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Roseville Owner Occupied Loan Progr am Funding (8-18-07) - Page 3 of 4 3.0 Staff Comments: 3.1 There has been an increase in the use of the ownership loan program since the HRA increased the loan level from $10,000 to $20,000 last year. Overall, the program has served middle income families with an average household income of $69,000 since 2000 and only 17% of the total loans have been provided to households with incomes above the current 120% of median income limit of $94,200. Staff has been pleased with the program but feels that a limitation on providing funds to higher income families will target the program to middle income families only and be in line with the RHRA’s goals to serve households with incomes at or below 120% of median income. 3.2 In addition to achieving the RHRA’s income goals, the loan program will continue to meet the following objectives. • Encourages home improvement and investment. • Provides value when each loan is issued wh ich includes stabilization of the housing stock, additional tax revenue, increased permit fees and increased neighborhood pride. • Continues to be a well managed program and requires very little existing staff time to manage since it is administered through the Housing Resource Center. • Provides program income to revolve back into more loans when existing loan payments are made on a monthly basis. • Provides a positive and tangible program to offer residents especially when codes staff is requesting that code violations be resolved. 3.3 The RHRA has not had to put funds into the program for many years (2002). The HRA’s 2007 budget includes $100,000 for additional loan funding and/or emergency funding associated with worse case scenario code defi cient homes. Staff suggests that this fund not be fully applied to the program in case there is a code related item that needs to be addressed yet this year. Therefore, staff suggests that $60,000 of the fund be transferred to the Ownership Loan Program. With the current balance plus suggested new funding, 15 additional loans can be issued at the maximu m $20,000 loan value. With an average of 17 loans issued per year, this should be a suffici ent amount of funding to reinvigorate the loan program. 3.4 Staff is not recommending that an assessed limit be added to the program criteria for the following reasons. a. The program becomes more complex for qualifying. b. Residents may be house rich but not income rich. Securing the HRA ownership loan is much less complex than securing a private home equity loan and may deter homeowners from pursuing the needed renovation, particularly older residents. New homeowners may not have the ability to s ecure additional equity to make the improvements especially if they only purchased the home in the last few years. 3.5 If the HRA does wish to add an assessed value limit, it is suggested that the family loan