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. Continue to rely on the County Housing & Redevelopment Authority. Ramsey County currently has an HRA that serves suburban communities. The County HRA does not currently use its levy powers. Though this could change, even if the County HRA initiated a levy, all cities in Ramsey County would compete for these funds. Further, the County HRA targets low- moderate income projects. A Roseville HRA, on the other hand, might choose to target a more middle-class approach, seeking to enhance housing opportunities for Working families and seniors. Hence, staff feels that relying on the County HRA might be unproductive; there are limited resources there and a different emphasis. . The 1-35W Corridor Coalition Board has discussed exploring a corridor-wide HRA to fund subregional housing projects and services such as the rebate program and the HRC. One reason is that the non-profit funding offered by the McKnight Foundation to supplement the cost of the HRC for three years requires an equal three year commitment from the local communities. The Corridor HRA initiative is in the very beginning conceptual stage and would require special state enabling legislation in 2003 or beyond. Staff feels the outcome of this state legislative process is very uncertain and not to be relied upon. What can an HRA provide that is not available to the City? As mentioned in the staff report dated June 17, 2002, the presence of an HRA demonstrates that a community is committed to a sustained and concentrated effort to improve housing. In addition, a dedicated funding source would provide staff with the initiative to pursue improvements of larger multi family projects. . Currently, staff is not prepared to suggest that the City can assist in the renovation or redevelopment of a large multi family housing project. Therefore, discussions with "absentee owners" about more maintenance of their property are difficult when there are limited resources the City can bring to the table. These types of owners are not interested in the just below market rate financing that the County provides along with the county and federal reporting requirements and red tape. There are low to moderate income people who are living in substandard conditions in some of these complexes. Since there is such a shortage of affordable housing, desperate people will not demand quality living arrangements. Staff believes that having a Roseville HRA, with adequate funding, would help to provide the incentive needed possibly for new responsible owners to purchase the properties, and with possibly more stringent code compliance programs or a multi-family licensing program (which could be administered by the HRA) to put pressure on "absent landlords" to make the improvements that renters deserve. .. This is one of the issues that staff was referring to when noting that an HRA would provide "flexibility in managing housing programs". The use of abatement in some single family housing situations does not compare with the multi-family code violations in Roseville's affordable rental complexes. Another "flexible" opportunity that an HRA provides includes working with a non-profit housing provider who may be eligible for the use of tax credits to help finance projects. While cities and HRA's are not eligible for tax credits, non-profits syndicating the tax credits for projects can help reduce the overall cost of development. In addition, an HRA could go directly to HUD to receive grants, such as the HUD 108 loan and BEDI grants, instead of working through the County and competing with other potential recipients. Staff does agree with Council members statement that the "real argument here is that there is insufficient funding to meet our housing needs." However, staff also believes that having an HRA that can use the existing Housing Fund and rely on future funding through a special taxing levy would provide more opportunities for the community to address larger housing issues as well as maintain existing successful programs. An HRA dedicated funding source is one assurance to funding partners 41) Page 2