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of )NEW L� -0m I city that works for you Memo Date: October 28, 2010 To: Dean Lotter, City Manager From: Grant Fernelius, Community Development Director Janice Gundlach, City Planner Joe Hatch, Code Enforcement Officer Subject: Housing Program Options Background The Council held a work session on July 6, 2010 to discuss housing stabilization issues. Staff prepared an extensive memo that outlined a number of housing related issues occurring in New Brighton. Ultimately, the Council focused their interest on the concept of a housing rehabilitation loan program. While several different program ideas were mentioned, staff was directed to conduct additional research on this topic and report back to Council. This memo outlines what has been done since the July 6th work session, including options for program administration and design. Program Administration The CD Director has had previous experience designing programs and overseeing implementation in two other communities (Columbia Heights and Fridley). Based on that experience, staff believes we do not have the capacity to administer a program internally. Typical administration tasks include marketing, phone calls, application intake, underwriting, loan origination, title work, closing, document recording, inspections, and disbursement of funds. In addition, there is loan servicing, monthly reporting and compliance with various state and federal lending regulations. Frankly, it takes a great deal of work. As such, staff contacted two non-profit agencies (Center for Energy and Environment and Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation) to learn more about their background, capacity and interest in working with New Brighton. The following outlines what services both organizations currently provide: Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) CEE is a non-profit organization that administers a variety of home improvement and energy savings programs in the Twin Cities metro Area. Some of the cities CEE services