TO: Board of County Commissioners
THROUGH: John A. Titkanich, Jr., County Administrator
Michael C. Zito, Deputy County Administrator
Cynthia Emerson, Community Services Director
FROM: Siphikelelo Chinyanganya, SHIP Administrator
DATE: December 9, 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 December 9, 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 ...
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