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housing and the funding restrictions would come up against the same limited fiscal policy that exists currently. . Continue to rely on the County Housing & Redevelopment Authority. Ramsey County currently has an HRA that serves suburban communities. The use of funds are specifically tied to low- moderate income projects. In addition, there is an annual competitive process to access the funds for projects and the structure of the funds is at the discretion of the County HRA staff. Past practices have indicated that the majority of projects are funded as a loan. All of Roseville's existing housing programs would not qualify for these funds due to these (loans and low-mod income) restrictions. The County HRA does not currently use its levy powers. However, the Board is interested in discussing this with suburban communities. If the County HRA does levy, the same County housing restrictions would apply. . 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 enabling legislation in 2003 or beyond. 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" allowing deferred maintenance to overcome complexes, is difficult when there are limited resources to bring to the table. These type 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 an HRA, with adequate funding, would help to provide the incentive needed for new responsible owners to purchase the properties and/or with more stringent code compliance (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 can do 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 HRAs 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 BED I grants, instead of working through the County on a competitive basis. 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 . Page 2