The Florida Senate

The Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Loan Guarantee Program is created. The department shall administer the loan guarantee program pursuant to s. 108 of Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, and as further amended by s. 910 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act. The purpose of the Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Loan Guarantee Program is to guarantee, or to make commitments to guarantee, notes or other obligations issued by public entities for the purposes of financing activities enumerated in 24 C.F.R. s. 570.703.

Activities assisted under the loan guarantee program must meet the requirements contained in 24 C.F.R. ss. 570.700-570.710 and may not otherwise be financed in whole or in part from the Florida Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program.

The department may pledge existing revenues on deposit or future revenues projected to be available for deposit in the Florida Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program in order to guarantee, in whole or in part, the payment of principal and interest on a loan made under the loan guarantee program.

The department must submit all applications it receives to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for loan approval, in the order received, subject to the department determining that the application meets all eligibility requirements contained in 24 C.F.R. ss. 570.700-570.710, and provided that the applicant has submitted the proposed activity to a loan underwriter to document its financial feasibility.

The maximum amount of loan guarantee commitments that any eligible local government may receive may be limited to $7 million pursuant to 24 C.F.R. s. 570.705, and the maximum amount of loan guarantee commitments statewide may not exceed an amount equal to five times the amount of the most recent grant received by the department under the Florida Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program.

Loans guaranteed by the loan guarantee program must be repaid within 20 years.

Loan guarantees may be used for an activity only if the local government provides evidence to the department that alternative financing services were investigated and were unavailable or insufficient to meet the financing needs of the activity.

The department must, before approving an application for a loan, evaluate the applicant’s prior administration of block grant funds for community development. The evaluation of past performance must take into account the procedural aspects of previous grants or loans as well as substantive results. If the department finds that any applicant has failed to substantially accomplish the results proposed in the applicant’s last previously funded application, the department may prohibit the applicant from receiving a loan or may penalize the applicant in the rating of the current application.