Minutes 02-02-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. She suggested that this should be acknowledged in the letter and the item deferred to a later agenda to take into account these recent events. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to defer this item until staff can incorporate the latest information into a letter. The Board does support this high-speed rail funding. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 5. Public Hearings a. Orange County Consolidated Housing Plan The Board received comments from the public regarding the housing and non-housing needs to be included in the 2010-2014 Consolidated Housing Plan for Housing and Community Development Programs in Orange County and proposed uses of 2010-2011 HOME funds. Housing and Community Development Director Tara Fikes said that this is a five-year plan and Orange County has had two consolidated plans prior to this plan. This plan must be completed by May. It is required to hold a public hearing for this proposed plan. She said that tonight's public hearing is also to receive comments on the proposed uses of $733,000 in 2010-2011 HOME Funds. Eligible activities include acquisition, new construction, housing rehabilitation, and tenant-based rental assistance. Applications are due by March 1, 2010. PUBLIC COMMENT: Griff Gatewood is the housing developer at CASA, which is an independent non-profit. He thanked the Board for its continued support. He said that CASA is committed to serving those who make less than 50% of the area median income, which is a single adult that earns less than $25,000. He asked the County Commissioners to support this consolidated housing plan. He asked the County Commissioners to please make funds available for development of more housing, to have subsidies for those living in this housing, and to provide more project- based subsidies. He said that the average rent is $130 a month, but the operating costs are $250-300 a month. The gap has to be filled by rental subsidies. Robert Dowling, Executive Director of Community Home Trust, distributed a letter. He also said that he wholeheartedly supports CASA's work. "Dear Chair Foushee and Members of the County Commission: The Community Home Trust had a banner year in 2009 when we sold 36 homes to low- income homebuyers. This unusually high volume of activity was driven by the inclusionary housing policy in Chapel Hill, which required that we sell twenty condominiums in the East 54 development. I am pleased to report that we have sold all of our East 54 condos in Phase I and we look forward to Phase II in the spring. In 2010 we expect to sell more than 40 homes, most of which will be new to our inventory of affordable homes. There are currently more than 160 homes in the Home Trust inventory; by December of this year we expect to reach almost 200 homes. As the Commissioners know, because of stagnant HUD income limits, it has been difficult to maintain the affordability of our housing stock without additional subsidy. Typically we have to add subsidy to homes that resell in order to maintain their affordability to low- income families. HOME funds have been a valuable source of subsidy to create and maintain affordability of Home trust properties. Although we have about $200,000 of HOME funds unused from 2008-09 and 2009-10, we expect to be using $50,000 to $70,000 before the end of the fiscal year. We expect to use the balance of our allocation in fiscal year 2010-11. However, there are several large