1112 - Affordable home ownership development contracts.
§ 1112. Affordable home ownership development contracts. 1. Within the limit of funds available in the affordable housing development account, the corporation is hereby authorized to enter into contracts with eligible applicants to provide grants which such applicants shall use to finance affordable home ownership development programs subject to the terms and conditions of this article. Any grants received by a municipality hereunder shall not be deemed to be municipal funds. Grantees shall utilize funds provided pursuant to this article solely as payments, grants and loans to owners to reduce the costs of new construction, rehabilitation or home improvement or the cost of acquisition, but only where such acquisition is part of an affordable home ownership development program or project to construct or rehabilitate homes, or as otherwise authorized by law. Such financial assistance may be in the form of loans, participation in loans including but not limited to participation in loans originated or financed by lending institutions as defined in section forty-two of this chapter, private or public employee pension funds or the state of New York mortgage agency, or grants, on such terms and conditions as the grantee with the approval of the corporation shall determine, provided that no such payments, grants and loans shall exceed the lesser of (i) sixty percent of the project cost or (ii) the following per dwelling unit limitations (A) thirty-five thousand dollars for projects except as provided in clause (B) of this item (ii) or (B) forty thousand dollars for a high cost project or a project which will receive a loan from the federal farmers home administration. Among the criteria the corporation shall consider in determining whether a project is a high cost project are: average cost of construction in the area, location of the project, and the impact of the additional funding on the affordability of the project for the occupants of such project. No more than fifty percent of the total amount appropriated pursuant to this article in any fiscal year shall be allocated to homes located within any single municipality. 2. The corporation shall not enter into a contract under this article except with an eligible applicant which has submitted an application pursuant to a request for proposals issued by the corporation which application contains a plan acceptable to the corporation which provides that: (a) The proposed project or program will make home ownership, rehabilitation or home improvement affordable to persons who cannot afford to own, rehabilitate or improve homes by relying upon the ordinary unaided operation of private enterprise. (b) There shall be criteria, satisfactory to the corporation, which provide for maximum income limitations or a system of income targeting designed to ensure that home buyers who benefit from financial assistance provided pursuant to this article would be unable to acquire, rehabilitate or improve homes by relying upon the ordinary unaided operation of private enterprise. (c) The payments, grants and loans provided by grantees pursuant to this article will be supplemented by private or other public investment and the payments, grants and loans provided by the grantee are the least necessary to make home ownership, rehabilitation or home improvement affordable to the income group to be served by the proposed project or program. (d) The proposed project or projects, if not built or rehabilitated by a not-for-profit corporation, will be built or rehabilitated by a private developer/builder who has agreed to limit his profit in accordance with a formula, satisfactory to the corporation, which has been established by the grantee.(e) The proposed project or program will provide assistance in an area which is blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating, or has a blighting influence on the surrounding area, or is in danger of becoming a slum or a blighted area because of the existence of substandard, insanitary, deteriorating or deteriorated conditions, an aged housing stock, or vacant non-residential property, or other factors indicating an inability or unwillingness of the private sector unaided to cause the construction, rehabilitation or home improvement for which payments, grants and loans under this article is provided. (f) Home buyers will occupy homes as their principal place of residence and funds provided for the benefit of the home buyer will be recaptured by the grantee if the home buyer does not occupy the home as the home buyer's principal place of residence under the terms and conditions of a formula established or approved by the corporation. (g) In the case of a rehabilitation or home improvement program, the majority of payments, grants and loans provided for each home shall be used to perform work which prolongs the useful life of the home or shall be used to correct basic structural defects or to repair basic building systems which threaten or if not corrected or repaired could threaten the health and safety of the dwelling's residents. (h) The corporation shall provide the applicant with a list of conditions that must be met prior to entering into a contract pursuant to this article. Within fifteen working days of receipt by the corporation of all documents in satisfaction of the list, the corporation shall notify the applicant of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the documents. After satisfaction by the applicant of all conditions required by the corporation prior to entering into a contract the corporation shall enter into the contract within forty-five working days of satisfaction of such conditions. (i) Eligible applicants receiving awards pursuant to this article for homes located in cities with a population of one hundred thousand or more shall provide preference to homebuyers who are members of a police force of such city, provided that such city has adopted a local law authorizing such preference. 3. In determining awards pursuant to this article the corporation shall give preference to applications based upon the extent to which the proposed program or project will: (a) Serve the lowest income households in the applicable region and is designed to continue to be affordable to such households for a substantial period of time. (b) Leverage private and other public investment so as to reduce the amount of assistance provided pursuant to this article which is necessary to operate or establish the program or project. (c) Contribute to the development of the neighborhood or community in which the program or project is located. (d) Not directly displace current low and moderate income residents of such neighborhood or community. (e) Be undertaken and completed in a timely fashion. (f) Utilize innovative, cost effective design techniques and building materials, which reduce construction, rehabilitation or operating costs including, but not limited to factory built or modular homes. (g) Be located on a brownfield site that has received a certificate of completion. 4. The corporation shall not provide a grant to an eligible applicant pursuant to this article unless the corporation determines that there is a strong probability that the private investment in the applicant's proposed program would not be made without the grant and that the grantwill not substitute for private funds which would be otherwise available to the program. 5. The corporation shall provide for the review, at periodic intervals not less than annually, of the performance of grantees receiving financial assistance pursuant to this article. Such review shall, among other things, be for the purposes of ascertaining conformity to contractual provisions, the financial integrity and efficiency of grantees and the evaluation of the grantees' activities. Contracts entered into pursuant to this article may be terminated, funds may be withheld and unspent funds recaptured by the corporation upon a finding of substantial nonperformance or breach by the grantee of its obligations under its contract.