CS/SB 1534 – Housing Assistance Affecting Florida Housing’s State Rental Program Funding Allocation: Mandates Florida Housing reserve a minimum of 5 percent of its annual State Housing Trust Fund appropriation for rental housing designed to serve persons who have a disabling condition, with first priority given to projects serving persons who have a intellectual or developmental disability ; Funding shall be provided as forgivable loans through a competitive solicitation; Private nonprofit organizations whose primary mission includes serving persons with a disabling condition shall be eligible for these funds; In evaluating proposals for these funds, the corporation shall consider: the extent to which funds from local and other sources will be used to leverage SAIL funds; employment opportunities and supports available to residents of the funded housing; a plan for residents to effectively access community-based services and resources; and community partnerships to assist residents maintain stability in their communities. 1

Affecting the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) Program : Currently allows Florida Housing to make loans exceeding 25 percent of project cost when the project serves extremely-low-income persons. It will now also pertain to counties or rural areas of counties that do not have existing units set aside for homeless persons; Forgive indebtedness for loans provided to create permanent rental housing units for persons who are homeless, or for persons residing in time-limited transitional housing or institutions as a result of a lack of permanent, affordable housing. Such developments must be supported by a local homeless assistance continuum of care; be developed by nonprofit applicants; be small properties as defined by corporation rule; and be a project in the local housing assistance continuum of care plan recognized by the State Office on Homelessness. 2

Affecting the SAIL Program (continued: The SAIL allocation for Persons with Special Needs may not be less than 10 percent of the allocation; Affecting the Office on Homelessness, Council on Homelessness: Office, pursuant to policies set by the Council and the availability of funding, shall coordinate among state, local, and private agencies to produce a statewide consolidated inventory for Florida’s system of homeless programs; 3

Affecting the Office on Homelessness, Council, or CoC Lead Agencies The Office, in consultation with the designated lead agencies for a local homeless continuum of care (CoC) and with the Council, shall develop the system and process of data collection from all lead agencies for the purpose of analyzing trends and assessing impacts in the statewide homeless delivery system; Any statewide homelessness survey and database system must comply with all state and federal statutory and regulatory confidentiality requirements; The Office, in conjunction with the Council, shall establish performance measures and specific objectives by which it may to evaluate the effective performance and outcomes of lead agencies that receive grant funds.; Challenge Grants made through the Office shall be distributed to lead agencies based on their overall performance and their achievement of specified objectives; Office, in conjunction with the Council, shall develop, for the annual CoC plan, a methodology for assessing performance and outcomes; The CoC must now include addressing Rapid Rehousing in its plan. 4

Related to Rapid Rehousing for Homeless Households : The Legislature: Finds that Rapid Rehousing is a strategy of using temporary financial assistance and case management to quickly move an individual or family out of homelessness and into permanent housing; Finds that emergency shelter and transitional housing programs may provide critical access to services for individuals and families in crisis, the programs often fail to address their long-term needs; Encourages homeless continuums of care to adopt the Rapid Rehousing approach to preventing homelessness for individuals and families who do not require the intense level of supports provided in the permanent supportive housing model. 5

Affecting the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program (SHIP): Legislature encourages each county or eligible jurisdiction receiving SHIP allocations to develop a strategy within its local housing assistance plan which provides program funds for reducing homelessness; Local governments may create regional partnerships cross jurisdictional boundaries through the pooling of appropriated funds to address homeless housing needs identified in local housing assistance plans; Lead agencies of local homeless assistance continuums of 731 care. 732 Encourages the SHIP/ local housing assistance program to include the local CoC lead agency as a partner; Local SHIP Programs may use a portion of their annual Local Government Housing Trust Fund allocation towards: Security and utility deposit assistance; Eviction prevention not to exceed 6 months’ rent; A short term rent subsidy program for very-low-income households with at least one adult who is a person with special needs or homeless; The rental assistance may not exceed 12 months for any eligible household; 6

Affecting SHIP (continued): Requires local governments to use a minimum of 20 percent of SHIP program distributions to serve persons with special needs, with first priority given to serving persons with developmental disabilities; Allows 25 percent of the SHIP Program funds made available in a county or municipality may be reserved for rental housing. Re lated to National Housing Trust Fund: The Legislature encourages the state entity designated to administer funds made available to the state from the National Housing Trust Fund to propose an allocation plan that includes strategies to reduce homelessness and the risk of homelessness in this state. These strategies shall be in addition to strategies developed under s

State Funding for Affordable Housing SFY State Housing Initiatives Partnership (LGHTF) – $135.5 million Local SHIP Homeownership and Rental Programs - $129.8 million DCF Office on Homelessness Challenge Grants – $5.2 million Homeless services and housing - $5 million Affordable housing training for local homeless assistance CoC lead agencies and providers Catalyst Program for Affordable Housing Training and T.A. - $500,000 Florida Housing Finance Corporation Programs (SHTF) - $64.6 million SAIL - $32.3 million Families, elderly, homeless, special needs and farmworker Split based on statutory requirements and rental market study findings Statewide Workforce Housing - $20 million Primarily to serve low-income earners statewide and Keys workforce Housing for Persons with DD Grant - $10 million 8