(a) Act shall mean article 19 of the Private Housing Finance Law, § 1110 et seq.

(b) Affordable Home Ownership Development Program or project shall mean the rehabilitation, improvement or construction, singly or in combination, of one or more homes.

(c) Corporation shall mean the Affordable Housing Corporation created by section 45-b of the Private Housing Finance Law.

(d) Eligible applicant shall mean a municipality, a housing development fund company incorporated pursuant to article 11 of the Private Housing Finance Law, any not-for-profit corporation or charitable organization which has as one of its primary purposes the improvement of housing, or a municipal housing authority created pursuant to the Public Housing Law. A municipality may select a designee or a consortium of designees to submit an application on its behalf. This will not preclude the submission of applications from other qualified eligible applicants within the municipality.

(e) Grantee shall mean an eligible applicant who has been awarded a grant with which to operate a program of financial assistance pursuant to the act.

(f) High cost area shall mean an area with respect to which the corporation has determined that the average cost of housing severely limits the ability of home buyers to purchase or improve homes within such areas.

(g) Home shall mean a one- to four-family dwelling which has at least one owner occupant or an owner-occupied unit in a cooperative or a condominium.

(h) Home buyers shall mean individuals or households for whom there are no other reasonable and affordable home ownership, rehabilitation or home improvement alternatives, as the case may be, in the private market, as determined by the grantee and who shall purchase and occupy homes assisted under the act as their principal place of residence.

(i) Income limitations shall mean a system of maximum income limitations or income targeting designed to assure that the persons or families who benefit from financial assistance under this program would, through the ordinary, unaided operation of private enterprise, be unable to own or improve homes.

(j) Lending institution shall mean any bank or trust company or savings bank, or any corporation, association or other entity which is owned or controlled by any one or more such bank or trust company or savings bank, or any savings and loan association, credit union, Federal National Mortgage Association-approved mortgage banker, national banking association, Federal savings and loan association, Federal saving bank, public pension fund, pension fund with assets over $50 million, insurance company, Federal credit union or other financial institution or governmental agency of the United States which customarily makes, purchases, holds, insures or services residential mortgages.

(k) Leveraging ratio shall mean the total amount of private and public financial investment (other than funds made available pursuant to the act) or other resources for which a firm commitment is made, divided by the amount of grant funds made available through the corporation.

(l) Municipality shall mean a county, city, town or village, except that where a city consists of more than one county, then the term municipality shall refer to such city.

(m) Owner shall mean an individual who owns or agrees to purchase or improve a home assisted under this program, and to occupy it as his principal place of residence, or a partnership, a corporation or other entity which will build, rehabilitate or improve homes for sale to home buyers.

(n) Recipient shall mean any individual, partnership, corporation or other entity which receives funds provided under the act from a grantee.

(o) Rehabilitation or home improvement shall mean all work necessary to bring a structure into compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to the installation, replacement or repair of heating, plumbing, electrical and related systems and the elimination of all hazardous and immediately hazardous violations in the structure in accordance with State and local laws, rules and regulations. Rehabilitation or home improvement may also include reconstruction or work to improve the habitability or prolong the useful life of residential property. Further, for the purposes of these regulations, home improvement shall mean the improvement of a home in which the owner is in residence at or prior to the time of the commencement of the improvement to his/her home.