State Housing Finance Agency freezes funds for Goldsboro

The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency notified City Manager Tim Salmon in September that it was freezing funds that would typically find their way into Goldsboro coffers.

In a Sept. 17 letter obtained by the New Old North, Michael Handley, the manager of housing rehabilitation and compliance, told Salmon that funding was suspended “due to not submitting your audited financial statements for the 2019 fiscal year.”

“The City of Goldsboro will be suspended from receiving funds from the Agency until the Agency receives the required audited financial statement,” the letter reads. “Specifically, the Agency will not accept reservation requests or disburse funds under the City’s open 2017 Essential Single-Family Rehabilitation Loan Pool — Disaster Recovery project … or the 2019 Urgent Repair Program project.”

City officials have not publicly discussed the letter — nor have they addressed an Oct. 29 communication from the State Treasurer’s Office that informed members of the City Council that one of the nation’s leading bond credit rating agencies had withdrawn its rating on Goldsboro’s General Obligation Bonds and General Obligation Street Improvement Bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. made the move due to “insufficient information” — a deficiency characterized by treasurer’s office officials as a “serious matter” that is “a reflection on the quality of both governing board oversight and management practices of the city.”