The Housing and Community Development (HCD) Department recommends Council approval of an Ordinance adopting the updated Harvey Single Family Development (HSFD) Program Guidelines. The HSFD Program will provide affordable, newly constructed, energy efficient, single-family homes, outside of flood-prone areas of Houston for purchase by LMI Households impacted by Hurricane Harvey with annual incomes at less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), and who were directly impacted by Hurricane Harvey, or those who were indirectly impacted due to the resulting shortage of available housing.
The HSFD Program budget is $60,000,000.00 funded by the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery 2017 (CDBG-DR17) funds. HCD will partner with qualified nonprofit and for-profit developers to implement the development, marketing and sales of 226 resilient affordable single-family homes. The sales price for each single-family unit will not exceed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Homeownership Value Limits* for affordable homeownership set for the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is $264,000.00 as of FY2022.
To make these guidelines accurately reflect the most efficient method of operating, the following changes have been made:
1. Updated maximum NOFA amount
2. Additional NOFA application and process language
3. Updated Affordability Period Chart
4. Added additional language on Conflict-of-Interest requirements
5. Removed Flood insurance requirements for Homebuyers
6. Cited federal register for affordability requirements
7. Added clarification on LMI Homebuyer eligibility requirements
8. Threshold requirements added for applicants 18 or older who were underage at the time of Hurricane Harvey
9. Cited references for Tie-back Documentation requirements
10. Added language on Record retention and Section 504
11. Updated family definition
12. Strengthen language indicating that LMI applicants must have a demonstrated and verifiable connection to Hurricane Harvey
13. Added eligibility requirements for homeowners at the time of the disaster, but no longer own the home
Recovery from Hurricane Harvey presents an historic opportunity to build forward Houston communities that are stronger than ever before. The City will administer the HSFD Program in accordance with the guidelines and the CDBG-DR regulatory requirements. The HSFD Guidelines were approved by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) on August 9, 2022.
*Affordable Home Value of $264,000.00 is based on HUD’s Housing Trust Fund Homeownership value limits.
No fiscal note is required on grant items.
This item was reviewed by the Housing and Community Affairs Committee on September 28, 2022.
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Keith W. Bynam, Director