16.1 - DEFINITIONS.
16.1 DEFINITIONS.
1. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise
requires:
a. When used in the context of an assumption of a loan,
"assume" or "assumed" means any type of transaction involving
the sale or transfer of an ownership interest in real estate financed
by the authority, whether the conveyance involves a transfer by deed
or real estate contract or some other device.
b. "Authority" means the Iowa finance authority established
in section 16.2.
c. "Bond" means a bond issued by the authority pursuant to
sections 16.26 to 16.30, and includes a note or other instrument
evidencing a debt authorized or referred to in this chapter.
d. "Child foster care facilities" means the same as defined
in section 237.1.
e. "Cost" as applied to economic development loan program
projects means the cost of acquisition, construction, or both
including the cost of acquisition of all land, rights-of-way,
property rights, easements, franchise rights, and interests required
for acquisition, construction, or both. It also means the cost of
demolishing or removing structures on acquired land, the cost of
access roads to private property, including the cost of land or
easements, and the cost of all machinery, furnishings, and equipment,
financing charges, and interest prior to and during construction and
for no more than the greater of eighteen months or the period
authorized to be capitalized under applicable provisions of the
Internal Revenue Code after completion of construction. Cost also
means the cost of engineering, legal expenses, plans, specifications,
surveys, estimates of cost and revenues, as well as other expenses
incidental to determining the feasibility or practicability of
acquiring or constructing a project. It also means other expenses
incidental to the acquisition or construction of the project, the
financing of the acquisition or construction, including the amount to
be paid into any special funds from the proceeds of bonds issued for
the project, and the financing of the placing of a project in
operation. It also means all grants, payments, and amounts necessary
to pay or refund outstanding bonds and all costs for which federally
tax-exempt bonds may be issued under the Internal Revenue Code.
f. "Dilapidated" means decayed, deteriorated, or fallen into
partial disuse through neglect or misuse.
g. "Displaced" means displaced by governmental action, or by
having one's dwelling extensively damaged or destroyed as a result of
a disaster.
h. "Division" means the title guaranty division.
i. "Elderly families" means families of low or moderate
income where the head of the household or the head's spouse is at
least sixty-two years of age or older, or the surviving member of any
such tenant family.
j. (1) "Families" includes but is not limited to families
consisting of a single adult person who is primarily responsible for
the person's own support, is at least sixty-two years of age, is a
person with a disability, is displaced, or is the remaining member of
a tenant family.
(2) "Families" includes but is not limited to two or more
persons living together who are at least sixty-two years of age, are
persons with disabilities, or one or more such individuals living
with another person who is essential to such individual's care or
well-being.
k. "Goals" means legislative goals and policies as
articulated in this chapter.
l. "Guiding principles" means the principles provided in
section 16.4 which shall be considered for amplification and
interpretation of the goals of the authority.
m. "Health care facilities" means those facilities referred
to in section 135C.1, subsection 6, which contain fifteen beds or
less.
n. (1) "Housing" means single family and multifamily
dwellings, and facilities incidental or appurtenant to the dwellings,
and includes group homes of fifteen beds or less licensed as health
care facilities or child foster care facilities and modular or mobile
homes which are permanently affixed to a foundation and are assessed
as realty.
(2) "Adequate housing" means housing which meets minimum
structural, heating, lighting, ventilation, sanitary, occupancy, and
maintenance standards compatible with applicable building and housing
codes, as determined under rules of the authority.
o. "Housing program" means any work or undertaking of new
construction or rehabilitation of one or more housing units, or the
acquisition of existing residential structures, for the provision of
housing, which is financed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter
for the primary purpose of providing housing for low or moderate
income families. A housing program may include housing for other
economic groups as part of an overall plan to develop new or
rehabilitated communities or neighborhoods, where housing low or
moderate income families is a primary goal. A housing program may
include any buildings, land, equipment, facilities, or other real or
personal property which is necessary or convenient in connection with
the provision of housing, including, but not limited to, streets,
sewers, utilities, parks, site preparation, landscaping, and other
nonhousing facilities, such as administrative, community, health,
recreational, educational, and commercial facilities, as the
authority determines to be necessary or convenient in relation to the
purposes of this chapter.
p. "Housing sponsor" means any individual, joint venture,
partnership, limited partnership, trust, corporation, housing
cooperative, local public entity, governmental unit, or other legal
entity, or any combination thereof, approved by the authority or
pursuant to standards adopted by the authority as qualified to either
own, construct, acquire, rehabilitate, operate, manage, or maintain a
housing program, whether for profit, nonprofit or limited profit,
subject to the regulatory powers of the authority and other terms and
conditions set forth in this chapter.
q. "Income" means income from all sources of each member of
the household, with appropriate exceptions and exemptions reasonably
related to an equitable determination of the family's available
income, as established by rule of the authority.
r. "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Revenue Code of
the United States as it may exist at the time of its applicability to
the provisions of this chapter.
s. "Legislative findings" or "findings" means the
findings established by the general assembly with respect to the
authority as provided in this chapter.
t. "Lower income families" means families whose incomes do
not exceed eighty percent of the median income for the area with
adjustments for the size of the family or other adjustments necessary
due to unusual prevailing conditions in the area, and includes, but
is not limited to, very low income families.
u. "Low income housing credit" means the low income housing
credit as defined in Internal Revenue Code § 42(a).
v. "Low or moderate income families" means families who
cannot afford to pay enough to cause private enterprise in their
locality to build an adequate supply of decent, safe, and sanitary
dwellings for their use, and also includes, but is not limited to,
(1) elderly families, families in which one or more persons are
persons with disabilities, lower income families and very low income
families, and (2) families purchasing or renting qualified
residential housing.
w. "Mortgage" means a mortgage, mortgage deed, deed of trust,
or other instrument creating a first lien, subject only to title
exceptions acceptable to the authority, on a fee interest in real
property which includes completed housing located within this state,
or on a leasehold on such a fee interest which has a remaining term
at the time of computation that exceeds by not less than ten years
the maturity date of the mortgage loan.
x. "Mortgage-backed security" means a security issued by the
authority which is secured by residential mortgage loans owned by the
authority.
y. "Mortgage lender" means any bank, trust company, mortgage
company, national banking association, savings and loan association,
life insurance company, any governmental agency, or any other
financial institution authorized to make mortgage loans in this state
and includes a financial institution as defined in section 496B.2,
subsection 2, which lends moneys for industrial or business purposes.
z. "Mortgage loan" means a financial obligation secured by a
mortgage.
aa. "Note" means a bond anticipation note or a housing
development fund note issued by the authority pursuant to this
chapter. "Note" also includes bonds.
ab. "Person with a disability" means a person who is unable
to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a
medically determinable physical or mental impairment, or a person
having a physical or mental impairment which is expected to be of
long-continued and indefinite duration, substantially impedes the
ability to live independently, and is of a nature that the ability to
live independently could be improved by more suitable housing
conditions.
ac. "Powers" means all of the general and specific powers of
the authority as provided in this chapter which shall be broadly and
liberally interpreted to authorize the authority to act in accordance
with the goals of the authority and in a manner consistent with the
legislative findings and guiding principles.
ad. "Programs" means any program administered by the
authority or any program in which the authority is directed or
authorized to participate pursuant to any statute, executive order,
or interagency agreement, or any other program participation or
administration of which the authority finds useful and convenient to
further the goals and purposes of the authority. "Program" shall
include but not be limited to all of the following:
(1) The housing assistance payments program.
(2) The rent supplements program.
(3) The emergency housing fund program.
(4) The special housing assistance program.
(5) The single-family housing program.
(6) The multifamily housing program.
(7) The title guaranty program.
(8) The housing improvement fund program.
(9) The economic development loan program.
(10) The Iowa economic development bond bank program.
(11) The sewage treatment and drinking facilities financing
program.
(12) The Iowa tank assistance bond program.
(13) The residential treatment facilities program.
(14) The E-911 program.
(15) The community college dormitory program.
(16) The prison infrastructure program.
(17) The wastewater treatment financial assistance program.
(18) Any other program established by the authority which the
authority finds useful and convenient to further goals of the
authority and which is consistent with the legislative findings.
Such additional programs shall be administered in accordance with the
guiding principles of the authority after such notice and hearing as
is determined to be reasonable by the authority under the
circumstances. Such additional programs shall be administered in
accordance with rules, if any, which the authority determines useful
and convenient to adopt pursuant to chapter 17A.
ae. "Project" means any of the following:
(1) Real or personal property connected with a facility to be
acquired, constructed, financed, refinanced, improved, or equipped
pursuant to one or more of the programs.
(2) Refunds, loans, refinancings, grants, or other assistance or
programs which the authority finds useful and convenient to carry out
and further the goals of the authority and the Iowa economic
development bond program. In furtherance thereof and not in
limitation, "project" shall include projects for which bonds or
notes may be issued by a city or a county pursuant to any power so
long as the authority finds it is consistent with the goals and
legislative findings of the authority and the Iowa economic
development bond program.
(3) Any project for which tax exempt financing is authorized by
the Internal Revenue Code, together with any taxable financing
necessary or desirable in connection with such project, which the
authority finds furthers the goals of the authority and is consistent
with the legislative findings.
af. "Property improvement loan" means a financial obligation
secured by collateral acceptable to the authority, the proceeds of
which shall be used for improvement or rehabilitation of housing
which is deemed by the authority to be substandard in its protective
coatings or its structural, plumbing, heating, cooling, or electrical
systems; and regardless of the condition of the property the term
"property improvement loan" may include loans to increase the
energy efficiency of housing or to finance solar or other renewable
energy systems for use in that housing.
ag. "Qualified residential housing" means any of the
following:
(1) Owner-occupied residences purchased in a manner which
satisfies the requirements contained in section 103A of the Internal
Revenue Code in order to be financed with tax exempt mortgage subsidy
bonds.
(2) Residential property qualifying pursuant to section 103(b)(4)
of the Internal Revenue Code to be financed with tax exempt
residential rental property bonds.
(3) Housing for low or moderate income families, elderly
families, and families which include one or more persons with
disabilities.
ah. "State agency" means any board, commission, department,
public officer, or other agency of the state of Iowa.
ai. "State housing credit ceiling" means the state housing
credit ceiling as defined in Internal Revenue Code § 42(h)(3)(C).
aj. "Title guaranty" means a guaranty against loss or damage
caused by defective title to real property.
ak. "Very low income families" means families whose incomes
do not exceed fifty percent of the median income for the area, with
adjustments for the size of the family or other adjustments necessary
due to unusual prevailing conditions in the area.
2. The authority may establish by rule further definitions
applicable to this chapter, and clarification of the definitions in
this section, as it deems convenient and necessary including any
rules necessary to assure eligibility for funds available under
federal housing laws, or to assure compliance with federal tax laws
relating to the issuance of tax exempt bonds pursuant to the Internal
Revenue Code or relating to the allowance of low income credits under
Internal Revenue Code § 42. Section History: Early Form
[C77, 79, 81, § 220.1; 81 Acts, ch 76, § 1; 82 Acts, ch 1173, § 1,
2, ch 1187, § 1--3] Section History: Recent Form
83 Acts, ch 124, § 1, 2; 84 Acts, ch 1281, § 1--5; 85 Acts, ch
225, § 1; 85 Acts, ch 252, § 24, 25; 86 Acts, ch 1212, § 1; 86 Acts,
ch 1245, § 840; 87 Acts, ch 125, § 1, 2; 87 Acts, ch 141, § 1
C93, § 16.1
96 Acts, ch 1129, § 5--8; 2007 Acts, ch 54, §2--10; 2009 Acts, ch
43, §1; 2009 Acts, ch 133, §8
Referred to in § 499A.101