Minutes 02-07-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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application is available on the County's website as well as the Town of Chapel Hill's website. The HOME Program Review Committee will be making recommendations for funding in late March. This year, HUD has indicated that there is an expected reduction of allocation of HOME funds. The $383,485 is about a 51 % reduction from last year. Public Comment: Mary Jean Seyda, Operations Director for CASA, a non-profit agency that develops and owns affordable rental apartments, said that she is also a member of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness. She said that two weeks ago she did an outreach with the Partnership to find homeless people and to survey their medical needs. She was inspired by the volunteers and they found that there is a hidden community within the community of camp sites, and many were medically vulnerable. Among those that she met, there was a pregnant mother, someone on a heart monitor, and a double amputee. She said that she supported the plan but would like to see the Board of County Commissioners prioritize affordable rental housing for extremely low income persons. She advocated for rental subsidies. Robert Dowling is the Executive Director of Community Home Trust. He said that they implement the exclusionary home trust and there are 194 homes in their listings. He said that all of the 30- 40 homes they will be building and selling in the coming months will need subsidies. He said that he is aware of the reduction in HOME funds. Community Home Trust will be asking for $150,000 in HOME funds again. They have used HOME funds in the past for operations and they will be requesting $20,000 this year for operations instead of $30,000. He said that the Community Home Trust has increased its housing stock by 40% since early 2009, and there is another 20% increase planned in the next 15 months. Susan Levy, Executive Director of Orange County Habitat for Humanity, said that 2011 was very productive for Habitat in Orange County. Habitat has been able to continue to build homes in Orange County for residents between 30-60% of the area median income. There have been some creative partnerships with UNC, UNC Health Care, Orange County Schools, and the faith communities. They continue to use volunteers to keep the costs as low as possible. In 2011, more than 5,000 volunteers gave more than 20,000 volunteer hours building homes and serving communities. This year, Habitat paid a total of $277,618.83 in property taxes. Habitat has built close to 215 homes throughout Orange County using HOME funds. They will be seeking HOME funds this year of $50,000. Victor Glover is CEO of Fathers on the Move, Inc., which is a non-profit trying to work with fathers coming out of incarceration. They have a relationship with Child Support Enforcement and Probation and Parole. They are trying to find transitional housing and jobs for these men coming out of incarceration that are also fathers. He asked that the home that they are trying to build for these men be included in the consideration of HOME funds. Dolores Baily, Executive Director of EmPOWERment, Inc., said that she was with the Board when they started working on the consolidated plan. She said that she has been working with people that need affordable rentals. She said that Section 8 vouchers are not accepted like they once were with rentals. She said that she is voting for more dollars for affordable rental housing. Commissioner Jacobs said that, as the County continues to increase better relations with Durham and Mebane, he would like to talk to the governmental entities about affordable housing opportunities. Tara Fikes said that she has not had discussions with these entities to date. Commissioner Jacobs said that there was a meeting last week with some representatives with Duke about the Eno EDD, and the representatives were talking about how this area would be great for multi-family housing. He thinks that governmental entities are going to have to bind