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,.' . . I . . . Council Member Bain thanked the HHCC for their hard work, and said how pleased he was to see funding for a First Time Homebuyer Program. He said he hoped it would - benefit Redwood City residents who are in the median income range. In response to Council Member Leipzig's questions regarding the operation of the First Time Homebuyer Program, Housing Coordinator Jones-Thomas said it would involve funds for down payments, second mortgages and writing down the cost of the first mortgage to make it affordable. She said the HHCC had established a subcommittee to work out specific design guidelines and they would be brought back to the Council for review. Answering Council Member Ira's questions on the same subject, Housing Coordinator Jones-Thomas said "the intent of matching the Home Funds with Redevelopment Agency Housing Funds is to take the income limit up to 120% of median, or an income of about $90,000" for a family of four. She said the range would be between $50,000 and $90,000 annual income. Council Member Ira said it would be difficult "to get our firefighters, our police officers into the First Time Program... I believe we will have a very limited population that actually will be Redwood City employees.... I would definitely like to see that made available without those income limits if we are going to try to address needs of our employees." Housing Coordinator Jones-Thomas said, "the Home Funds restrict income to 80% below median. The Redevelopment funds limit the top at 120% of median." She said the Committee was aware of those restrictions and had discussed going to "the community to raise additional private funds so that a wider range of residents or employees could participate in the program." - Mayor Howard reported that some local corporations had come to HHCC meetings and offered to participate in such a program, "because many of their employees commute from great distances and if they could participate in a pot of money that would enable some of their employees to qualifY for this program they would do that. There may be an opportunity here to leverage quite a bit of money for this First Time Homebuyer Program. We are all pretty excited about it, but it needs a lot more work and study." Mayor Howard opened the Public Hearing at 8:38 p.m. Paul Cohen, La Raza Centro Legal, thanked the Committee for doing what La Raza does on a weekly basis, helping low income tenants of Redwood City. He described La Raza's expanded services to Redwood City and the help provided during the recent flooding. Mr. Cohen said La Raza serves San Mateo County from border to border and looked forward to even more services to Redwood City with the requested CDBG grant funds. In response to Council Member Leipzig's question, Mr. Cohen said the definition or translation of La Raza, as he understood it, was "a community law center for the people in San Mateo County. That includes all people." He said "La Raza" had many meanings including a group of people, running a race, and "to me, it is the community." Envoy Ron McKinney, Director of Salvation Army Programs in San Mateo and Northern Santa Clara Counties, thanked the HHCC "for the tough job they do." He said the Clara- - Mateo Alliance Shelter, the only year round shelter in San Mateo County, had not received REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 MAY II, 1998 MINUTES Page No. 459 PAGE 10