Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency is considering making the following changes to the HOME (Home Investment Partnerships Program) for 2011. They may or may not be included in the 2011 HOME Action Plan. OHFA welcomes public comment on these ideas, as well as any comments and suggestions about any aspect of the HOME Program. All comments and suggestions will be given due consideration.
● OHFA is planning to increase the amount of its Administration funds that will be available to qualified applicants for qualified HOME activities. Currently, HOME Program applicants for certain qualified activities may apply for Administration funds in an amount not to exceed 4% of the HOME award, exclusive of the Administrative funds. This will be increased to an amount not to exceed 5% of the HOME award beginning with Program Year 2011. OHFA intends to maintain this increase for a minimum of three program years, barring unforeseen circumstances.
● For those applicants who can show that their project will be in a match waiver for the entire duration of the contract, OHFA plans to reduce their match requirement to 10% of the HOME award, not including any request for OHFA’s Bond Match. This will reduce the burden on applicants whose projects are planned for a county that is and will be under a match waiver for the entire contract period, while allowing OHFA some assurance that match resources will be available should the funds not be drawn down before the match waiver expires. OHFA staff believes it must maintain this buffer due to the large number of contracts that have been extended beyond their original 18-month contract period during the last several years.
● OHFA will be adjusting the scoring criterion of HOME Investment per Unit. This scoring category has not been updated for many years. OHFA will be considering slight increases in the maximum amounts that will qualify for each level of points. Costs of construction have risen in recent years, and this adjustment will allow projects to qualify for more points while using higher amounts of HOME funds per unit. Nonetheless, OHFA continues to encourage applicants to secure other sources of funds in addition to HOME funds, in order to maximize the points available to the project in this category and to allow the HOME funds to produce more affordable housing for the citizens of the State of Oklahoma.
● OHFA is considering reducing the number of points awarded in the leverage scoring criterion. This will make it easier for applicants who cannot obtain any other sources of funds for their projects to meet the minimum required score and to compete with other projects for the HOME funds. Nonetheless, OHFA continues to encourage applicants to secure other sources of funds in addition to HOME funds, in order to maximize the points available to the project in this category and to allow the HOME funds to produce more affordable housing for the citizens of the State of Oklahoma.
● OHFA is considering a small, separate set-aside of Homeowner Rehabilitation funds reserved specifically for applicants proposing to do actual rehabilitation of the existing homes and not full replacement. One possibility would be to reserve $500,000 in HOME funds for these applicants, enough to fund at least two applications. A larger set-aside may also be considered, depending upon the public comment received regarding this idea. OHFA is considering a separate lottery for these applicants. Any applicants for this set-aside will be required to provide proof that they have qualified, capable staff in their summary applications, and will not be included in the separate lottery without such proof.
● OHFA will require any applicants for Homeowner Rehabilitation funds to include their most recent audit with their summary application. For 2010, two applicants that were chosen during the lottery process and permitted to submit a complete application subsequently failed due to incurable audit findings. Such audit failures could have been detected during review of the summary applications, and two other eligible applicants could have been selected in the lottery and permitted to compete for the available funds.
Informal Public Input Sessions
OHFA will hold two informal public input sessions on the 2011 HOME Program, at which these and possibly other ideas will be discussed. Ideas will also be accepted from the attendees at these sessions and given serious consideration. The first of these two informal public input sessions will be Wednesday, August 4 at 1:30 p.m. in the Will Rogers Room at the OHFA office located at 100 N.W. 63rd St., Ste. 200 in Oklahoma City. The second session will be held on Friday, August 20 at 10 a.m. at the Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma City, in conjunction with a conference of the Oklahoma Weatherization and Housing Advisory Council.
In addition, OHFA will accept written comments and suggestions at any time until the 2011 HOME Program Action Plan has been finalized. Any written comments and suggestions should be directed to John Marshall, Housing Development Team Leader and mailed to 100 N.W. 63rd Street, Ste. 200, Oklahoma City, OK 73116.