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Home Local News Mayor Rothʻs Expresses Disappointment on the Councilʻs Override of Bill 152 Veto

Mayor Rothʻs Expresses Disappointment on the Councilʻs Override of Bill 152 Veto

by Thunda

Bill 152

The revolving fund shall be utilized to pay for items such as: (a)the development of housing, and (b)to exercise the buy back option running in favor of the County contained in any conveyance document and to pay the costs of maintaining, repairing, renting, or reselling units purchased by the County pursuant thereto. Any interest earned by the fund and any advanced costs that are recovered from housing project funds shall be returned to the revolving fund.

     		(a)    The County housing program revolving fund shall be utilized for the following:
    			(1)   Planning, design, and development of affordable housing units either by the County
    				or by non-profit housing development partners;
    			(2)   Exercising the buy-back option running in favor of the County contained in any
    				conveyance document and to pay the costs of maintaining, repairing, renting, or
    				reselling units purchased by the County pursuant thereto:,
    			(3)   Acquisition of vacant land for use as affordable housing,that may be developed by
    				the County or with non-profit partners;
    			(4)   Acquisition of existing structures for use as affordable housing;
    			(5)   Rehabilitation of existing structures currently in use as affordable housing or acquired
    				by the County to use for affordable housing;
    			(6)   Infrastructure to support affordable housing development;
    			(7)    Subsidies, grants, and loans to support very low-income, lower-income, and
    				moderate-income households with upfront costs for rental units or mortgage
    				financing;
    			(8)    Subsidies, grants, and loans to support very low-income, lower-income, and
    				moderate-income households with rental assistance or mortgage payments to prevent
    				houselessness or foreclosure; or
    			(9)   Purchasing of deed restrictions on private properties limiting resale to qualified
    				buyers at resale values for lower-income and moderate-income households in
    				perpetuity as established by the office of housing and community development
    				administrative rules.
     		(b)   Any interest earned by the fund and any advanced costs that are recovered from housing
    			project funds shall be returned to the revolving fund.
     		(c)    Whenever used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires;
    			"Lower-income household"means households with incomes from 50%to 80% of the area
    			median income.
    			"Moderate-income household"means households with incomes from 80%to 120% of the
    			area median income.
    			"Very low-income household"means households with incomes from 0%to 50% of the
    			area median income."

    			SECTION 2. Material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New material is
     		underscored. In printing this ordinance, the brackets, bracketed and stricken material, and
     		underscoring need not be included.

    			SECTION 3.  Severability. If any provision of this ordinance or the application thereof to
     		any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or
     		applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provision or
     		application, and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are severable.

    			SECTION 4. This ordinance shall take effect upon its approval.

Council votes

Ayes: 7 – Chung, David, Inaba, Kaneali’i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas

Noes: 2 – Kierkiewicz, Richards

Mayor Roth released this shoot at Council regarding the Council’s decision to override the veto of Bill 152. The legislation repeals existing provisions of the housing revolving fund and establishes nine specific uses for the fund.

“We are extremely disappointed in the Council for their blatant disregard for our administration’s discretion, particularly our Housing Administrator. It’s clear that they were trying to expand the uses allowed of the county housing program revolving fund, but instead, what they’ve actually done is limit it. I stand by the discretion of Administrator Kunz and will work with her to ensure that she can perform the duties of her job without one hand tied behind her back. It is my hope that in the future, the Council will defer to subject matter experts before making decisions over how they’re able to perform the duties of their job.”

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