Housing corporation struggles with lack of funds

The lack of sufficient funds remained the biggest stumbling block for the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. in program year 2010.

“The foremost barrier that has had a negative impact on fulfilling the strategies [of the corporation] would be the limited funding versus the high demand for housing and public facilities in the CNMI,” the agency stated in its annual report for 2010.

The Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report or CAPER covers the performance assessment of various grants—mostly from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—that the corporation administers: the Community Development Block Grant or CDBG, the Home Investment Partnership Act or HOME, Emergency Shelter Grant Programs or ESG, and Neighborhood Stabilization Program or NSP, the ARRA-funded CDBG-Recovery or CDBG-R, and the ARRA-funded Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program or HPRP.

The corporation obtained $364,162 in NSP funds and $589,165 in HPRP funds in 2009, $880,151 in CDBG funds, $647,474 in HOME, and $63,386 in ESG money in 2010.

Program year 2010 marked the first year of the corporation’s five-year consolidated plan.

The corporation submitted the report to Housing and Urban Development before the end of December 2011.

In the report, the corporation underscored the high demand for housing assistance in the CNMI given the dire economic situation on the islands.

Based on the 2000 Census, an estimated 800 to 850 very-low to low-moderate income households are living in severely overcrowded housing and about 200 non-family renter households are in severely overcrowded housing.

As of 2010, the corporation issued a total of 473 vouchers for the HOME program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers and Multi- Family program. A total of 195 households were assisted through the HPRP while 3,000 “presented the need of housing assistance upon announcement” of the available HPRP funding.

“Homelessness and/or families living in substandard housing under hazardous conditions have become rampant in the previous year, as fuel costs have drastically increased and austerity measures have been implemented in the government. Financial strains have been evident in the CNMI households and have caused a variety of social problems. With HUD’s funding, [the corporation] was able to alleviate the financial struggles for a great number of households,” the report said.

Meeting housing goals

The corporation reports that it was able to meet the major goals it set for 2010 on housing and special needs housing as well as community development.

It increased homeownership opportunities through its HOME program, building 11 homes and currently has six ongoing homeowner applications and nine homebuyer applications. It also improved housing standards by rehabilitating 12 homes.

In 2010, the corporation was also able to implement the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, with its first project, Sandy Beach Homes, completed two weeks ahead of schedule in December.

Housing also saw an increase in low-interest lending opportunities as it funded through NSP 1 the rehabilitation of seven homes and gave five families homeownership opportunities amounting to $364,162. It also secured NSP 3 funding in 2010 amounting to $350,0001 that will rehabilitate up to eight foreclosed properties and give more households homeownership opportunities.

The corporation also met its goals to help persons with disabilities, continue supporting programs of the Division of Youth Services and Guma Esperansa, and decrease dependence on non-renewable energy sources and reduce the cost of homeownership.

The agency noted, however, that it has to improve its outreach efforts on Rota. It also recognized that it was not able to increase its housing vouchers due to lack of more funds.

The corporation is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Development Authority.