Department: Community Services
Department Head/Elected Official: Thao Costis, Interim Executive Director
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Transfer of Funds Only
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name:
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request for approval to temporarily transfer $1.4 million from TIRZ 24 and RDA administrative funds into the Harris County Housing Program bank account.
end
Background and Discussion:
In order to efficiently administer various direct assistance programs, the Harris County Community Services Department (HCCSD) has been required to operate several federally funded affordable housing programs with stand-alone bank accounts. Initially, “imprest funds” are provided upon creation of the bank account. Based on the progress and nature of the Housing Program bank account programs, the necessity to add to or reduce imprest amount may also change from time to time.
On May 19, 2009, Commissioner’s Court approved the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) bank account which was subsequently re-titled as the “Harris County Housing Program” in order to accommodate multiple programs beyond the NSP award. On September 24, 2019, Commissioner’s Court approved a name change to the account and an increase to the seed amount in the account to $150,000 in order to meet the demands of processing the down payment assistance program. On November 12, 2019, Commissioner’s Court approved an additional increase of this bank account to $850,000 in order meet the increased demands of administering the Hurricane Harvey Reimbursement Program (HRP). Again, on December 17, 2019, the account was increased to $1,600,000. All disbursements from the account for all programs are funded via grants.
Due to anticipated demand, HCCSD now projects the need to increase in seed funding for the bank account order to support Single Family programs associated with Treasury ARPA and the Disaster Recovery Single Family New Construction program in excess of $3 million. Given the current seed of $1.6M, the demand would exceed the current imprest balance. Therefore, HCCSD is requesting that Commissioner’s Court authorize the County Auditor and County Budget Office to temporarily transfer $1.4 million from TIRZ 24 ($700,000) and RDA ($700,000) administrative funds (Fund 2403) into the Housing Program bank account (account number ending in 5397). These funds will be returned when the program is terminated. No additional funding is needed.
Expected Impact:
Without the temporary transfer, HCCSD will experience delays in administering the single-family new construction program.
Alternative Options:
Acquisition payments for single family homes could be processed each commissioner court cycle which could delay or forego on closings.
Alignment with Goal(s):
_ Justice and Safety
_ Economic Opportunity
X Housing
_ Public Health
_ Transportation
_ Flooding
_ Environment
_ Governance and Customer Service
Prior Court Action (if any):
|
Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
|
|
|
|
Location:
Address (if applicable): N/A
Precinct(s): Countywide
|
Fiscal and Personnel Summary |
|
Service Name |
|
|
|
FY 23 |
FY 24 |
Next 3 FYs |
|
Incremental Expenditures (do NOT write values in thousands or millions) |
|
Labor Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Non-Labor Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Incremental Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Funding Sources (do NOT write values in thousands or millions) |
|
Existing Budget |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Current Budget |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Additional Budget Requested |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Additional Budget Requested |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Funding Sources |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Personnel (Fill out section only if requesting new PCNs) |
|
Current Position Count for Service |
- |
- |
- |
|
Additional Positions Requested |
- |
- |
- |
|
Total Personnel |
- |
- |
- |
Anticipated Court Date: May 16, 2023
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): N/A
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Disaster Recovery related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Craig Atkins, Chief Financial Officer, HCCSD
Attachments (if applicable): N/A