Submitted By
Jonathan Burch, Assistant Village Manager/ Neighborhood Services Director
Reviewed By
A.M. Zayyad, Deputy Village Manager
Agenda Item Title
Title
A Resolution to Approve a Community Development and Housing Loan Forgiveness Policy
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Overview
Overview
The Village has many outstanding housing and community development loans on its books. The Village has received sporadic requests for changes in loan terms, including forgiveness and maturity deferrals. Staff recommends the adoption of a community development and housing loan forgiveness policy to provide structure and clarify access to those seeking such changes.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Board approve the policy, thereby allowing greater transparency and clarity around community development and housing loan forgiveness requests.
Background
Through the various housing programs the Village has operated over many years, Oak Park has an extensive list of outstanding loans. This amounts to $4,129,933.36 across 106 outstanding loans as of December 31, 2023. Most of these are smaller-value loans for homeowners to purchase or improve their properties. That includes $2,626,827 in 13 loans for the Oak Park Residence Corporation (OPRC) and Oak Park Housing Authority (OPHA).
The Village has received requests to defer or forgive loans with OPRC and OPHA. For example, via RES 22-134, the Village Board voted to approve the forgiveness and release of a loan with OPRC for $135,663 for the development of the 7 Van Buren Street project. Similarly, via RES 16-245, the Village Board approved to extend the maturity of the seven outstanding loans for OPRC as part of a larger refinancing and resubordination request.
The current process for considering these requests is ad hoc. The requester must have knowledge that they can seek the request. Once a request is submitted, staff works with the requester to evaluate the request on a case-by-case basis. The current process l...
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