Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation Meeting – April 28, 2026
Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation Meeting – April 28, 2026
The Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation (HFC) board met on April 28, 2026, to review the annual audit, discuss revenue strategies, a developer selection policy, and the status of the Terrell Homes property. The board approved a resolution authorizing an $800,000 loan for Terrell Homes with one opposed vote.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of February 24th Minutes: The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
- Written Reports: Acknowledged without questions or objection.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during this meeting.
Discussion Items
- Annual Independent Auditors Report (FY2025): Matt Steele of Cone Resnik presented the audit findings. The audit resulted in clean (unmodified) opinions on financial statements and internal controls. Total assets were approximately $50 million for both FY2025 and FY2024; liabilities were $27 million and $28 million respectively; ending equity was $23 million (FY2025) and $22 million (FY2024). Operating revenue decreased from $6 million in FY2024 to $3 million in FY2025 due to a large prior-year grant not recurring. Expenses also decreased as fewer loans were issued. No deficiencies in internal controls or compliance were reported. Two journal entries were noted, considered insignificant for the entity size. Board members had no questions.
- Housing Finance Corporation Revenue Benchmarking Study: Casey Thomas presented a comparison of HFC revenue sources among peer Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, Austin, Arlington). Fort Worth’s current primary revenue driver is project cash flow. The study highlighted that many HFC loans are forgivable and interest-free, limiting revenue. Proposed revenue opportunities include: (1) selling roughly 140 HFC-owned lots (recent sales of seven lots to a community land trust and one to a healthcare provider are expected to generate nearly $900,000); (2) charging interest on loans (e.g., a $1.75 million loan at 4% would yield about $70,000 annually); (3) partnership fees (acquisition fees, monitoring fees) and an economic development incentive rebate (5% of incremental city taxes on real and business personal property) directed to the HFC. Staff will return late summer/early fall with a formal lending and partnership fee policy.
- Briefing on Process for Selecting Single Family Affordable Housing Developers: Anderson Stout outlined a proposed policy to standardize evaluation and selection of developers for HFC-owned residential lots. Criteria include organizational standing, three years of affordable housing experience, financial capacity, and project requirements (home sales capacity, neighborhood alignment, zoning compliance, financial feasibility). A minimum threshold of 70 points (out of 100) is required; five bonus points are given to Fort Worth-based developers. Monitoring will ensure timely permits, financing, and compliance. No board questions were raised.
- Terrell Homes Progress and $800,000 Loan Request: Diane Anderson provided an update on the 54-unit tax-credit property in Historic South Side. Since the previous meeting, a new property manager (Housing Channel) was hired, the investor partner was exited, and the HFC now has full control. Improvements include collecting $23,000 in past-due rent since March 1, 2026. Fifteen units are vacant, partly due to vandalism. A $50,000 startup reserve was provided. Anderson requested an $800,000 operating loan to cover past-due vendor payables, facilities improvements (HVAC, plumbing, lighting, security), a compliance consultant, and other costs. The total debt on the property, including previous loans ($650,000 and $500,000) and the $2 million mortgage payoff, would be recouped through eventual home sales to tenants (estimated at $84,000 per home, though actual sales prices may vary based on tenant income and market value). Fifteen tenants have expressed interest in purchasing. Staff will explore disposition options, including a community land trust, and return in fall 2026 with a plan. Board discussion raised concerns about management history, the need for oversight, and how sales prices will be determined. The loan was approved with one opposed vote.
Key Outcomes
- Approval of Minutes: The February 24, 2026 meeting minutes were approved by voice vote.
- Audit Acceptance: The annual independent auditors report for FY2025 was accepted as presented.
- Loan Authorization for Terrell Homes: Resolution authorizing an $800,000 loan (not to exceed) to Terrell Homes for past due payables, facilities improvements, and other costs—including ratification of prior vendor payments—and a corresponding FY26 budget adjustment was approved. Vote: All in favor except one opposed.
Meeting Transcript
We'll call to order today's Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation meeting. First order of business is approval of the February 24th minutes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion passes. Next up, we have written reports, and Matthew Madero is here. If we have any questions, do we have any questions? All right, moving along. Next up, we have the annual independent auditors report for fiscal year 2025. Matt Steele, is that as we work on the PowerPoint, I'll just go ahead and get started because I know you guys are under a bit of a time crunch today or have had meetings that have been gone long. So I won't uh I I will make sure I cover all of the important parts, but I won't uh dwell on things. There are some required communications. I heard some comments about if it's on the slide and you don't want to read it, don't read it. So I will try to expedite things a little bit as much as possible for everybody. So while they're working on that, I have uh actually printed out a copy of my presentation. So I'll just go ahead and start and then we can catch up with the PowerPoint slide if that works for everybody. So again, thanks for having me. Uh good afternoon, everybody. My name is Matt Still. I'm the lead audit partner uh at Cone Resnik on the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation audit. We've been working with Fort Worth for I would say a number of years now, probably seven or eight. Um kind of lose track after time. But um this year's audit, um we conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted um auditing standards and also government auditing standards. Um both opinions on the internal controls and the financial statements were both clean opinions, unmodified opinions. So that means that from our opinion, uh as auditors, we believe that the financial statements are materially stated correctly. Um there were no uh deficiencies in internal controls or compliance that needed to be reported. Um Financial statements. I don't have can't pull them up right now, but they will be in the PowerPoint slide if you guys have access to them and also the financial statements themselves. Um just to highlight a few things for uh 2025 and 2023. I'm sorry, 2025 and 2024. Um the total assets were around 50 million for each year. Uh liabilities were 27 27 million and 28 million in 2024, uh, which means we had a net increase or I'm sorry, ending equity of 23 million and 22 million respectively. Uh moving on to the income statement or the PL operating revenue for 25 was three million. It was six million in 2024. Uh the difference or the decrease in the current year was there was a big grant last year that that didn't happen uh for 2025. So that's the reason for the reduction in the revenues. Um thank you. Um expenses also went down during the current year because there were not as many loans that were given out to the different properties. Um let's see, moving on. All right, required communication with governance. Um, some of these these next three slides, um, which I'll try to move through as quickly as possible, um, are required to be communicated with the audit committee. And some of this I'll just let you guys read. But um as part of our audit plan, we obtained copies of the internal control write-ups and we reviewed them with management for any potential updates to internal controls. Once that information was updated, um, we did a walkthrough of that. So if there were procedures in place that were supposed to be applied over bank statements or cash receipts, we went through and did a walkthrough to test those internal controls to make sure that they were functioning properly. Um we also held fraud discussions with key management. Um good news is there was no fraud to report. Um, and then from there we started looking at the balance sheet, looking at the cash accounts, um, large material balances, receivables, accounts, um, uncollectible accounts, land leases, etc. etc.
openpublica.com