2006_1120_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Housing Policy Issues: One of the key goals in the Roseville HRA Housing P1an is to: a. "Preserve existing housing and develop new housing in partnership witl� federal, state and regional agencies and non-profitcommunity groups and businesses." Tt�e RHRA Housing P1an and Policies are incorporated and adopted into the City's Comprehe��sive P1an. The RHRA has spent several years studying the houwng conditions and speci�ically the condition and possible deterioration of older multi family housing complexes. As part of the 2003 Mu1ti-family housing study it was concluded that a11 types of Multifamily Housing are important to the community and need to be preserved with a fu11 spectrum of multifamily maintenance programs to increase the value, quality and livability of the multifamily housing stock. The study indicated that the multifamily housing stock is aging and reinvestment is critical. Critical improvements wi11 become necessary such as windows, roof, heating and air handling systems, energy conservation and electrical services and accessibility. The study addressed why is it good public policy to assist in improving multi-family housing stock. There are approximately 9,000 Roseville residents who live in some type of multifamily housing. These residents are an important strand of the community fabric. Helping to ensure that they live in quality, stable housing reduces social problems that impact neighbors and increase the demands on life-safety, school and social services. In addition, it is critical to maintain this aging (and yet affordable) housing stock to ensure that property values keep current with the surrounding communities and inflationary indexes. Once the value of housing begins to decline the impact on the community wi11 increase services, complaints and crime Section 4.7 of the housing plan speci�ically refers to the creation of HIA as a tool to achieve the City's housin� goals: "Evaluate the establishmentof Housing Iinproveinent Districts to address ownershiv mult�-fatnF�� impru��r�r�E; — l�l�c�v��n #��me � t'�Ic�1 �V�n�C rirrt% tl�� 1�kwFZ :_�,_.��:, antC �c�i i��=:in:U nis in K�ev il l� k�iui ►r-��'r hu i li i:� �1tiK ��)7f}'s and �� _._ ��;t:; m�+cr 3,�'J[f ti��,ti i ��i xl � i ��:_� �'. i ��rri il4• fitti�� i i�:, units, many of which were constructed over 30 k��^r� aga, these are one of the most affordable housing types in the community. The �indings of the Roseville HRA's multi-family study also indicated that those older units include a majority of people over the age of 55. Many of these town homeicondo associations have not set aside adequate home owners association dues to cover the escalating construction costs over the years. Therefore, the funding of large association improvements are either delayed or increases the monthly payment to a 1eve1 that many seniors or lower income individuals can not afford. The MN State Legislature created the HIA legislative authority for the purposes of assisting older complexes to finance major improvements so that there would be less of a�inancial burden on the residents. When these older complexes were constructed, they were not required to collect adequate reserves for future capital improvements. Nor did they anticipate properly the need to collect additional funds for larger project improvements. Newer town home complexes have learned from the past and organizing 1ega1 documents require that a certain percentage of reserves be held in anticipation of large capital improvements. 01der complexes are sti11 hying to catch up. Past of the process for a HIA requires that a�inancial plan be completed by the association so that future fund balances wi11 be available for large capital projects. In the case of Westrvood Village I, they have indicated that the single-board, cedar siding was a big selling point for the original builder and owners were told when a board goes bad they could just pop it off and replace it. Since 1969, previous owners believed that literally and never budgeted for fu11 siding replacement.