Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Affordable Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Flagstaff staff present $250,000 housing-incentive allocation, $7 million CHAP bond request and other housing tools
Summary
City housing staff reviewed incentive-pay funding for affordable housing development, a $7 million bond request for homebuyer assistance, continuation of employer-assisted programs and a housing pipeline of reservations that totals about $1 million in requests.
Sarah (housing staff) briefed the council on the city’s affordable-housing funding portfolio, including a $250,000 allocation for an incentive-pay program for developers, an ongoing employer-assisted housing program and a $7,000,000 request for a CHAP (Community Housing Assistance Program) bond for homebuyer assistance.
Nut graf: Staff described a mixed approach of ongoing program income, one-time bond funds and rollover of dedicated funds to support new construction, land acquisition and unit preservation. They noted a reservation list of developer requests that totals roughly $1 million but spans multiple years and projects.
Sarah said the $250,000 allocation to the city’s incentive policy (commonly called HIP in staff comments) provides proportional incentives to developers who include low- and moderate-income units. She explained that developers submit reservation requests to plan for potential incentives; the reservation list contains projects that might not realize funding in the coming year because development timelines vary.
Staff said the city has allowed rollover of unused funding in this account in prior years to build toward larger local contributions and noted that the reservation list includes projects such as Habitat for Humanity and other LIHTC-related developments. Sarah said Habitat’s current Blitz-build permits are paid for except for a small remaining permit fee.
On bonds and revolving funds, staff said the proposed $7,000,000 CHAP bond will be structured so loans made after 01/01/2025 will be bond-funded and loans made earlier will be non-bond funds; repaid CHAP loans will be the ongoing funding source for employer-assisted housing and program income will appear annually in the budget. Staff said the CHAP request SOQ was due May 6 and that staff hoped to return with an award recommendation prior to council break, subject to negotiations with any successful respondent.
Staff described other items planned or underway: a rental-incentive bond program (staff said it is fully obligated), a redevelopment-on-city-land RFP to select a consultant for larger projects, an adaptive-reuse program in development (discussed with the Housing Commission), and use of city land identified as potential housing sites. Sarah said a work session on city-owned land for affordable housing is scheduled for Sept. 9.
Ending: Staff asked council to note that several programs are staged to carry forward across years; they also described a commitment from the city manager and budget team to consider additional one-time funds if an otherwise-ready project arrived and the dedicated account lacked funds.
