(1) There is created the Florida Affordable Housing Guarantee Program for the purposes of:

(a) Stimulating creative private sector lending activities to increase the supply and lower the cost of financing or refinancing eligible housing;

(b) Creating security mechanisms to allow lenders to sell affordable housing loans in the secondary market; and

(c) Encouraging affordable housing lending activities that would not have taken place or that serve persons who would not have been served but for the creation of this program.

(2) As used in this section, the term:

(a) “Affordable housing guarantee” means an obligation of the guarantee fund to guarantee the payment of an obligation made to finance or refinance the purchase, construction, or rehabilitation of eligible housing.

(b) “Annual debt service reserve” means the reserve maintained in the guarantee fund in an amount equal to the maximum reserve amount for each series of revenue bonds issued to establish the guarantee fund.

(c) “Corporation” means the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

(d) “Eligible housing” means any real and personal property designed and intended for the primary purpose of providing decent, safe, and sanitary residential units for homeownership or rental for eligible persons, including specifically housing for the homeless, as determined by the corporation pursuant to rule.

(e) “Guarantee fund” means the Affordable Housing Guarantee Fund created and established with proceeds of revenue bonds issued by the corporation or its predecessor pursuant to this section to implement the Florida Affordable Housing Guarantee Program.

(f) “Maximum reserve amount” means, for each series of outstanding revenue bonds issued to establish the guarantee fund, the largest aggregate amount of annual principal installments and interest payments becoming due in any state fiscal year in which the revenue bonds are outstanding.

(3) Amounts on deposit in the State Housing Trust Fund may also be used to support the Florida Affordable Housing Guarantee Program. Such use, if any, is in addition to those purposes for which the State Housing Trust Fund was created, and such moneys shall be obligated and committed in accordance with the corporation certification provided for in subsection (6).

(4) The corporation may, by rule, establish rates and fees for the issuance of an affordable housing guarantee, including contractual provisions to foster reimbursement, in the event of default, to the guarantee fund of payments made pursuant to an affordable housing guarantee issued for eligible housing.

(5) Pursuant to s. 16, Art. VII of the State Constitution, the corporation may issue, in accordance with s. 420.509, revenue bonds of the corporation to establish the guarantee fund. The revenue bonds are primarily payable from and secured by annual debt service reserves, from interest earned on funds on deposit in the guarantee fund, from fees, charges, and reimbursements established by the corporation for the issuance of affordable housing guarantees, and from any other revenue sources received by the corporation and deposited by the corporation into the guarantee fund for the issuance of affordable housing guarantees. If such primary revenue sources are considered insufficient by the corporation, pursuant to the certification provided in subsection (6), to fully fund the annual debt service reserve, the certified deficiency in such reserve is also payable from the first proceeds of the documentary stamp tax moneys deposited into the State Housing Trust Fund pursuant to s. 201.15(4)(c) and (d) during the ensuing state fiscal year.

(6)(a) If the primary revenue sources to be used for repayment of revenue bonds used to establish the guarantee fund are insufficient for such repayment, the annual principal and interest due on each series of revenue bonds are payable from funds in the annual debt service reserve. The corporation shall, before June 1 of each year, perform a financial audit to determine whether at the end of the state fiscal year there will be on deposit in the guarantee fund an annual debt service reserve from interest earned pursuant to the investment of the guarantee fund, fees, charges, and reimbursements received from issued affordable housing guarantees and other revenue sources available to the corporation. Based upon the findings in such guarantee fund financial audit, the corporation shall certify to the Chief Financial Officer the amount of any projected deficiency in the annual debt service reserve for any series of outstanding bonds as of the end of the state fiscal year and the amount necessary to maintain such annual debt service reserve. Upon receipt of such certification, the Chief Financial Officer shall transfer to the annual debt service reserve, from the first available taxes distributed to the State Housing Trust Fund pursuant to s. 201.15(4)(c) and (d) during the ensuing state fiscal year, the amount certified as necessary to maintain the annual debt service reserve.

(b) If the claims payment obligations under affordable housing guarantees from amounts on deposit in the guarantee fund would cause the claims paying rating assigned to the guarantee fund to be less than the third-highest rating classification of any nationally recognized rating service, which classifications being consistent with s. 215.84(3) and rules adopted thereto by the State Board of Administration, the corporation shall certify to the Chief Financial Officer the amount of such claims payment obligations. Upon receipt of such certification, the Chief Financial Officer shall transfer to the guarantee fund, from the first available taxes distributed to the State Housing Trust Fund pursuant to s. 201.15(4)(c) and (d) during the ensuing state fiscal year, the amount certified as necessary to meet such obligations, such transfer to be subordinate to any transfer referenced in paragraph (a) and not to exceed 50 percent of the amounts distributed to the State Housing Trust Fund pursuant to s. 201.15(4)(c) and (d) during the preceding state fiscal year.

(7) Funds on deposit in the guarantee fund shall be used as the primary resource to support the performance by the corporation of its obligation under an affordable housing guarantee issued by the corporation as determined by rule.

(8) Before establishing the fees, charges, and other obligations and conditions for the issuance of an affordable housing guarantee and defining housing eligible to obtain a guarantee, the corporation must perform an affordable housing guarantee feasibility study. Such study must determine the eligible housing for which a guarantee is required for the investment of private capital, the anticipated risk of default for classifications of eligible housing, and the level of fees, charges, and reimbursement conditions necessary to establish a financially sound affordable housing guarantee program that exposes funds deposited into the guarantee fund to a reasonable or acceptable level of risk. Revenue bonds may not be issued to create and establish a guarantee fund until the completion of an initial financial feasibility study.

(9) This section does not preclude the use of the remaining funds in the State Housing Trust Fund.

(10) Revenue bonds may not be issued to establish and create a guarantee fund until validated pursuant to the provisions of chapter 75.

(11) The maximum total amount of revenue bonds that may be issued by the corporation pursuant to subsection (5) is $400 million.

History.—s. 26, ch. 92-317; s. 10, ch. 93-181; s. 2, ch. 96-332; s. 18, ch. 97-167; s. 48, ch. 99-247; s. 6, ch. 2001-98; s. 1, ch. 2001-143; s. 31, ch. 2001-201; s. 463, ch. 2003-261; s. 77, ch. 2015-229.