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8 <br />Target Populations <br />Served by the Applicant <br />The Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro localized plan identifies the western <br />part of the Research Triangle Park area comprised of all of Durham <br />County, Orange County (this includes the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, <br />and Hillsborough) and northeast Chatham County as the region <br />responsible for developing a coordinated regional public transit-human <br />services transportation plan. <br />ETS seeks to provide job related transportation services for the Orange <br />County Department of Social Services' (OCDSS) low-income program and <br />to implement a coordinated transportation plan linking the county to the <br />existing services provided by Triangle Transit and Orange Public <br />Transportation. The OCDSS serves the following communities: Chapel <br />Hill, Cazrboro, Hillsborough, Cedar Grove, Efland, Mebane, Rougemont, <br />residents on the Durham County/Orange County line and portions of <br />Alamance County. <br />Low income families in Orange and North Chatham County are faced <br />with several major obstacles in obtaining and retaining employment. <br />OCDSS has identified transportation needs in four areas of support for its <br />low-income clients: the Work First Enrichment Program, a three month <br />life skills training program at OCDSS; job search mandated for its clients <br />to continue receiving services; (3) transportation to volunteer worksites <br />for on the job training skills, and (4) provision of vouchers to former <br />TANF and other low income workers to keep them employed and reduce <br />the number of applicants returning to the system. Orange County's <br />statistics are impressive. The county ranks 10~ in the state in family <br />income. Fifty-one percent of the adult population have a college education <br />(highest in the state); 87.6 percent of the population earned a high school <br />diploma, and the county's per capita income is $41,435. Thus, low income <br />residents in Orange County are competing for jobs with a highly skilled <br />workforce. Typical jobs obtained by them do not provide a living wage; <br />the mean cost of a home in Orange County is $382,000 and the median <br />price is $250,OOO.On average, OCDSS clients make $7.50 per hour. Both <br />the limited availability and the high cost of transportation is a major <br />barrier to become self-sufficient. Safe, reliable, and inexpensive transport <br />is critical for economic mobility for low-income residents of Orange and <br />Chatham County. Furthermore, the lack of daycare and transportation for <br />second and third shift work compounds the obstacles. Most OCDSS <br />clients are women (95 percent), 50 percent are under age 30, 50 percent <br />have a high school diploma, and 47 percent of participants live in North <br />Orange County as of October 2009. Families living outside of the Chapel <br />Hill Transit System still face transportation issues. New services to the <br />County would benefit residents living outside of the present route and <br />reduce the number of cars on the roads in the County. <br />Product or Services ETS proposes to provide expanded geographical coverage through <br />Provided or Produced infra-county and cross county services, a guaranteed ride home service <br />including late-nights, holiday and weekend service, and to provide a <br />