REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on an Agreement with Hello Housing for Administration Services for the Below Market Price Purchase Program
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Promote and Enhance Economic, Housing and Transportation Development
BACKGROUND
The City of Santa Clara has operated a Below-Market Price Purchase (BMP) Program since 1995 to assist low and moderate-income families with achieving the goal of homeownership and to fulfill State mandates to produce housing for all income levels within Santa Clara. The City's BMP Program is administered by the City's Housing and Community Services Division in the Community Development Department with certain functions delegated under a service contract to an outside entity. The outside entity acts as the City's BMP Administrator conducting homebuyer outreach and education, maintaining a website with available units, marketing new BMP opportunities and resales, processing applications, documenting client eligibility, managing wait lists, helping coordinate closings and transactions, ensuring long term compliance, and more. Individuals searching for affordable for sale units which are part of Santa Clara's BMP Program are directed to the BMP Administrator's website for opportunities and information on the eligibility process.
In February 2015, the California Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the City's previous Housing Element complied with state law. That Housing Element included an affordable housing policy that requires "developers of residential developments of 10 or more units to provide at least 10 percent of their units at prices affordable to very low, low, and moderate-income households." Specifically, under this policy, housing developers building for-sale units were required to designate at least 10 percent of the total units in an approved project as BMP units to be sold to qualified buyers.
Through the adoption of the City's Affordable Housing Ordin...
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