web tool for consumers on energy consumption. http://www.myfloridahomeenergy.com/

There are great new tools to help define building performance. Blower doors can tell you how tight or leaky our homes are, an important detail in properly sizing air conditioning systems. Once we started using them we were able to reduce sizing on

most AC systems by half a ton.

A blower door finds leaky ducts, which can bring dust, pollen or hu-midity into your home. On a leaky mobile home with mold and mildew problems, one of the ducts had sepa-rated from the register below the floor and was pulling in cool damp air. The blower door took us right to it. Do

you wonder why certain rooms feel warmer than others? An infra red camera can see behind the drywall and con-firm if there is missing insulation, a common problem with trey ceilings or hard to insulate attic spaces. A duct test will find a leaky duct. We recently used an IR camera to pinpoint a slab leak.

There are business partners in every county who can help you showcase these best practices and convince oth-ers of the value in improved building performance. Look for green building professionals, weatherization inspec-tors or energy raters and ask them to meet with you.

BUILDING PERFORMANCE COST EFFECTIVE IDEAS THAT WORKBY BILL LAZAR

> ENERGY EFFICIENCY

HNN


INTRODUCTION

In 2006, at the height of the housing boom, the Florida Legislature passed re-quirements for counties and municipali-ties to identify lands they owned that were suitable for affordable housing. The re-

quirements are found in two statutes: §125.379 for coun-ties, and §166.0451 for municipalities. The Florida Non-profit Housing Advocacy Network (FNHAN), composed of nonprofit housing providers in FHC’s membership, has been researching the extent to which communities have used the statutes to promote affordable housing de-velopment. This article describes the results of an infor-mal survey of local governments conducted in late sum-mer 2013, and discusses challenges and opportunities for disposing of surplus lands for affordable housing.

OVERVIEW OF THE STATUTES

The two statutes have identical requirements for counties and municipalities. Beginning in 2007, each of these lo-cal governments was required to prepare an “inventory list” of properties to which it holds fee simple title, and which are “appropriate for use” as affordable housing.

After reviewing and possibly revising the list, the gov-erning body adopts it in a resolution. The lists must be updated every three years. The statutes do not actually require that local governments dispose of the identified properties for affordable housing, but three disposition methods are explicitly authorized:

1. A property “may be offered for sale [without use re-strictions] and the proceeds used to purchase land for the development of affordable housing or to increase the lo-cal government fund earmarked for affordable housing,”2.“. . .Sold [to a developer, low-income homeowner, etc.] with a restriction that requires the development of the property as permanent affordable housing,”3.“. . . Donated to a nonprofit housing organization for the construction of permanent affordable housing.”

HOW DO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ACQUIRE SURPLUS

LANDS?

If a local government has no current or future use for a property it owns—such as for a right-of-way, a park, or a public building—it has a strong incentive to dispose of the property as quickly as possible. The property pro-

SURPLUS LANDS for Affordable Housing

BY ROSE PHILLIPS

> SURPLUS LANDS


vides no tax revenue or direct public benefit, and the local government must pay for its maintenance and up-keep. Some surplus properties are acquired when the local government forecloses on code enforcement liens. In other cases, the city or county may have purchased a property long ago for some future use, but may no longer have a use for the property. Properties acquired by these means may not have clear title—that is, they may have liens that must be paid before the local government can transfer title to new owner.

One particularly important process by which cities and counties acquire land is known as “escheatment”. The term sometimes refers to the conveyance of land owner-ship to a local government after the owner’s death, if no inheritor or next of kin can be found. However, it also ap-plies to tax-delinquent properties that revert to a local gov-ernment. As Figure 1 shows, escheatment of tax-delin-quent properties takes five years in Florida. Escheatment essentially clears the title to a property; F.S. §197.502(8) states that “all tax certificates, accrued taxes, and liens of any nature against the property shall be deemed can-celed.” If an escheated property is located within the boundaries of a municipality, the county must either use it for purposes specified in F.S. §197.592(3), or convey it to the municipality. County-held liens of record on the property are eliminated by conveyance to a municipality.

SURVEY DESIGN AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

We sent e-mail surveys to 41 local governments (20 coun-ties and 21 cities). These jurisdictions included the state’s five largest cities and counties, twenty-one communities

known or suspected to have numerous vacant lots in sub-divisions platted in the 1960s and ‘70s, and ten commu-nities that were otherwise considered relevant. The 29 respondents had a wide range of population sizes, and their quantitative responses are shown in Table 1.

Despite FNHAN’s concern that many communities would be unaware of the “surplus lands” statutes, 80% of re-spondents have in fact developed lists of surplus properties that are suitable for affordable housing. Four of the five jurisdictions without lists were aware of the statutes, but are too small to have the need or capacity to dispose of surplus lands for affordable housing. Two of these four communities use other practices to promote affordable housing development on surplus lands, such as develop-ment code incentives, and the other two communities are built out. In communities that did have lists, the number of properties varied widely, from none to over 100.

The number of properties disposed for affordable hous-ing also varied. Although the highest disposition rate was 50 properties since 2007, overall disposition was low (me-dian = 9%). The most popular disposition method was donating land to a nonprofit (Figure 2). Several qualitative responses suggested that this is the simplest of the three specified methods. In contrast, marketing a property to a willing buyer and hosting a competitive bid process re-quires considerable staff time and resources.

COMPLIANCE AND DISPOSITION CHALLENGES

Some respondents reported that the process of identify-ing surplus properties and screening them for suitability

> SURPLUS LANDS

COUNTY TRIES TO SELL CERTIFICATE FOR DELINQUENT TAXES ON A PROPERTY

NO ONE PURCHASES TAX CERTIFICATE —STRUCK TO COUNTY

A PRIVATE PARTY BUYS THE TAX CERTIFICATE FOR A HOMESTEADED PROPERTY

COUNTY APPLIES FOR TAX DEED AT PUBLIC SALE—NO ONE BIDS

CERTIFICATE OWNER APPLIES FOR TAX DEED, NO ONE BIDS AT PUBLIC TAX DEED SALE, APPLICANT REFUSES DEED

PROPERTY ESCHEATS TO THE COUNTY

2 YEARS — NO ONE PURCHASES TAX CERTIFICATE 2 YEARS

3 YEARS — NO ONE PURCHASES TAX DEED 3 YEARS — NO ONE PURCHASES TAX DEED

(NOTE: If a private party buys the tax certificate, the property is much more likely to escheat if it is homesteaded than if it is not. If no one bids on a homesteaded property at a tax deed sale, the tax deed applicant must pay an extra sum to take possession of the property.)

FIG. 1. ESCHEATMENT OF TAX-DELINQUENT PROPERTIES.


was not straightforward. Challenges included making time in busy staff schedules and co-ordinating among multiple departments (e.g. Housing, Planning, Real Estate etc.). Some re-spondents found that developing and refining a data set from which to identify properties is time-consuming. For instance, the real estate department of one community is still working with the property appraiser to copy a backlog of property records into the real estate depart-ment’s computer system. Additionally, the statutes do not specify suitability criteria, and several respondents found it difficult to create their own criteria. However, most of these re-spondents said that the screening process be-came easier once the criteria were established. The title research process for properties with liens poses another administrative challenge.

Several factors accounted for the low disposi-tion rates. The most commonly mentioned challenge was that properties are in undesir-able areas. As one respondent said, “There’s a reason the private sector hasn’t taken an in-terest in them.” Other respondents reported that elected officials remove desirable prop-erties from the list if they can be sold to raise general fund proceeds, or may want to sweep the proceeds from surplus lands that are sold under these statutes. Further challenges in-clude tightened mortgage lending standards for would-be buyers of affordable homes, and reductions in SHIP and CDBG funding. Finally, two municipalities reported legal re-strictions on their disposition activities. One city’s charter requires that when land is of-fered for sale on the private market, it must be sold to the party that makes the best of-fer, making it difficult to sell redeveloped lots with affordability restrictions to low-income home buyers. Another city reported that its county imposes affordability restrictions on escheated properties that it conveys to mu-

nicipalities, ruling out the option of selling properties for other uses and earmarking the proceeds for affordable housing.

CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS

Communities that can reasonably implement the surplus lands statutes are doing so in good faith, even though there is no real enforcement mechanism. A majority of respondents also agreed that the statutes are a supportive tool in their overall efforts to develop affordable hous-ing, although their role is very modest. Because of the challenges that local government agen-cies face in identifying and disposing of surplus properties, it would not be appropriate to make the statutes substantially more prescriptive. Smaller changes might be worth considering—for example, requiring that local governments publicize the criteria by which they evaluate surplus lands. This could enable affordable housing advocates to block efforts by govern-ing bodies to remove suitable surplus properties from the lists. Changes to other statutes could also improve the surplus land disposition pro-cess. For example, the 5-year escheatment pro-cess could be expedited to allow counties and cities to return the lands to productive use as soon as possible. Even without legislative changes, the stat-utes may become more useful as the hous-ing market improves, and private demand increases for some surplus properties. If non-profit housing providers and other advocates are aware of the statutes, they can work with elected and administrative officials in their communities to obtain surplus lands that would otherwise be sold on the open market, or to advocate for a share of the revenue from land sales. In communities that are dedicated to providing affordable options, the surplus land statutes may be a powerful tool in a vi-brant housing market.

> SURPLUS LANDS

TABLE 1. IDENTIFICATION AND DISPOSITION OF SURPLUS LANDS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING BY STUDY RESPONDENTS.

RESPONDENTS WITH

INVENTORY LISTS

24 of 29

PROPERTIES IDENTIFIED

Median: 47.5Range: 0-102

PROPERTIES DISPOSED

Median: 2Range: 0-50

PERCENT DISPOSED

Median: 9%Range: 0-74%

DISPOSITIONRATE

(PROPERTIES/Y)

Mean: 1.4

FIG. 2. NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS USING DISPOSITION METHODS EXPLIC-ITLY AUTHORIZED BY STATUTES.

Sold, Proceeds Earmarked

Sold with AH RestrictionsDonated to Non Profit

(Note: Some respon-dents used more than one disposition method.)

16

6

6

HNN


Excel is everywhere you look. Its popular-ity lies in its ability to provide users with enormous capacity to do quantitative analysis combined with its intuitive inter-face that lets you see what happens to the data as you manipulate them. In Florida,

many local government SHIP administrators use the Ex-cel based tracking sheets developed by the Florida Hous-ing Coalition to aggregate the information needed to complete their SHIP annual report. In addition to data organization and basic arithmetic, Excel contains a col-lection of supplied functions to answer statistical, engi-neering and financial needs. Excel’s features make it a very handy tool for managing and implementing afford-able housing programs, but if the user isn’t careful, the program’s design can lead to some costly mistakes. This article provides a discussion of some famous Excel errors as well as some tips on how to avoid Excel problems in your own work.

THE MOST DANGEROUS SOFTWARE ON THE PLANET?

In a recent article, Forbes contributor Tim Worstal de-clared that Excel based models used in financial markets have become so complex and handled in ”such a slap-dash manner that no one is really on top of it anymore”. Author James Kwal takes it a step further, “anyone can create an Excel spreadsheet,-badly”. He continues “be-cause it’s so easy to use, the creation of even important spreadsheets is not restricted to people who understand programming and do it in a methodical, well-document-ed way.”

While the analytical potential of Excel can seem limitless, the spreadsheets that people create with it come with some notable restrictions. For example, in Excel there is not an easy way to show where your data come from. Excel doesn’t have the ability to show an audit trail – that is the user cannot identify cells whose value was changed, nor is it possible to see a history of what numbers were in a cell

NOT EXCITED ABOUT EXCEL?LET’S WORK ON THAT

BY STAN FITTERMAN

> CAPACITY CORNER

CAPACITY CORNER >

Citations for this article can be found online at FLhousing.org. Select this Journal under the Publications Tab.


prior to the current value. As a result, numbers can be accidentally overtyped without the user even realizing it.

MATH ERRORS AREN’T NEW

While math errors are as old as, well, math, some have led to catastrophic events. The Quebec Bridge, connect-ing the south shore of the St. Lawrence River to the river’s north shore, was originally designed for a 1600 foot span. The span was later lengthened to 1800 feet, enabling the pilings to be built for a lower cost closer to the riverbank. Unfortunately, there was no recalculation of assumed weights for the bridge given the longer span. On August 29, 1907, the bridge collapsed killing 75 workers.

In 1999, NASA’s Mars orbiter crashed into the Red Planet. An investigation revealed that program engineers forgot to convert from English to metric measurements.

More recently, Excel spreadsheet problems have been front and center in some high profile news stories. In 2010, two Harvard economists, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, circulated a paper demonstrating that once a country’s debt exceeds 90 percent of gross domes-tic product, economic growth drops off sharply. This research was widely cited in policy debates over the U.S. deficit. Subsequent researchers had trouble replicating Reinhart and Rogoff ’s results. Eventually, the authors allowed researchers at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) to review their original spreadsheet. In an ar-ticle published in 2013, the three UMass researchers found that the original research omitted some data, and, in creating the formula to calculate average economic growth rates, Reinhart and Rogoff left off several rows of data in their spreadsheet. In other words, an Excel formula error led to conclusions that may not have been supported by the data.1

In 2012, JPMorgan lost tens of billions of dollars in the now infamous “London Whale” case. An internal investigation of the loss found that an Excel model un-derstated the risk of the investments. According to the report, JPMorgan’s Chief Investment Office needed a new value-at-risk model for the portfolio and assigned a

“London-based quantitative expert, mathematician and model developer” to design it. This new model “oper-ated through a series of Excel spreadsheets which had to be completed manually by a process of copying and past-ing data from one spreadsheet to another.” This lack of automation resulted in substantial room for human error -not copying all of the required rows, copying too many rows, overwriting formulas when pasting, etc. The report found other problems in the model as well, including a formula error that, after subtracting an old rate from a new one, divided by their sum instead of their average. The report states that this error “likely had the effect of muting volatility by a factor of two and of lowering the value at risk.” In other words, a lack of automation com-bined with formula errors in an Excel spreadsheet con-tributed to the loss of billions of investor dollars.

EXCEL AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING

So, we don’t design bridges or handle billions of dollars in investments, but we do use Excel to make a number of decisions and policy recommendations. When work-ing with home buyers most affordable housing programs use Excel to determine how much of a monthly mort-gage payment an applicant can afford, and then use that amount to calculate a maximum mortgage amount for which the applicant can qualify. When evaluating a rental deal, Excel is used almost exclusively to calculate income, expenses, and debt coverage ratios. So how can we minimize, or at least make it more likely we catch, er-rors in our Excel formulas and spreadsheets?

1 Reinhart and Rogoff acknowledge the errors but dispute many of the other findings in the UMass study, Reinhart and Rogoff stand behind their original conclusions..

> CAPACITY CORNER

EXAMPLE 1


SHOW YOUR WORK

Input errors in Excel formulas are easy to make, but can be hard to find. In designing a spreadsheet, it is best to have a cell for each variable, with the formula referencing each variable. For example, to calculate a monthly payment, the user could just enter the variables into a formula:

The variables for the formula are in the tiny type in the formula bar near the top of the screen. A typo in the in-terest rate or term would have a different answer but the error would not be easily found by the user.

On the other hand, if the variables are listed on the screen, an input error would be more easily found by the user, or by someone reviewing the spreadsheet for accuracy:

AUTOMATE, AUTOMATE, AUTOMATE

The formula in Example 2 takes advantage of Excel’s automation features. One of Excels best attributes is how it lets you see what happens to your data as you manipu-late them. For example, a well-designed rental operat-ing pro forma allows the user to instantly see how an increase in an interest rate affects net operating income. However, some spreadsheet designs rely too much on the user having to change an amount in multiple cells throughout a spreadsheet. The formula in Example 2 could have been written the same as in Example 1, where even though the variables are shown in their own cell, the user still had to manually input each variable:=PMT(0.05/12,30*12,-85000)

Instead, this formula uses Excel’s cell referencing feature: =PMT(B2/12,C2*12,-A2)2

In this example, changing the interest rate in cell “B2” automatically changes the rate in the formula, yielding the correct answer for the new rate. By automating this process we have reduced the chances of a data entry er-ror not being caught.

CHECK YOUR WORK

Yes, I know it’s boring, and yes I know this isn’t Algebra 2, but double checking your formulas (or better yet, hav-ing someone else do it), is one of the best ways to catch spreadsheet errors. For example, when you click on a cell that contains the formula for summing rows of numbers, Excel outlines the rows that are included in the total. A simple double check can help you locate any totals that don’t include all of the appropriate cells:

Excel is a great tool and your worst enemy all rolled into one. Used correctly it can increase efficiency and provide the data analysis you need to make sound deci-sions. Used incorrectly, well, let’s just say bad things can happen. However, a carefully crafted, automated spread-sheet that clearly shows the data being used in a formula can help you minimize errors.

NEED HELP LEARNING MORE ABOUT USING EXCEL IN MANAGING AND IMPLEMENTING YOUR AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAMS?

The Florida Housing Coalition can provide Webinars or on-site training for you and your staff. Call (850)878-4219 or e-mail Stan Fitterman at [email protected] for more information.

> CAPACITY CORNER

EXAMPLE 2 EXAMPLE 3

HNN

2 When calculating a monthly payment, both the annual interest rate and the term must be converted to months. By default, Excel shows payments as a negative number. To show it as a positive number, the formula must contain a “negative” sign in front of the cell that references the principal amount.


Many Neighborhood Stabilization Pro-gram (NSP) grantees have arrived at a crossroads now that expenditure dead-lines have been met and most, but not all, NSP-assisted properties have been com-pleted. Decisions need to be made about

those remaining properties that will require more time, money and effort before finding a suitable end use. The portfolios are in effect, already an informal land bank. The most pressing question is how to decide if a more formal land bank program needs to be implemented or if the remaining properties can be disposed of in a rela-tively short period of time without further actions. This article discusses some of the more critical areas to con-sider and how to make sure the land plan will comply with NSP regulations.

Most NSP grantees did not initially envision the need for a land bank program that would survive long after the NSP grant funds had been expended. For many grantees, NSP projects have been completed or will be within 12-18 months after expenditure deadlines. But some grantees or their partners are holding a portfolio of NSP-assisted properties that have been stubborn to be sold or developed. There could be many reasons for this, including lagging homebuyer markets, the purchase of more properties than there are no funds to rehabilitate, or completed projects that remain vacant due to location or demand problems. Perhaps marketing efforts have not been successful in the disposition of the homes. It may have been the specific intention to hold these properties for the long term as part of a comprehensive program. Realizing that maintaining vacant or improved land

THE LAND BANK OPTION: MAKING THE BEST DECISION FOR YOUR PROGRAM

BY GLADYS SCHNEIDER

> LAND BANKING


*NSP Closeout

For more information

on NSP Closeout, see

FHC article http://

www.flhousing.

org/wp-content/

uploads/2013/02/

NSP-Expenditure-

Deadlines-and-

Closeout-Roll-

Forward.pdf.

See also the NSP

Closeout Notice,

Federal Register

November 27, 2012

(288 FR 70799).

“Land Bank Plan - If

the grantee has

assisted a land

bank, the grantee

must submit a plan

detailing how the land

bank will meet the 10-

year maximum land

holding requirement

of Section II.E.2.d

of the Unified NSP

Notice and Appendix

I, Section E.2.d of the

NSP2 NOFA. A list

of any real property

held in the land bank

should be included

in the plan along

with addresses for

these land-banked

properties.”

takes time and funding, communities are spurred to make a decision and get a plan sooner rather than later.

Once the reasons for remaining inventory have been examined, it is important to ad-dress these factors in considering the land bank option. Land bank programs must be carefully tailored to meet the specific goals envisioned for transferring properties to a use that supports neighborhood stabiliza-tion. In Florida, communities considering land banks typically have less than a cou-ple dozen vacant lots that were acquired with NSP funds and cleared of blighted buildings. It may be necessary to wait for the market to improve for new construc-tion and buyer demand. In some cases the neighborhoods continue to experience challenges and buyer demand is weak for that area. A good first step is to classify the inventory at this point into properties that can be moved quickly, versus properties that will require more time. For example, if there are properties that will clearly be used for infrastructure, retention, or another public utility use, make the transfer as soon as possible to get it off the list. For others, re-evaluate the marketing strategy and ad-just if needed. Check the validity of home-buyer waiting lists and make sure pricing is attractive. Strong marketing efforts can prevent long term holding expenses.

If the overall design is part of a long term strategy or it is unlikely that the properties will be disposed of in 18-24 months, it may be wise to consider activating the NSP Eli-gible Use C Strategy to form and operate a Land Bank. The main benefit to this is time- doing so will gain a holding period of up to 10 years. If other NSP activities have been completed, designating the proper-ties for land banking will allow the grantee

to begin the close out process for the NSP grant. After 10 years have passed from the date the Closeout Agreement is executed, if the properties have still not yet met a nation-al objective and eligible activity, NSP funds will need to be repaid, in part or in full, or the property will revert immediately to the CDBG program. *See information on right for more information on NSP Closeout.

After examining the inventory and the an-ticipated horizon for completion, the next major consideration is cost. The cost of im-plementing either a simple temporary land bank or a formal program can be fairly predictable but funding sources are limited. As the custodian of the properties, the land bank must have funds available for mainte-nance, legal and title actions, and market-ing. It is important when establishing the land bank to first dispose of the obviously simple transfers such as utility easements, parks, or conservation. This will transfer maintenance costs to other departments or agencies and will help the land bank focus on its primary mission of neighborhood sta-bilization and affordable housing. Remain-ing properties may need to undergo legal work to quiet title or planning procedures such as re-zoning or re-platting. The land bank will need to develop an outreach and marketing plan to aggressively seek buyers or developers. Another concern is environ-mental reviews. When the NSP program was initiated, environmental clearances were completed. A property that will later undergo a change in use may require a sec-ond review if for example, the property was originally commercial but will be redevel-oped as residential. This is a future expense that is not always anticipated. Understand-ing what each property will require will help to build a more reliable budget.

> LAND BANKING


NSP program income may be used to main-tain the NSP-assisted properties in the in-ventory. These expenses are considered dis-position costs and must be tracked by the property. NSP does not permit disposition costs for land banking to be passed on to future homebuyers. If NSP funds are not available, the local government will face us-ing general revenue to maintain the land bank properties. It is possible to find a creative solution, such as teaming up with neighborhood improvement projects.

Along with costs and future proposed uses, the inventory should include a target date for completion. This will guide the budget process as well as ensure that the 10 year NSP time frame will be met. The inventory should be examined for types and locations of properties, adjacent uses and special characteristics. The origination should be noted to make sure any restrictions on fu-ture uses are known. The Plan should iden-tify the long term goals for not only each property by the land bank program itself.

The inventory and the budget are two of three main sections of a land bank plan. The third is policies and procedures for ac-quiring and disposing of the properties. By now it is advisable to seek input from rep-resentatives from other departments such as utilities or parks that will be affected as well as neighborhood advocates and hous-ing providers. An oversight committee will help guide the future planning process and help to build consensus. The land bank plan is starting to take shape. The oversight com-mittee should agree on the primary mission and longevity of the land bank. The plan should identify the agency or organization responsible for the land bank operation. The plan needs to define the specific poli-cies and procedures that will be followed in the acquisition and disposition of the

properties. This is important as the commu-nity and funders will expect reasonable and consistent performance. It will also prevent land grabs or end-runs by others who may not want to follow the mission of the land bank. Acquisition policies should clearly de-fine the types of properties that have the po-tential to meet neighborhood stabilization goals. The acquisition policies are intended to prevent the land bank from becoming a dumping ground for environmental clean-up sites or obtaining properties that will be too expensive to maintain such as buildings whether vacant or occupied. The policies should identify the process for requesting properties, and selection criteria and priori-ties. The policies and procedures should de-scribe how they will be transferred to result in affordable housing or other uses that sup-port neighborhood stabilization and what enforcement mechanisms will be employed. Long term affordability requirements must be met for land banked properties in ac-cordance with the NSP program. Transfer policies and procedures should be clearly drafted for unbuildable properties or parcels best suited as side lots (sale or donation to ad-jacent property owner), pocket parks, open space, or community gardens.

While the land bank may be administered by a local government, is not uncommon for nonprofit organizations to serve as the land bank. Land banking may be the sole purpose of the organization or its main purpose is affordable housing development. A nonprofit partner may already hold title to NSP-assisted properties but market con-ditions or a lack of available funding has stalled the completion of developments. The local government can authorize the nonprofit to serve as a land bank and devel-op a Land Bank Plan to guide in the even-tual disposition of the properties. This will not only buy time, but re-establish policies

HUD DEFINITION

OF A LAND BANK:

A LAND BANK IS A

GOVERNMENTAL OR

NONGOVERNMENTAL

NONPROFIT ENTITY

ESTABLISHED, AT LEAST

IN PART, TO ASSEMBLE,

TEMPORARILY

MANAGE, AND

DISPOSE OF

VACANT LAND

FOR THE PURPOSE

OF STABILIZING

NEIGHBORHOODS AND

ENCOURAGING RE-USE

OR REDEVELOPMENT

OF URBAN PROPERTY.

FOR THE PURPOSES

OF NSP, A LAND BANK

WILL OPERATE IN A

SPECIFIC, DEFINED

GEOGRAPHIC AREA.

IT WILL PURCHASE

PROPERTIES THAT HAVE

BEEN FORECLOSED

UPON AND MAINTAIN,

ASSEMBLE, FACILITATE

REDEVELOPMENT

OF, MARKET, AND

DISPOSE OF THE LAND-

BANKED PROPERTIES.

IF THE LAND BANK IS

A GOVERNMENTAL

ENTITY, IT MAY

ALSO MAINTAIN

FORECLOSED

PROPERTY THAT IT

DOES NOT OWN,

PROVIDED IT CHARGES

THE OWNER OF THE

PROPERTY THE FULL

COST OF THE SERVICE

OR PLACES A LIEN ON

THE PROPERTY FOR

THE FULL COST OF THE

SERVICE.

> LAND BANKING


and a schedule for the completion of the projects. It is important to identify who will be responsible for mainte-nance of the properties and what the consequences will be for failure to keep properties mowed and free from debris.

Additional properties can be added to the land bank as available if the mission of the land bank is to grow and be an ongoing provider of land. The Land Bank pro-gram can provide a comprehensive approach to not only manage the disposition of NSP properties but to estab-lish a working mechanism for other surplus properties that may have transferred to the local government. Un-like Midwestern or Northern cities where thousands of houses have come into municipal ownership through lien and tax foreclosure, Florida’s cities and counties are more likely to acquire vacant platted lots through foreclosure or escheatment. The Land Bank program can provide a solid policy framework for managing this inventory and ensuring that they are a resource for affordable housing or neighborhood enhancing uses.

The land bank can serve as the core of an affordable housing development program. Along with NSP assisted

properties, surplus lands that are suitable for affordable housing may be listed in publicly owned property rolls. Florida’s surplus land statute adopted in 2006 requires lo-cal governments to prepare and maintain an inventory of publicly owned properties that are suitable for affordable housing. (see Surplus Lands article) The implementation of this requirement along with NSP land banking has the potential to become a valuable resource for current and fu-ture efforts. A comprehensive land banking program with sufficient inventory can be a base for leveraging resources and partners both within and outside of NSP target areas.

The decision to land bank and whether to dismantle it when the initial inventory is exhausted or to build a vibrant long term program around the land bank will require care-ful consideration. Like any bank account, the rate of return will depend on what is invested and how the deposits are used. Land banking may play a greater role in the future, at first seeded with NSP properties, but expanded over time with other surplus land additions. A well-crafted land bank plan with a detailed inventory can become the centerpiece of housing and neighborhood stabilization efforts.

POST NSP CLOSEOUT LAND BANK ACTIVITIES

• MANAGE REDEVELOPMENT PLANS TO

PREPARE FOR DISPOSITION (REZONING, RE-

PLATTING, SITE PLANNING, PERMITTING)

• DISPOSE OF PROPERTIES ACCORDING TO

POLICIES

• REPORT DISPOSITION ACTIVITIES AT LEAST

ONCE ANNUALLY TO HUD, IF APPLICABLE

• CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN INVENTORY

INFORMATION

• MAINTAIN REGULAR SITE INSPECTIONS

• CONTINUE TO MONITOR SURPLUS LAND

INVENTORY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND

ASSIST WITH 3-YEAR UPDATE

• CONTINUE TO MARKET PROPERTIES, ADJUST

STRATEGIES TO MEET CHANGING MARKET

CONDITIONS

PREPARING THE LAND BANK PROGRAM

• DEVELOP AND REFINE LAND BANK PLAN

• DEVELOP AND REFINE LAND BANK INVENTORY

• REVIEW ACQUISITION POLICY- ENSURE

PURCHASES MEET GOALS AND MISSION

• DEVELOP INITIAL STABILIZATION PLAN- INCLUDE

BOARDING UP, FENCING, SIGNAGE

• DEVELOP MAINTENANCE PLAN- INCLUDE LAWN

CARE, TRASH PICKUP, SECURITY

• DEVELOP MAINTENANCE BUDGET- INCLUDE

MAINTENANCE COSTS FOR LABOR, MATERIALS

AND EQUIPMENT, UTILITIES, INSPECTIONS

• DEVELOP DISPOSITION PLAN AND BUDGET-

INCLUDE RE-ZONING, RE-PLATTING, LIEN OR

CODE ENFORCEMENT FINES, LEGAL EXPENSES,

TRANSFER COSTS, MARKETING, TAXES OR

ASSESSMENTS

• DEVELOP MARKETING PLAN

THE TABLE BELOW LISTS ACTIVITIES THAT WILL TAKE PLACE WHILE PLANNING FOR LAND BANKING AND OPERATING THE LAND BANK ONCE NSP HAS BEEN CLOSED OUT.

> LAND BANKING


It’s impossible to talk about an NSP Land Bank without talking about meeting a national objective. HUD has held many webinars and published guidance on this, but understanding it often requires putting the specific situation to the test to see if the end use of the land banked property will meet a national objective. In order to meet NSP requirements, the end use for NSP-assisted properties must meet one of the following national objectives:

NSP LAND BANK PROPERTIES AND MEETING NATIONAL OBJECTIVES

• HOUSING ACTIVITIES (LMMH): Providing or improving permanent residential structures that will be occupied by a household whose income is at or below 120% of area median income (or at or below 50% for units that satisfy the 25% Set-aside Requirement).

• AREA BENEFIT ACTIVITIES (LMMA): Benefiting all the residents of a primarily residential area in which at least 51% of the residents have incomes at or below 120% of area median income. Most frequently, demolition as part of a comprehensive clearance program is an area benefit. Activities assisting businesses serving a target area, such as providing goods and services in a target area can also be considered an area benefit.

• LIMITED CLIENTELE ACTIVITIES (LMMC): Serving a limited clientele whose incomes are at or below 120% of area median income, for example, funding for a homeless shelter or group home.

• JOBS ACTIVITIES (LMMJ): Creating or maintaining jobs for persons whose incomes are at or below 120 percent of median income (LMMJ), for example funding for a home-based day care center (NSP1 only). This objective was added through the NSP Closeout Notice.

For HUD Guidance on National Objectives, go to: https://www.onecpd.info/news/hud-issues-guidance-on-nsp-national-objectives-uses-and-activities/

Extensive information on the formation and operation of an NSP Land Bank can be found in the HUD Toolkit lo-cated at this link: https://www.onecpd.info/nsp/toolkits/land-banking/

NEED HELP MAKING THE DECISION TO LAND BANK OR DEVELOPING THE LAND BANK PLAN? The Florida Housing Coalition can provide assistance. Call (850)878-4219 or e-mail Gladys Schneider at [email protected] for more information.

> LAND BANKING

HNN

THANK YOU, PARTNERSThe Florida Housing Coalition appreciates all our Partners for Better Housing.

We are particularly grateful for our Platnium Sponsors.


When the Florida Housing Coalition hosted two symposiums in Tampa last year sponsored by Wells Fargo and the Home Depot Foundation, Askia Aquil, a participant in the forums, shared his brand for getting the job done: Askia

makes connections via email between anyone and every-one who might be able to help Veterans in need. It was my great pleasure to be one of the people who was able to answer the call for help he made on behalf of a disabled Vietnam Veteran in need of housing.

Homes for Independence, Inc. learned of the request for help through an email blast from Askia. It was sent to him from Marlene Ware, the Direc-tor of Financial Stability at Warrior Support Services and laid out the cir-cumstances. Don Lettellier, a disabled veteran, and his wife Cindy, were no longer able to pay their basic bills, such as utilities. The landlord had raised the rent on their apartment significantly above their abil-ity to pay; an apartment which provided a great deal of challenge for the disabled veteran even if it were afford-able, as it was not wheelchair accessible.

The City of St. Petersburg has a program for Veterans to live in accessible, affordable homes and one of those

homes was available. The house is fully wheelchair acces-sible and energy efficient. Rent is $550 per month, near-ly $200 per month less than he and his wife Cindy had been paying for a smaller and inaccessible apartment. And this home is close to shopping and transportation, a big plus for the Lettelliers, as they have no vehicle.

“I am so excited to know I can reach the kitchen and bathroom sinks, roll right into a shower and I will have

a yard!” says Don, “This is a dream come true!”

It wasn’t just the City of St. Petersburg that helped Homes For Independence acquire this house and make this de-serving Veteran’s dreams come true. The Home Depot Foundation through the Abilities Foundation and the North-side Christian School pitched in to do some yard clean up, painting and other activities to help keep costs down at the time of purchase.” An American flag waves proudly from the front porch.

Group efforts provide such significant rewards to all in-volved. It is always heartwarming to see the look of relief mixed with excitement on the faces of people who have needed help for so long.

Florida Housing Coalition Board Member, Lori Sandonato is the Vice President of Homes for Independence, Inc., and Director of Housing for Service Source, d/b/a Abilities, Inc. of Florida.

OUTREACH TO A NETWORK OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES:

THE RECIPE FOR HELPING VETERANS

> HELPING VETERANS

BY LORI SANDONATO

LT. COMMANDER USN

DON LETTELLIER CANNOT

BELIEVE THE HELP HE HAS

BEEN OFFERED. HE HAS

BEEN DISABLED SINCE

JANUARY 19, 1969. HE HAS

NEEDED HELP IN THE PAST,

BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME

HE REQUESTED IT. HE IS

VERY GRATEFUL.

Askia Aquil, President of Community Housing Solutions, Inc.,

explaining the importance of reaching out to as many potential

resources in the community as possible to help prevent and end

veteran homelessness.

HNN

THE HOME DEPOT

FOUNDATION

THROUGH THE ABILITIES

FOUNDATION AND THE

NORTHSIDE CHRISTIAN

SCHOOL PITCHED IN TO

DO SOME YARD CLEAN

UP, PAINTING AND OTHER

ACTIVITIES TO HELP KEEP

COSTS DOWN AT THE

TIME OF PURCHASE.


Funded with $500 million of Florida’s Hardest Hit alloca-tion, the Principal Reduction program will assist a mini-mum of 10,000 homeowners. It provides up to $50,000 for

principal reduction in connection with a recast-ing or refinancing of loans for severely under-water homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments. The website for receiving applications closed after 25,000 applications were received. The applications are now being assessed and processed by Hardest Hit advisors.

MORE PROGRAMS ON THE HORIZONThe Modification Enabling Pilot program

This program allocates $50 million in Hard-est Hit Funds to be used to modify certain mortgages purchased by National Com-munity Capital, using private sector funds. These mortgages were purchased through a HUD Distressed Assets sale. The maximum per household HHF assistance amount is $50,000 to reduce the existing first mortgage loan to an amount with a net present value that does not exceed the lessor of:

• A loan amount equal to 100% of the cur-rent market value of the property; or

• A loan amount with a net present value which results in a monthly total housing payment that does not exceed 35% of the borrowers adjusted gross monthly income.

The Elderly Mortgage Assistance Program. aka“ELMORE”

This program assists senior homeowners fac-ing foreclosure due to the inability to pay their taxes, insurance and/or association dues af-ter their reverse mortgages have been paid all the equity that they were due. It is expected that outreach and implementation of this program will be completed through already established call centers. HHF advisors are re-ceiving training to prepare for the beginning of the program.

CAUCUS PARTICIPANTS DISCUSSED A NUMBER OF FORECLOSURE COUNSELING TOPICS, INCLUDING:NEXT STEPS AFTER ROLL OFF: Options to pursue if more help is needed when a household has exhausted HHF benefits or rolls off of another assistance program.TRANSITIONING AFTER FORECLOSURE: Helping transitioning cli-ents to find affordable rental house. FORECLOSURE COUNSELING PROGRAM (FCP): Florida Housing’s new program to support homeowners through their delinquency resolution negotiations. MARKETING AND OUTREACH: Participants talked about new ways they are having success with increasing community awareness of counseling services.

While the focus at the Florida Housing Coalition’s Foreclosure Counselors caucus was the details of the new Principal Reduction Program, the discussion also went into depth on the challenges, current trends, and best practices for the administration of a foreclosure counseling program. Florida Housing Finance Corporation staff provided updates on the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMAP) and the Mortgage Loan Reinstatement Program (MLRP).

Over 11,000 homeowners have received assistance and approximately $100 million remains available for these programs. David Wescott, FHFC Director of

Homeownership Programs, leads the discussion.

PRINCIPAL REDUCTION AND MORE ADDED TO THE HARDEST HIT FUND PROGRAMS

BY MICHAEL CHANEY

> THE HARDEST HIT PROGRAM


These SHIP Clips focus on the SHIP special

needs requirements. A minimum of 20 per-

cent of the 2013-2014 SHIP funding allo-

cated under SB 1852 must be used to serve

persons with special needs as defined in

420.0004(13) of the Florida Statutes. Ad-

ditionally, the first priority of this 20 percent is to serve ho-

meowners with development disabilities by providing home

modifications, including technological enhancements and

devices which will allow homeowners to remain indepen-

dent in their own homes and maintain their homeownership.

Although there is a priority for homeowners with Devel-

opmental Disabilities, the fundamental requirement is to

document that 20 percent of the 13/14 allocation is spent

providing rental or homeownership assistance to house-

holds that include one or more household members with

special needs.

SHIP staff is encouraged to network with service provider

agencies in the community.

These agencies maintain waiting lists of clients needing af-

fordable rental housing, accessibility modifications, home

repairs and other housing assistance. Each SHIP jurisdiction

has received emailed lists of agencies working with individ-

uals with developmental disabilities, persons with disabling

conditions, survivors of domestic violence, and youth aging

out of foster care. You may request these contacts from the

Florida Housing Coalition at 850 878-4219.

SHIP CLIPS >

Q. What types of strategies are SHIP jurisdictions using to comply with the special needs require-ment?

A. Prior to receiving 13/14 funds, each city and county SHIP office was required to provide Florida Housing with a summary of its special needs plan. A review of these plans reveals that the most common approach in-volves an owner-occupied rehabilitation strategy. SHIP administrators are offering applicants with special needs priority placement on their waiting lists for general re-pairs as well as accessibility modifications like widened doorways and accessible bathrooms.

Some jurisdictions have proposed other special needs plans. A handful of jurisdictions are working with exist-ing strategies in their local housing assistance plans de-signed to support local agencies that are housing provid-ers for individuals with special needs. The 13/14 SHIP allocation may not be expended on new construction ac-tivity, but some SHIP offices are repairing or expanding existing special needs housing in their areas.

In at least 8 instances, SHIP jurisdictions are offering rental assistance. Some are offering a rent deposit strat-egy and others are using existing strategies that offer rental rehabilitation and accessibility modification.

Q. How should I document that an applicant has one or more household members with a special housing need? Should a household member ob-tain a doctor’s letter?

A. Add a ‘yes or no’ question to your SHIP application about whether any household member has a special need according to the statutory definition. A doctor’s letter is not required. Instead, Florida Housing will allow SHIP staff to rely on the records of other agencies that are providing applicants with services based on their special needs. In general, SHIP staff will accept signed state-ments from state and local agencies including the De-partment of Children and Families, local offices of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Centers for Inde-pendent Living and Arc offices. The statement should in-

FREQUENTLY ASKED SHIP QUESTIONSState Housing Initiatives Partnership Program

> SHIP

BY MICHAEL CHANEY


> SHIP

dicate if the SHIP applicant is eligible for services from the agency and should be signed by an agency staff person.

SHIP staff should request that applicants with develop-mental disabilities (DD) provide written documentation from the agency from which they have been determined eligible to receive services. An applicant not currently re-ceiving services may provide written documentation that he or she has been “determined eligible” to be placed on a waiting list. For all others not receiving services and not on a waiting list, request written documentation that the person was referred by an agency that serves persons with developmental disabilities.

Individuals with disabling conditions are another category of persons who have special needs. In some cases, you may sim-ply obtain an award letter that documents that the person receives disability benefits from Social Secu-rity Disability Insurance (SSDI), the Supplemen-tal Security Income (SSI) program or the Veterans Administration. Count this financial assistance when calculating total household in-come. Individuals with disabling conditions—defined in 420.0004(7) Florida Statutes may have a mental illness, a substance abuse disorder, or a chronic physical illness or disability. In all cases, their special needs status may be documented with a signed letter from an agency provid-ing them with services.

Young adults formerly in foster care are an additional category of persons who have special needs. These appli-cants are discharged from foster care at the age of 21—recently increased from 18—but may receive aftercare and transitional support services until they are 23. The Florida Department of Children and Families contracts

with 18 community-based care lead agencies across the state that manage and deliver services to those aging out of the foster care system. The only way to document that an applicant is a member of this category is for SHIP staff to collect a signed statement that the applicant was referred by an agency that is providing support. The written proof provided by agency staff should list the transition services the applicant is receiving, which may include participation in the Road to Independence Pro-gram, which provides financial funding for youths for-merly in foster care to continue their education.

Q. What documentation is required for survi-vors of domestic violence?

A. SHIP staff should re-quest written documenta-tion in the form of a letter from a victim service pro-vider, attorney, or medical professional. The letter must state that the profes-sional has helped the ap-plicant address incidents of domestic violence. The professional must state in the letter that he or she believes that the incidents of abuse are real. Both

the applicant and the professional must sign, and the statement must declare that both the applicant and the professional are signing “under penalty of perjury.” This simple signed statement will suffice to document applicants who are survivors of domestic violence.

Some survivors are currently receiving services that in-clude emergency shelter, safety planning, counseling, case management, and child assessments. SHIP staff may obtain the signed statement from agencies providing these services. The Florida Department of Children and the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence have provided SHIP offices with contact information for 42 certified centers in Florida. HNN

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT THE SHIP PROGRAM? Free telephone technical assistance is available to help you successfully implement your SHIP funded work. Call the Florida Housing Coalition’s SHIP hotline at (800) 677-4548, M-F 8:30-5:00.


ABOUT THE COALITION

Our mission is to bring together housing advocates and resources so that everyone has a quality affordable home and suitable living environment.

ABOUT THE COALITIONThe Florida Housing Coalition, Inc., is a

Florida nonprofit and 501(c)(3), statewide

membership organization whose mission

is to act as a catalyst to bring together

housing advocates and resources so that

all Floridians have a quality affordable

home and suitable living environment.

The Coalition provides professional

consultation services through training

and technical assistance on affordable

housing and related issues to nonprofit

organizations, local governments, and

their private sector partners. We

support community-based partnerships

in leveraging resources; and advocate

for policies, programs and use of funding

resources that maximize the availability

and improve the quality of affordable

housing in Florida. The Coalition

carries out this mission recognizing

that decent and affordable housing is a

human necessity and an integral part of

community revitalization and economic

development.

OUR VISION

Every Florida community, large and small, practices

a community ethic reflecting a belief that access to

housing that is decent, safe, affordable and of a person’s

own choosing, is a fundamental right and that at least

one active, viable community-based organization plays

an important role in delivering affordable housing and

related services in each community.

OUR TEAM

The administrative office for the Florida Housing

Coalition is housed in Tallahassee, with seven

professional technical advisor offices throughout

Florida. Our technical assistance team consists of a

highly skilled and geographically dispersed network

of full-time professional staff providing technical

assistance in all areas of affordable housing planning,

finance, and development. Our professional technical

assistance team also includes the expertise of our

25 member Board of Directors. The FHC Technical

Assistance Team can help with every aspect of locally-

administered housing programs, from internal controls

to capacity building for nonprofit partners. We can work

with you one-on-one at your office or arrange larger

workshops to assist you with implementation of your

housing programs.

IF IT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH

AFFORDABLE HOUSING, CALL THE

FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION. IF WE

CAN’T HELP YOU, WE’LL LET YOU KNOW

WHO CAN. 850-878-4219.

> THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION



AFFORDABLE HOUSINGCONSULTING SERVICES

The Florida Housing Coalition Helps Local Governments, Nonprofits, and their Developer and Financial Partners.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

We Can Assist Local Government With:• Affordable Housing Program Design and Implementation•Preparation of Policies and Pro-cedures Manuals• Project Development• Developing Underwriting Prac-tices for Rental and Homeowner-ship Projects• Long-Term Affordability Mech-anisms• Energy Efficiency Housing• Predevelopment, Development, and Rehabilitation Process for Rental and Homeownership Pro-grams• Meeting Low-Income Set-Asides for Extremely Low In-come and Special Needs Housing• Income Compliance and Eligi-bility Determination• Compliance with Regulations and Administration• Implementation of systems to maintain records, tracking, re-porting, and monitoring of pro-grams• Rehabilitation Policies and Strategies• Design of RFPs and RFQs

NON-PROFITS

We Can Assist Nonprofits With:• How to form a CHDO or a CDC• How to write grants and proposals• Board and Staff Training/Orga-nizational Capacity Building• Strategic and Business Plans• Best Practices for Operating Manuals• Project-Level Assistance in Fi-nancing, Development, and Asset Management• Strengthening Partnerships and Joint Ventures• Community Land Trusts• Accessory Dwelling Units• Energy Efficient Housing• Strategies for Changing Markets• NIMBY issues

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Everything from Needs Analysis to Document Preparation:• Shared Equity Models• Lease Purchase Programs• Housing Element Strategies and Implementation• Regulatory Reform Markets• Inclusionary Housing Policies• Education/presentations to Advi-sory Groups and Elected Bodies• Facilitation of Community Meetings• Community Land Trusts

CONTACTContact the Florida Housing Coalition at 850-878-4219 or

[email protected].

DISCUSSDiscuss what services would be most helpful for your local

government, nonprofit, or developer and financial partners.

PROPOSALIn return, we will quickly tailor a proposal that meets your

needs within your budget.



ARE YOU AN ACCIDENTAL LANDLORD? Do you have some properties that you purchased with NSP that you thought you’d be able to sell but are now realizing that you have to rent? Are you interested in developing a property management business line? In many communities around the country, nonprofits are finding themselves in a position where they need to rent properties they thought they would be able to sell. Stan Fitterman has been working with nonprofits to evaluate and de-velop a property management business line for scattered site and small scale rental developments. This work has ranged from helping owners make sure that their portfolio cash flow, to understanding the steps in establishing a property management business line to writing property management policies and procedures.

MANY CITIES AND COUNTIES ARE FINDING THEMSELVES AWASH IN VACANT LOTS. Fallout from the foreclosure crisis or acquired with NSP, the properties are a quandary in a market that isn’t ready for redevelopment just yet. To keep these portfolios from becoming a money pit or source for local debate, some communities are planning ahead with the formation of a Land Bank. Gladys Schneider has helped develop land bank strategies that outline community specific strategies for maintaining and eventually disposing of the properties. Establishing a land bank plan may expedite closing out an NSP grant if all that is left from the program are remaining lots. If you think more time is needed to dispose of vacant lots or if a permanent solution is desired to guide the acquisition and disposition of land for future affordable housing, contact the Coalition to discuss land banking strategies.

SOMETIMES A NATIONAL EXPERT IS LIVING RIGHT NEXT DOOR

THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION IS RECOGNIZED NATIONALLY AS

AN EXPERT IN THE AREAS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLANNING,

FINANCING, DEVELOPMENT, AND ADMINISTRATION.

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Mississippi

Missouri

Nevada

New York

North Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION HAS ASSISTED:


SOMETIMES A NATIONAL EXPERT IS LIVING RIGHT NEXT DOORDID YOU KNOW THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE CHANGES UNDER THE HOME RULE

TOOK EFFECT ON AUGUST 23, 2013? There were many changes that require immedi-ate action by local governments to ensure compliance. If you are not sure if you’re current program complies or what actions you need to take to bring your program into compliance, you can contact the Florida Housing Coalition to assist you in making the necessary changes to program policies and procedures, written agreements or provide staff and sub recipient training in understanding the new requirements.

GOOD HOUSING POLICY COMES FROM GOOD HOUSING DATA. Research and analy-sis is the foundation for local policy decisions. There are never enough housing resources. This means decisions need to be made about which programs are most effective and how best to target limited resources. Are you trying to make the case for affordable housing to elected officials? The Florida Housing Coalition has a new member of the technical assistance team specializing in housing research and analysis. Rose Phillips is currently working on Home Matters, a statewide report which will be published in the Spring. She can work with local communities to conduct in-depth and timely research and analysis that builds the bridge between the world of housing data and the world of housing policy. Good housing research and analysis helps you determine the populations most in need of affordable housing in your community (for example, elderly and disabled persons), and identify local impediments or opportunities for meeting those needs. With local data in hand, you can target your time and funds to be most effective, and put your affordable housing programs on the path to success.

IS YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERESTED IN THE “HOW TO” FOR IMPLEMEN-

TATION OF HOUSING POLICIES THAT SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE AND PRESERVE

PUBLIC INVESTMENT, SAVING TAX DOLLARS WHILE PRODUCING A PERMANENT

STOCK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING? There are a number of housing policies that can help you meet the housing needs of residents from the extremely low income to moderate income. Jaimie Ross, Florida Housing Coalition board president, is an expert in using smart growth tools for affordable housing. Three of those tools are Inclusionary housing policies, community land trusts, and accessory dwelling units.

Inclusionary housing policies are a land value recapture mechanism for local governments to use in conjunction with land use changes at the local level. To avoid a windfall to the recipients of the homes created pursuant to inclusionary housing policies, long term or permanent afford-ability is imperative. A CLT can remove this burden from local government by providing the administrative vehicle to ensure that all subsequent purchasers or renters of the affordable home are income eligible. ADUs can provide housing for extremely low income individuals working in the community. These very small homes situated on the property of a primary residence can also provide housing for seniors or for the caregivers for the disabled or elderly in the primary residence, which allows the elderly to remain in their homes rather than in institutional settings.



PRE-CONFERENCE SHORT COURSE >

26TH ANNUAL STATEWIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

> CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Technical Advisor, Gladys Schneider, and Florida Housing Coalition Vice Chair, Wight Greger, presented a walloping amount of information covering the waterfront from finding housing dollars, preparing proposals, and beefing up organi-zational capacity.

Wight Greger split the room into groups, led them in a de-tailed examination of a real response to a Florida Housing Finance Corporation Request for Applications and had the teams score the application on their own. The suspense was that the groups did not know if the application they were scor-ing had been successful or not. To the surprise of many, the scoring that took place in this exercise was even tougher than Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s scoring.

Participants were also relieved to learn that the application they were scoring was indeed a top scoring proposal.

Kevin Tatreau, Florida Housing Finance Corporation Di-rector of Multifamily Development Programs, provided tips and advice for successful outcomes in financing and developing affordable housing.

Marilyn Drayton, representing TD Bank, enthusiastically expressed her sentiment that capacity building workshops drawing on the experience of the participants and the ex-pertise of the Florida Housing Coalition staff and its part-ners are invaluable for moving community development forward.

THE FHC PRE-CONFERENCE SHORT COURSE SPONSORED BY TD BANK WAS ATTENDED BY OVER 75 PARTICIPANTS

REPRESENTING NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, AND OTHER HOUSING PROVIDERS.

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TOP ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): GLADYS SCHNEIDER, FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION TECHNICAL ADVISOR; KEVIN TATREAU, DIRECTOR OF MULTIFAMILY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, MARILYN DRAYTON, TD BANK REPRESENTATIVE AND FHC ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER, AND WIGHT GREGOR, PRESIDENT & CEO OF WSG & PARTNERS, LLC AND FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION BOARD VICE CHAIR


26TH ANNUAL STATEWIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

NAN ROMAN GIVES KEYNOTE>


NAN ROMAN, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO END HOMELESSNESS IN WASHINGTON D.C., EM-PHASIZED THAT HOMELESSNESS IS AN AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROBLEM; THE MORE AFFORDABLE HOUS-ING WE CREATE AND PRESERVE, THE CLOSER WE COME TO ENDING HOMELESSNESS.

HOUSING LEADERSHIP AWARD>

Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission Caucus

FAHRO and FRA Caucus

Utility Companies and Green Partners Caucus

SPONSORED BY:

Habitat for Humanity Caucus

Continuum of Care/Homeless Caucus

Foreclosure Counselors Caucus

Florida Nonprofit Housing Advocates Network Caucus

COALITION MEMBER, DONNA CAR-MAN, WAS RECOGNIZED AT THE 2013 AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONFERENCE WITH THE HOUSING LEADERSHIP AWARD FOR THE POSITIVE DIFFER-ENCE SHE HAS MADE IN THE LIVES OF LOW-INCOME FLORIDIANS IN INDIAN-TOWN AND THE STATEWIDE IMPACT

SHE HAS MADE THROUGH THE EXAMPLE SHE MODELS FOR OTHERS.



ENDING VETERANS HOMELESSNESS - FOCUS ON HUD VASH AND SSVF PARTNERSHIPS

PUBLIC POLICY PLENARY SESSION >

CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS >

Florida Housing Coalition Board Member, Mark Hendrick-son (pictured bottom right), led a lively exchange among members of the Bipartisan Housing Commission, (from top left, Robert Couch, Renee Glover, and Barry Zigas) as they drew on the recommendations contained in Housing America’s Future: New Directions for National Policy report,

released in 2013. The Report provides a blueprint for an en-tirely new system of housing finance for the nation’s owner-ship and rental markets.

View the full report here: http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/

BPC_Housing%20Report_web_0.pdf

In 2009, the federal government announced the goal of ending veterans’ homelessness by the end of 2015 through the Home-less Veterans Outreach Initiative. Florida has the third largest population of homeless veterans in the country. The Home Depot Foundation sponsored these sessions to underscore the imperative of bringing together the necessary community part-nerships to meet the goal of ending Veteran Homelessness. The Home Depot Foundation Field Manager Joe Wimberley (far right), moderated the first session as presenters, Nikki Barfield from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (far left), Kali Bell from the Housing Authory of the City of Fort Myers (third

from left), and Jake Maguire from the 100,000 Homes Campaign (second from left), led a lively discussion focused on HUD Vash opportunities. In the second session, Jake Maguire joined Jill vanHeel from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (left), and Marti Johnson from Emergency Services and Homeless Coali-tion of Northeast Florida (right), to discuss the impact of SSVF Partnerships on ending veteran homelessness. Both sessions pro-vided participants with a great deal of insight on the challenges, possible solutions and ideas on how organizations can play a role in solving this veteran homelessness in America.


AVOIDING & OVERCOMING NIMBYISMCommunication and legal tools used to overcome NIMBYism were the rallying points for this session. City Commissioner Robert Stuart (second from left) shared his perspective as an elected official who has had to deal with NIMBYism first hand. Jaimie Ross, author of the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Ad-vocates Resource Guide on NIMBYism (far right), explored the steps organiza-tions may take to avoid neighborhood opposition and what steps can be taken to overcome neighborhood opposition to win approval of for affordable housing

developments, with the help of Florida-specific laws. Meridith Levy, Deputy Director for the Somerville CDC (third from left), shared an innovative strategy used by her organization to develop in partnership with a market rate developer; a story that was recently showcased in Shelterforce Magazine. Chuck Elsesser, from Florida Legal Services (far left), moderated this session.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR NON-PROFITSOnline Community on the web is no longer solely designated to your website’s forum or email list. Organizations must now learn how to address and engage with their community in many locations across various social media channels. Florida Housing Coalition staff Lynne Takacs and Johnitta Wells (pictured left to right) provided an overview of the basics of the must-have tools and introduced a few lesser-known tools that can help organizations more efficiently manage their communities of volunteers and supporters. Also explored were common pitfalls and ways to avoid them. This interactive session allowed participants to share their own organization’s best practices and experiences in navigating this new media.


MULTIFAMILY BOND STRATEGIES FOR HFA’SWith Ed Busansky, FHC Board Chair, from First Housing, as moderator (third from left), Frank Bowman from Pinellas County HFA (far right), John Sabatier from RBC Capital Markets (second from left), and Tony Del Pozzo from Related Urban (far left), participants explored the exciting world of HFA’s: how they work with local governments and developers to upgrade their existing stock of affordable housing through acquisition and rehabilita-tion or new construction of affordable housing. They discussed what kind of multifamily bond deals are being closed at HFA’s across the state and what kind of subsidy is needed. Real examples of how these multifamily deals have been structured were discussed along with what kind of rehabs need to be completed. This session also focused on how to increase the quality of affordable housing by using bond monies with non-competitive tax credits.

NSP DISPOSITION STRATEGIESFlorida’s NSP grantees have met and exceeded expenditure deadlines and leveraged program income in the millions. All good things must come to an end, and closing out NSP grants is upon us. With a team of experts, (pictured from left to right), John Laswick, NSP Team Leader for HUD, Joan Olivia, Executive Director of the Lake Worth CRA, Gladys Schneider, Florida Housing Coalition Technical Advisor and George Romagnoli, FHC Board member and moderator, Florida’s NSP grantees learned how to pre-pare for closeout, what the closeout process will be, and how to ensure com-

pliance. Post closeout responsibilities for eligible uses, low income set asides, and the land bank plan were also reviewed.


COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & CIVIC ENGAGEMENTFlorida Housing Coalition Board Member, Chuck Elsesser, moderated this session with community organizing experts, Rick Smith, Chief of Staff at the SEIU St. Petersburg, Florida, and Meridith Levy, Deputy Director from the Somerville CDC in Massachusetts. Grassroots organizing and civic engagement at the local level works. It takes leadership, energy, and an investment of time. Local elected officials, local government staff, and the community at large need to hear the voices of the entire community, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet. How do you go about doing that? In this workshop, participants heard from community organizers working to improve the lives of low-income families by working on issues such as a living wage ordinance, and affordable housing. See article on page 2.

UNDERSTANDING THE HOUSING MARKET - RENTAL & HOME OWNERSHIPDuring the 2013 legislative session, there was a great deal of push back for appropriating the state and local housing trust funds for housing. It was grounded on the notion that “half the state was on sale” due to the fore-closure crisis and that “we have much too much inventory to be building new affordable housing.” With the help of Bill O’Dell, from the Shimberg Center (center), John Tuccillo, economist from the Florida Realtors (right), and moderator and Coalition Board Member Robert Von (left), this work-shop looked at the facts using the latest data on Florida’s housing market and

what the true need is for affordable homeownership and rentals. Participants left armed with information to dispel the myths encountered from those who are less informed.


ENERGY EFFICIENCY & BUILDING PERFORMANCE IN AFFORDABLE HOUSINGAffordable housing should be constructed or rehabilitated to create the most energy effi-cient unit possible. Donna Carman, executive director of Indiantown Nonprofit, and Bill Lazar, executive director of the St. Johns Housing Partnership, addressed public and private resources, including utility company programs, for energy efficiency, the current standards required for energy efficiency and building performance for new, rehabilitated, and retrofit-ted affordable housing, and the need to verify energy conservation work and create healthy indoor environments. Participants learned about cost effective ideas that achieve green certi-fication. This session also underscored that energy efficient and accessible housing is a must to

help Floridian’s very low-income seniors age in place. Pictured at left is FHC Board Member Brad Goar, Program Manager for FPL’s Residential Conservation Services and Low Income Weatherization programs, who moderated the session.

FAITH-BASED HOUSINGFlorida Housing Coalition Board Member, Ben Johnson, mod-erated this session on faith-based nonprofit housing providers. With a mission to serve those most in need, faith based organi-zations have been a tenacious force; they have been able to de-liver an impressive number of affordable housing services. This workshop highlighted some recent successes from faith-based groups. Sister Cathy Buster (left) shared the successes achieved at Casa San Juan Bosco by Catholic Charities and Mylika Morton (right) presented an inspirational overview of the developments achieved at the Villages of Orlando by The Hope Church.


FHFC - HOW TO APPLY FOR NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITIESModerated by Coalition Board Member, Jeff Kiss (left), this workshop ex-plained the new system being implemented in 2013 by the FHFC to adminis-ter all the pots of money described in the preceding workshop, as well as the federal tax credit program. Discussion leaders, FHFC Executive Director Steve Auger (right), Director of Multifamily Programs Ken Reecy (second from left), and Kevin Tatreau, Director of Multifamily Development Programs (third from left), explained the “Universal Application” is now a thing of the past. The FHFC is now using a system of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) or Requests

for Applications (RFAs.) Participants learned what those changes meant for those applying for funding. The entire process was explained and attendees had an opportunity to offer their suggestions and recommendations to the FHFC.


NSP PREPARING FOR CLOSEOUTFlorida’s NSP grantees have met and exceeded expenditure deadlines and leveraged program income in the millions. All good things must come to an end, and closing out NSP grants is upon us. In this session, presenters John Laswick, NSP Team Leader for HUD (left), Gladys Schneider, Florida Housing Coalition Technical Advisor, and George Romagnoli, FHC Board member and moderator (right), discussed how to prepare for closeout, what the closeout process will be, and how to ensure compliance. Post closeout responsibilities for eligible uses, low income set asides, and the land bank plan were also reviewed.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FOR NON-PROFITS/SCATTERED SITE RENTALNonprofits who may have been solely in the homeownership business are now finding that they have become landlords because of unsalable inventory or be-cause they are expanding their line of business to include rental housing, per-haps through acquisition and rehabilitation to preserve project based properties or smaller multifamily developments that may have no tenant subsidy. Property management is now a necessity. In this workshop, participants received a com-prehensive overview of the world of property management and guidance in asset

management from Debra Koehler, President of Sage Partners (right), and Mike Kent, President of Progressive Management of America (center). FHC Board member, Aileen Pruitt, Florida Market Manager for PNC (left), moderator for the session.

THE URGENCY & COMPLEXITY OF HELPING PEOPLE MOVE FROM HOMELESSNESS TO HOUSINGNo one has a more pressing and immediate housing need than someone living on the streets, in the woods, or in a shelter. In this session, moderated by FHC Board Member, Susan Porciau, Executive Director of the Big Bend Homeless Coalition (center), participants heard from Cindy Funkhouser, IM Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless (right), and Sandra Newson, Carrfour Supportive Housing (left), about how to target resources to the most vulnerable, and using Housing First, Rapid Re-housing and permanent supportive housing models. Helping people move from homelessness to housing is a complex business that often involves making data driven decisions, strong collaborative efforts with defined performance measures, and a rich blend of support services for wellness, mental health care, employment services and education opportunities. This session provided an overview of Flori-da’s most effective models and inspired participants to get involved.


FHFC NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITIESFHC Board Member Jeff Kiss (left) moderated a panel of the key staff from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, including FHFC Policy Director Nancy Muller (third from left), Director of Multifamily Development Programs Kevin Tatreau (right), and Director of Multifamily Programs Ken Reecy (second from left). The 2013 Session brought with it an array of new funding pots to be admin-istered by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. In addition to the tax credit program, this session covered the new funding for SAIL, the Homeless, Special Needs populations, and the Developmentally Disabled. Each of these funding op-

portunities was explained in terms of the amount of money available, the target populations, and what rules apply to each pot of money, as well as what opportunities there are to influence rulemaking or the ways in which these monies are used.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTSThe Florida Community Land Trust Institute was launched in January 2000 to pro-mote and support the use of community land trusts to create a permanent supply of affordable housing through land stewardship. Twenty-five community land trusts have since been created. Florida Housing Coalition board member, Barbara Inman, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Florida (right), moderated this session in which Anthony Jones, the Director of Community Development and the Executive Director of the Pinellas HFA (center), explained the government and nonprofit mod-

els of community land trusts in Pinellas County and Cindee LaCourse- Blum, the founding executive director of the Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County (left), addressed why CLTs are more relevant in today’s housing market; evaluated the challenges that arise with implementing the CLT model; and underscored the value to lenders for making CLT homebuyer loans.


DISASTER PREPAREDNESS & RECOVERYMelvin Philpot, FHC board member, moderated this session with experts Bob Dennis, Community Program Manager from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (pictured), and Stan Fitterman from the Florida Housing Coalition. Dennis emphasized that in a state susceptible to severe storms, it is important to consider how to manage post-hurricane federal disaster recovery money, in addition to state and local resources. Fitter-man has been assisting Community Development Block Grant -Disaster Recovery grantees in New York, Connecticut and Oklahoma. He shared his insight into how federal funds have helped these communities rebuild, what activities are being undertaken and what we can likely expect when it’s Florida’s turn. Participants also learned how CDBG-DR differs from its non-DR cousin, the different ways communities prioritized their needs, and the policy decisions that are made before recovery activities can begin.

NETWORKING RECEPTION


THE POLICY DEBATE OVER HOUSING FOR PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDSJack Humburg, FHC Board Member (right), facilitated a discussion among advocates and developers of affordable housing for people with special needs, and in particular, for those with developmental disabilities who are grappling with the issue of providing the least restrictive/most independent housing opportunities within the community at large, and the benefits of an “intentional community,” that provides substantial support

services in a community setting. The consequences of this debate are being felt in the changes to the 811 program and the future decisions regarding Medicaid Waiver eligible housing. The debate is at the federal, state, and local level. Jim DeBeaugrin, from Op-portunity Works (left), Bernadette Moran, with Arc of Jacksonville (second from left), and Shannon Nazworth, from Ability Housing (third from left) participated the roundtable forum, presented the issues , and opened the floor for discussion.

NEW MARKETS TAX CREDITThe New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program was created by the federal gov-ernment in December 2000 to encourage investment and job creation in very low-income communities. In this workshop, participants learned from Susan Leigh, one of the scorers for the NMTC, what it takes to win NMTC directly from the Trea-sury. Nelson Black, FCLF Director of Lending, explained the process of access-ing NMTC funds from the Florida Community Loan Fund, and Brian Evjen,Vice President of Strategic Development from Metropolitan Ministries, a nonprofit who used New Markets Tax Credits from the FCLF shared his experience. Examples of opportunities for non-profits were larger projects, non-profit community facilities, such as health centers; green projects, such as renewable or solar energy; and economic development projects that catalyze neighborhoods, such as grocery stores in food deserts.

FAIR HOUSING IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLYDuring the summer, HUD finalized the rule for affirmatively furthering fair housing. In this workshop, President and CEO David Baade and Deputy Di-rector C.J. Miles, both from the Fair Housing Continuum, Inc., joined mod-erator Lori Sandanato, President of Homes for Independence, Inc., to discuss the implementation of the new rule and focus on the connection between fair housing and affordable housing and the broad reach of the Federal Fair Housing Act, including who is subject to its requirements, what activities are prohibited, and what are the penalties for failing to comply with the law. The

Florida Fair Housing Continuum, presented its plans for how it will use the settlement money in Florida to partner with oth-ers to provide home ownership and rental opportunities in areas where bank REO properties failed to be maintained.




SURVEY OF FEDERAL RESOURCESLinda Couch, Senior Vice President for Policy from the National Low In-come Housing Coalition in Washington D.C. (pictured to left of modera-tor, Suzanne Cabrera, FHC Board Member), scanned the waterfront of resources that come to Florida from the federal government, from HUD’s public and assisted housing, homeless assistance and community develop-ment programs, to programs that target special populations like the seniors and people with disabilities. She provided the latest news on the United for Homes campaign to fund the National Housing Trust Fund. Participants looked at how Congress has reacted to HUD’s priority requests for fiscal year

2014 and what’s hot on the authorizing side of the ledger, from rental assistance reform legislation to housing finance reform.

AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING PRESERVATION - THE OUTLOOK FOR 2013In 2005, the Florida Affordable Housing Study Commission called for the state to build “a comprehensive multifamily state preservation policy” to address “the aging and escalating loss of affordable multifamily housing” for Florida’s extremely low income seniors, families and people with disabilities. With the help of moderator Bill O’Dell from the Shimberg Center (right), Michael Bodaken, President of the National Housing Trust (left), Nancy Mueller, FHFC Director of Policy and Spe-cial Programs (third from left), and Anne Ray, Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse Manager from the Shimberg Center (second from left), participants heard about the continuing need for affordable housing for Florida’s lowest income tenants, the state of Florida’s subsidized housing inventory, the national perspective on preser-vation policy and practice, and an update on Florida’s preservation programs, including the new Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s Multifamily Energy Retrofit Program.

COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT FOR NON-PROFITSJanet Hamer, the Community Development Manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (right), provided a “CRA 101,” an overview of the Community Reinvestment Act regulation for nonprofit, government, and community and economic organizations that want to learn more about the requirements under CRA for financial institutions and how to work more effectively with banks on CRA-eligible activities and projects. FHC Board Member Deana Lewis, from SunTrust Bank (left) moderated the session. Participants learned what criteria must be met to make a bank loan, service, or invest-

ment CRA-qualified and how initiatives and programs can be developed to meet CRA eligibility standards. Better understanding the community development objectives under CRA, data reporting requirements, and specific CRA terminology can help banks and community-based organizations identify shared goals and objectives that support funding requests.

FINANCIAL LITERACYDawn Lockhart, a national expert in financial literacy and asset building (left), presented industry best practices organizations can implement to ensure families and individuals are prepared and savings-ready to lever-age critical financial literacy tools, skills, support and solutions necessary to build wealth. From early education for our children on what money is and how to responsibly use it to planning for long-term sustainable financial health for individuals and families and taking a corrective course when things go off track, this session covered what to incorporate into a com-prehensive Financial Literacy Program. FHC Board Vice Chair, Wight Greger, from WsG and Partners (right), moderated the session.


USING SHIP TO SERVE SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATIONSThis workshop was an opportunity for SHIP administrators and staff to learn from stakeholders and supportive services organizations that serve persons with disabilities, including developmental disabilities, about the housing needs of their consumers. Presenters Deborah Linton, Executive Director of the Arc of Florida (center), Don Pirozzoli, Program Director for the Center for Independent Living in Central Florida (right), and moderator Bill Alding-er, FHFC Supportive Housing Coordinator (left), discussed how to meet state funding requirements; approaches to reach and inform persons with special needs about SHIP resources; plus identifying and developing working relationships with community-based lead agencies and networks that provide services for persons with disabilities and other special needs.

SURPLUS LANDS AND LAND BANKSThe Florida Nonprofit Affordable Housing Advocates Network (FNHAN) undertook a research project in 2013 to evaluate the effectiveness of the law enacted in 2006 (Sections 125.379 and 166.0451, Florida Statutes), which requires an inventory of available lands for affordable housing to be pub-lished every three years beginning in 2007. Rose Phillips, from the Florida Housing Coalition (pictured), conducted that primary research and analysis and shared her findings about land donation for affordable housing with the participants. See article on page 13. Gladys Schneider, from the Florida

Housing Coalition, is a nationally recognized expert in land banks and shared her ideas for opportunities for land banking in Florida. See article on page19.


FUNDING OPPORTUNITY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING - THE FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK OF ATLANTAThe Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta offers flexible and innovative products that can help manage interest-rate risk and meet your community investment needs. In this workshop, Arthur Fleming, Senior Vice President, Director of Com-munity Investment Services from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (left), reviewed the programs offered by the Bank, including the Affordable Housing Pro-gram Competitive. The AHP Competitive is a flexible source of funding designed to help community partners

develop affordable owner-occupied and rental housing for very low- to moderate-income families and individuals. FHC Board Member Don Hadsell (right) moderated the session.

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESSKent Spuhler, Executive Director of Florida Legal Services (left), and Jaimie Ross, Affordable Housing Director for 1000 Friends of Florida and the facilitator of the Sadowski Coalition (center), explained how the Florida Legislature works and how advocates can most effectively influence the process. Jeff Bagwell, Executive Direc-tor of Keystone Challenge Fund (right), moderated and shared his experiences as an advocate from Polk County on behalf of SHIP funding. Participants were put at ease about their right to advocate on behalf of their own interests and given tips about how and when it is best to contact legislators, which legislators to should con-tact for what issues; how to communicate with the Legislature; and how to work with the local legislative delegation. Participants also learned about the budget process and the role that the Governor’s office plays in appropriations.


3. OUTSTANDING HOUSING ASSISTANCE AWARD CITY OF CAPE CORAL

Amy Yearsley, Housing Coordinator

2. SPECIAL NEEDS HOUSING ASSISTANCE AWARD ABILITY HOUSING OF NORTHEAST FLORIDA

& THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLEDayatra Coles, Housing Services Manager, City of Jacksonville

IN CELEBRATION OF SHIPAwards Highlight the Tremendous Impact of the SHIP Program in Providing Special Needs Housing Assistance,

Purchase Assistance and Rehabilitation of Existing Housing Stock

5. PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR AWARDOKALOOSA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONMike Kent, Board Treasurer; James Robbins, Executive Director; Sheri Albright, Director of Finance

1. OUTSTANDING PURCHASE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM AWARD PASCO COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

George Romagnoli, Community Development Director

4. OUTSTANDING SHIP ADMINISTRATOR AWARD PHYLLIS MOORE, SHIP ADMINISTRATORGadsden County Community Development

6. OUTSTANDING REPAIR/REHABILITATION PROGRAM AWARDORANGE COUNTY HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Mitchell Glasser, Manager

2013 SHIP AWARD RECIPIENTS AT THE FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION ANNUAL CONFERENCE


GROUP PHOTO (LEFT TO RIGHT) : AMY YEARSLEY, JAMES ROBBINS, SHERI ALBRIGHT, MIKE KENT, GEORGE ROMAGNOLI, ROB DEARDUFF, PHYLLIS MOORE, MITCHELL GLASSER, AND JAIMIE ROSS

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5

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The State Housing Incentives Part-nership program (SHIP) is Florida’s nationally acclaimed model for using a dedicated revenue source to effec-tively and efficiently meet local hous-ing needs. It has a proven track record for performance, transparency and accountability, and is the subject of

appropriations in the upcoming legislative session.

PERFORMANCE: A quadriplegic is now able to live inde-pendently in a fully accessible home; thousands of families became first-time homebuyers, hundreds of extremely low-income renters are living in a redeveloped, formerly dilapi-dated apartment building. These are among the half dozen SHIP success stories chosen to receive awards at the Florida Housing Coalition’s 2013 statewide annual conference.

Unfortunately, most of these SHIP success stories are from long ago because it has been years since the SHIP pro-grams were adequately funded to meet community needs.

Florida’s workforce, from the very lowest end of the in-come spectrum to those earning up to 140 percent of the average income in high-cost areas, are within the eligible category of people served by SHIP. Typically, the SHIP funds are used as a catalyst to highly leverage private-sec-tor investment. For example, down-payment and closing-cost assistance is provided as a loan to enable a working family to enter into sustainable and responsible homeown-ership with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage from a bank.

Elders, youth aging out of foster care and those with special needs or disabilities are also within the eligible category of Floridians served by SHIP. Preventing homelessness, fore-closure recovery, emergency repairs and disaster recovery — these are among the eligible uses of SHIP funds. For more than 20 years, the SHIP program has been used for all of the above, providing a safety net for our most vulner-able populations and saving taxpayers’ money by avoiding unnecessary use of government institutions.

TRANSPARENCY: Topping off the exemplary perfor-mance record of the SHIP program is its adherence to

statutory mandates that require the funds to be encum-bered and expended rapidly without using more than 10 percent for administration.

A three-year plan, typically informed by a local advisory group predominantly representing the interests of the private sector, is adopted by the local governing body after public hearings. The plan includes advisory com-mittee recommendations for regulatory reform, which is adopted pursuant to public hearings. The SHIP plan is approved by the state after determining that it complies with all statutory criteria for expenditure of funds and regulatory reform.

ACCOUNTABILITY: As the SHIP program is administered, the governing body is tracking the use of its SHIP funds on a spreadsheet that has data fields for the “who, what, when, where and why” of every dollar spent. These re-ports are filed annually with the state and reviewed for compliance. Accountability is further ensured through the use of private-sector compliance monitors engaged by the state to periodically inspect the local SHIP office.

SHIP TODAY: In Fiscal Year 2013-14, Florida will have approximately $260 million available for appropriation in the state and local housing trust funds. Seventy per-cent of those monies are for SHIP.

If the Florida Legislature appropriates those housing trust fund monies for housing, it will create over 26,000 jobs and more than $2.7 billion in positive economic impact for Florida.

Using housing trust fund money for housing is support-ed by a diverse and wide range of interests from indus-try groups, including the Florida Realtors and Florida Home Builders Association, to advocates of low-income Floridians and faith-based organizations such as the Florida Housing Coalition, Florida AARP and Florida Catholic Conference. If the housing trust funds are used for housing, we will be able to celebrate SHIP success stories that are no longer a thing of the past, but of the present and future.

This article originally appeared in the Miami Herald’s Opinion section on September 28, 2013.

IN CELEBRATION OF SHIP:Performance, Transparency, & Accountability

BY JAIMIE ROSS

> SHIP

HNN

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE

“Every year I think this is the very best conference, and then you make it better the next year; I don’t know how you do it!”

- David Hollis, Hillsborough County HFA

EDUCATION AND NETWORKING WITH HOUSING EXPERTS, ADVOCATES, AND PRACTITIONERS

2014

2013 Winner of the $1,000 Prize from Wells Fargo 2013 Winner of the $1,000 Prize from PNC

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Your Partners for Better Housing membership supports the Florida Housing Coalition’s work by making tax deductible donation of $500 or more. Membership benefits include:

• Complimentary conference registration (Patron Level or higher only, quantity indicated)

• Unlimited membership-rate conference registrations

• Complimentary job vacancy posting service on the Coalition’s website

• Access to the Coalition’s e-newsletter, Member Update

$20,000 Platinum Sponsor (20 Comps)

$10,000 Gold Sponsor (10 Comps)

$5,000 Sponsor (6 Comps)

$2,500 Co-Sponsor (3 Comps)

$1,000 Patron (1 Comp)

$500 Contributor

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FOR PLATINUM, GOLD & SPONSOR LEVELS

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FOR CO-SPONSOR, PATRON & CONTRIBUTOR LEVELS

• Subscriptions to Housing News Network Journal (up to 20)• Logo displayed in all conference-related publications, on

the Coalition’s website and in each triennial issue of the Housing News Network Journal

• Complimentary booth at conference expo (if reserved by July 31)

• Subscriptions to Housing News Network Journal (up to 8)• Name displayed in all conference-related publications, on

the Coalition’s website• Co-Sponsor and Patron Partners included in each triennial

issue of the Housing News Network Journal

BASIC MEMBERSHIPBasic membership is for anyone who wishes to subscribe to Housing News Network, post job vacancy announcements free on the Coalition’s website and receive membership-rate conference registrations. An individual member receives one subscription and one member-rate registration. Organizational members receive up to five subscriptions and five member-rate registrations. All memberships are on a unified membership cycle, memberships are due on August 1st and expire on July 31st of each year. (Please indicate additional names, addresses and phone numbers on an attached sheet.) Each membership is entitled to be represented by one voting member at the Coalition’s annual meeting as designated below.

PARTNERS FOR BETTER HOUSING

$25 Student

$75 Individual (Payment by Personal Check Only)

$150 Nonprofit Organization

$200 Government Agencies

$250 Private Organizations

Authorized Representative (Please Print or Type:)

Name: Title:

Signature: Organization:

Mailing Address:

City: State: ZIP: County:

Phone: ( ) FAX: ( ) Email:

Make checks payable to The Florida Housing Coalition • 1367 E. Lafayette Street, Suite C, Tallahassee, FL 32301 • Phone: (850) 878-4219 • FAX: (850) 942-6312 The Florida Housing Coalition is a 501 (c) (3) organization. One hundred percent of your tax deductible contribution goes to the Florida Housing Coalition, Inc. No portion is retained by a solicitor. Registration number SC09899, Federal ID# 59-2235835.

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL FREE 1-800-435-7352 WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION1367 EAST LAFAYETTE STREET, SUITE CTALLAHASSEE, FL 32301

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

NONPROFITU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDTALLAHASSEE, FLPERMIT NO. 502

The Florida Housing Coalition thanks the following organizations and individuals for their commitment to improving housing conditions in Florida.

PLA

TIN

UM

G

OLD

SP

ON

SOR

SC

O-S

PO

NSO

RS

PAT

RO

NS

CAPITAL CITY BANK

COALITION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROVIDERS

COHNREZNICK

COMERICA BANK

CONSECRA HOUSING NETWORK

FLORIDA COMMUNITY LOAN FUND

NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST/ ENTERPRISE PRESERVATION CORPORATION

NEIGHBORHOOD LENDING PARTNERS

RAYMOND JAMES BANK

RBC CAPITAL MARKETS

REGIONS BANK RELATED URBAN

SAGE PARTNERS

SEACOAST NATIONAL BANK

SELTZER MANAGEMENT GROUP

AMERINATIONAL COMMUNITY SERVICES

BASCOM COMMUNICATIONS

BROAD AND CASSEL

FLORIDA COMMUNITY BANK

GADSDEN COUNTY - COMM. DEV. ADMIN.

GATEHOUSE GROUP

HENDRICKSON COMPANY

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF POMPANO BEACH

IDP HOUSING

JAIMIE ROSS

JONES WALKER LLP

KEYSTONE CHALLENGE FUND

MERIDIAN APPRAISAL GROUP

MULTI FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY

NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES OF SOUTH FLORIDA

PICERNE DEVELOPMENT CORP.

PRESERVATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING (POAH)

SHIMBERG CENTER FOR HOUSING STUDIES

STEARNS, WEAVER, MILLER, WEISSLER, ALHADEFF, & SITTERSON, PA

THE NRP GROUP

TRUSTCO BANK

Documents

Florida Housing Coalition's Housing News Network Fall 2013