Taylor County Housing Authority continues process to wind down

The Taylor County Housing Authority is transitioning to having Northwest Regional Planning Commission (NWRPC) take over housing assistance at the county level. NWRPC already runs housing assistance in Gilman and Rib Lake.

As reported at the August 14 meeting of the Taylor County Housing Authority (TCHA), the process is proved to be more complicated than previously thought.

While there are two county board members who serve on the TCHA board, it is an independent organization with is own governing board and has administered housing assistance programs utilizing state and federal grant funding for decades.

In recent years, the county has given the TCHA financial assistance and provided office space at the courthouse. Earlier this summer, the county board approved switching administration of the county’s housing community development block grant (CDBG) to NWRPC over concerns about TCHA’s operations and ability to get the money in use. The state has indicated plans to take unspent CDBG funds back from places where they have not been spent.

At the same time as administration of the county grant funds have been transferred to NWRPC, the TCHA board is working with the agency to take over administration of the remaining programs. In addition to the grant-funded programs, the TCHA also owns a rental property which generated revenue for the organization.

The files and accounting for the TCHA is complex with each loan program having its own accounts and reporting requirements. In addition, there is regular reporting that must be done to the state and retention of paperwork for the loans.

NWRPC executive director Sheldon Johnson reported that is it taking time to go through the files of the housing authority, noting that there were a number of items they need to work through.

He reported being contacted by an inspection service who was seeking payment for inspections that were done for four projects. Johnson noted the projects had never been approved so the payments would have to come from TCHA operating funds rather than from the grant funds.

He said in some of the cases, the work should have been referred to a municipal-level grant program and in others there were either incomplete applications or the applicant did not meet the grant requirements. He said the inspections should not have taken place before the applications were completed. Johnson also said there was additional paperwork that needed to be done on loans that have been in place for more than 30 years to reaffirm the mortgages so that they do not lapse. He noted there were 19 CDBG loans that were older than 30 years and that between 2026 and 2036 there will be 59 project that will cross the 30-year threshold.

“We need to go through all documentation and bank statements,” Johnson said. Johnson noted there is a fee, currently at $30 per filing, to reaffirm the mortgage. With the state set to take back the CDBG funds, it remains to be seen where the money will come from for the filing fees to reaffirm the mortgages.

Johnson said he contacted the state with this questions. “They are are trying to figure out a plan,” he said, noting the state hadn’t thought about that issue until NWRPC had brought it up.

The issues found with the recording and documentation for the CDBG loans carried over to the other loan programs administered by TCHA. He noted instances where applications were taken out and expenses were incurred for projects that never ended up taking place. He said the funding will need to come out of general TCHA revenues rather than from the grant programs.

Johnson emphasized that while he is bringing items he has found to the TCHA board that things are not all bad. “It is not all doom and gloom,” he said.

Johnson said they are holding off on saying what it would take to take over administration of the additional grant programs in TCHA until they finish going through the loan and grant documentation. “I wont know what it is until we do more due diligence,” Johnson said.

Going forward, if the TCHA seeks to dissolve as an entity, the current mortgages could be assigned to Northwest Affordable Housing, a subsidiary of NWRPC, to continue the administration of those loans. Johnson noted that there is a $30 fee per mortgage for this with 110 active mortgages. He said it would be the TCHA’s responsibility to pay for this because his organization does not have the money for that. Johnson said he plans to provide the TCHA with a dollar amount that will be lump sum to administer the existing loans for however long they last.

He explained this is part of the process that would need to happen if they were looking at dissolving the housing authority in the future.

Board members took another step toward dissolving the TCHA approving sending letters to the state asking for the current state grant awards to be dissolved. The state would reallocate these funds to other housing programs that needed them. This would not impact the availability of these programs for local residents because they could go through NWRPC to access housing assistance and emergency home repair loans.

In addition to the grants, the TCHA has a home that was acquired in 2018 and is used as a rental property. Johnson said it would be up to the TCHA board on how they wanted to dispose of the home.

The property had been paid off and there was a $50,000 WHEADA grant utilized this year to make repairs and upgrades to the property including cabinets and countertops. Board members voted on Thursday to complete the repairs and fix the masonry.

“We don’t want to be a landlord,” Johnson said, noting NWRPC has no interest in taking over ownership of the property. He advised contacting a realtor and selling it as a way to get money in the TCHA checkbook to help pay for some of the other expenses involved with dissolving the agency.