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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA MEMORANDUM TO: Jason E. Brown; County Administrator THROUGH: Phillip J. Matson, AICP Community Development Director FROM: Bill Schutt, AICP Chief, Long Range Planning DATE: February 10, 2020 SUBJECT: Consideration of Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Recommendations It is requested that the following information be given formal consideration by the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) at its regular meeting of February 18, 2020. DESCRIPTION AND CONDITIONS In December of 2018, the Indian River County BCC requested that its Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) discuss, study, and review the affordable housing issue within the county and develop new recommendations to encourage the development of new affordable housing. Since receiving that direction, the committee has met a total of 6 times. Through its meetings, the AHAC first began by defining what is "affordable housing", then the AHAC moved on to review and quantify the scale of the affordable housing problem within the County, and then to identify governmental and non-governmental actions that could be taken (beyond current adopted policies and regulations) to help facilitate the development of more affordable housing. At their first meeting on February 14, 2019, the AHAC discussed the term "affordable housing" and the fact that it is generally defined as a circumstance where housing expenses (monthly rent or mortgage payment including taxes and insurance) are covered by no more than 30% of a household's gross income. In later meetings, the AHAC reviewed the 28/36 Rule, which further refined the definition to also take into account other debt. The 28/36 Rule is a common rule followed by lenders that says that a household should spend a maximum of 28 percent of its gross monthly income on housing expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance) and 36 percent on total debt service (housing expenses plus other monthly debt payments).