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9.99 <br />incentive to build affordable housing. From her perspective, if the impact fees are not paid <br />during construction, she would not get tax credits on that portion of the cost. It would not <br />be an incentive to her to finance the impact fees past the construction period. It would be <br />nice to pay them out over the course of construction because that would save interest costs. <br />Housing for the homeless and very low income population is Section 8, not affordable <br />housing. <br />In response to Chairman Ginn, Ms. Pepper advised that all 172 units at Walker <br />Avenue are affordable at 60% of the median income. The rents will be $467 to $567 and <br />those rents are adjusted by the unit size and the family size. Those units have to stay in <br />compliance and are monitored by the IRS for 25 years. Ms. Pepper advised Chairman Ginn <br />that she resented the comment that this is a "giveaway". The affordable housing waiting list <br />is now 263 families. At a very minimum the County should have in process 263 units of <br />affordable housing and 164 units of Section 8 Housing. She felt if she came into Indian <br />River County to build Section 8 housing, she would be laughed out of the county. If the <br />Board looks at the tri -county area, they will see all the affordable housing concentration is <br />in St. Lucie County. As developers come into this county to try to build affordable housing, <br />the opposition is tremendous. It took her 2-1/2 years to get before the Board and then 4 years <br />to build 172 units. <br />Chairman Ginn asked Ms. Pepper wrap up her comments as the Board had heard a <br />lot of this before. <br />Commissioner Adams was not sure the Board had heard it before and did not want <br />it to appear that the Board was not listening to what Ms. Pepper was saying. <br />Ms. Pepper continued that by looking at the waiting lists in Indian River, St. Lucie, <br />and Brevard Counties, the Board can determine how many people really want to live in <br />Indian River County. The fact that there is a waiting list for housing in the county negates <br />February 13, 2001 <br />BK 117 PG 126 <br />114 <br />