TO: Board of County Commissioners
THROUGH: John A. Titkanich, Jr., County Administrator
Michael C. Zito, Deputy County Administrator
Cindy Emerson, Community Services Director
FROM: Siphi Chinyanganya, SHIP Administrator
DATE: August 01, 2025
SUBJECT: Consideration of the Indian River County SHIP Program 2025
Annual Report
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BACKGROUND
It is requested that the data herein presented be given formal consideration by the Board of County Commissioners at its regular meeting of August 19, 2025. In the early 1990’s, the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program was created by the State of Florida. Through that program, the state collects documentary stamp tax revenue and allocates those funds to local governments to be used for affordable housing purposes.
On April 6, 1993, the Board of County Commissioners adopted the Indian River County Local Housing Assistance Plan (Ordinance #93-13). By adopting the plan and subsequently receiving Florida Housing Finance Corporation approval of the plan, Indian River County became eligible to receive State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program funds.
The purpose of the SHIP program is to provide affordable housing for income qualified households. As structured, the county’s SHIP Program provides low interest, deferred payment, and subordinated loans to eligible extremely low income, very low income, low income, and moderate-income households. Those loans are provided primarily for purchase assistance and rehabilitation assistance. As part of the SHIP purchase assistance program, private financial institutions provide principal mortgages, while SHIP loans are generally structured as soft second mortgages.
Since SHIP is a state funded program, the SHIP program fiscal year (FY) is concurrent with the state fiscal year and runs from July 1 to June 30. Because SHIP funds provided in one fiscal year can be spent over a three fiscal year period, the county often has two or more years of SHIP funding active. For example, in the past year the county has partially expended funds from the following SHIP program fiscal year: FY 22/23 and fully encumbered funds from FY 23/24.
For each FY, SHIP funds consist of state allocations (unless funds are withheld or swept to fund other state purposes) and program income. Program income consists of SHIP loan repayments and interest earned. Attachment #1 shows historic SHIP fund information. That includes the number of loans provided to eligible applicants by fiscal year and by income category.
According to SHIP Program requirements, the county must submit an annual report for the closeout fiscal year (FY22/23) by September 15, 2025, showing that all allocated SHIP funds were expended for that FY. That report must also include interim year data for interim year 1 (FY 23/24). The County was given an extension to December 31, 2025, to expend the FY22/23 funds due to staff shortages. FY 23/24 funds have been fully encumbered. The Annual Report will be resubmitted on December 31, 2025, once all funds for the closeout year have been expended. For all previous fiscal years, closeout reports were previously submitted to and approved by the state. Attachment #2 to this staff report is the county’s SHIP Program FY 2022-2023 annual closeout report for expenditures as at June 30, 2025.
ANALYSIS
According to state regulations, SHIP funds must be utilized in such a manner that all state requirements and all requirements of the county’s Local Housing Assistance Program are met. Among the SHIP requirements are the following:
• At least 30% of funds must be utilized by very low income (VLI) households
• At least 30% of funds must be utilized by low income (LI) households
• At least 65% of funds must be utilized for homeownership
• At least 75% of funds must be utilized for construction, rehabilitation or emergency repair
• At least 20% of funds must be utilized for special needs applicants or household members
• Not more than 10% of state allocated and 5% of program income funds may be utilized for administration costs
In administering the SHIP program, the county will meet all those requirements as well as all local requirements for home ownership, credit, employment, assets, and others.
The purpose of this staff report is to provide the Board of County Commissioners with background information and the attached SHIP annual report, and to obtain Board authorization for the Chairman to sign the Certification Form for the attached SHIP annual report (see attachment #3).
BUDGETARY IMPACT
None
PREVIOUS BOARD ACTIONS
Approved 08.12.2024
POTENTIAL FUTURE BOARD ACTIONS
Approval of final report in December 2025
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT
Quality of Life
OTHER PLAN ALIGNMENT
Local Housing Assistance Plan - LHAP
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the Board of County Commissioners
1. approve the attached SHIP 2025 annual report and authorize its formal submission to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation; and
2. authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Certification form; and
3. authorize staff to make any minor reporting changes to the annual report and Certification form that may be requested by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.