Grants for HOA

Do not believe there is anything like a "grant" for a HOA. A HOA is ONLY funded by it's members for it's members. You may be able to get a loan but that's not necessarily a good idea. A HOA is a non-profit corporation and NOT a charitable one. You need money, you have to either raise dues or have a special assessment. Considering this isn't operating budget then that may be a good thing. A reserve account is more long term for capital expenses. I'd be more concerned about operational budget.

My county offers grants, but it is for one time projects like redoing entry landscaping and such, not for on-going operations expenses.

I'm not aware of any, but I have to agree with Royal and Melissa on this one. Homeownership isn't cheap and ultimately the owners have to be willing and able to pay maintenance and improvement costs, so you're looking at assessment increases whether you like it or not.

You didn't say if the former board member's action were illegal but if there's evidence of that, you might want to talk to your association attorney about your options for pressing charges. Remember, illegal isn't necessarily the same as lousy decision making - for example, if the board member was responsible for setting the budget, but failed to fund reserves, that's not illegal, just short-sighted, and you'll just have to move on and learn from it.

Start with taking a look at your last reserve study - if you haven't done one in the last five years or longer, that needs to be job one and yes, it will be a bit pricey. However, you need it to get a good idea of where you stand financially and which components will need repair or replacement sooner rather than later. You may already have an idea on that, so if you have several items, you'll need to prioritize which ones need to be addressed right now.

I read about one association that decided to raise assessments, but they did it over a period of years at a certain percentage, so homeowners weren't hit all at once. Others did a special assessment just to increase the reserves to a certain amount and then began funding them regularly. This could be an option for your community.

Finally, you'll need to take a hard look at your operating budget and cut wherever you can. This may mean you'll have to change your documents to turn over some maintenance responsibilities to the homeowners altogether, or they'll have to shoulder more of the costs. Whatever you decide to do, keep the homeowners informed and ask for suggestions. They won't be happy about any of this, but complaining will not resolve the problems. They may want to sell, but won't be able to hide the finances, so best to deal with it now and take part in turning things around.

Richard,

This is the Grant we have available for our community. Our awarded projects have ventured outside the scope of the listed Project Opportunities.

https://charlottenc.gov/HNS/CE/NMG/Pages/default.aspx?NotFoundURL=https://charlottenc.gov/NMG&Referrer=https://www.google.com/

We are presently applying for our 4th Grant in 4 years. Our previous Grants had a combined Project Value of over $80,000. Having these Grants available has helped our community tremendously in many ways.

Cynthia,
In my opinion with the limited information provided you should not be asking for outside help yet. What you need to do it analyze your current expenses. That means trim the fat. I would send a letter to every vendor including the PM if you have one. If the board agrees every contract should be negotiated with a 5% discount going forward and if they do not agree let them know that the board will automatically go out and get 3 bids and make changes. Most vendors really do not like to rebid for a account they already have. It is much easier to keep an account at a small discount than find a new one. Trust me when I say this because I have been on both sides.

It appears to me like you are trying to look into peoples pockets to decide if the community can afford a dues increase. The State of Texas does not think about Homeowners when taxes are raised. They raise them because they have a budget. I am not saying raise dues every year I am saying raise them when you have to for the good of the entire community. It is not a Board members job to not raise dues. Your job is to run this HOA like a business. If your dues are not sufficient to handle repairs your property values will decline and then you are hurting everyone in your community.

I'm in the same city, I didn't realize you could get a grant every single year. 4 in a row is outstanding. what have you used them for?