Minutes 11-19-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Town Commissioner Ferguson said the work that is being done by the CHT could not be matched. She said the CHT is leading the way in affordable housing, and it has been provided mandates by government, but not the funding to carry it through. She encouraged the government bodies to support this new funding model. Mayor Kleinschmidt said the representatives have described their commitment to the CHT and an appreciation for the ways in which it advances affordable housing goals. He said the question now is to ask staff where we are and whether we are ready to move forward. Bonnie Hammersley said the managers have all met, along with staff and the executive director of the CHT, and there is a plan to meet again to discuss a unified recommendation to their governing boards. She would say that this could come back to the governing boards by the end of January. She said staff has worked with Robert Dowling to understand the challenges that CHT is facing. Mayor Kleinschmidt said the community has wondered about the timeline. He said support has always been very strong for this. Town Council Member Palmer said the model is good for getting people into home ownership. She would like to do more than just maintaining what is already here. She said 200 units is a drop in the bucket for what our County needs. She said affordable housing is economic development too, and she would like some information on what can be done to extend this model of ownership to other types of housing units. She said many older adults, especially in Chapel Hill, cannot afford to pay their taxes or maintain their homes. She asked what might happen if someone were willing to sell their home to CHT and then only pay taxes on the portion they own. Town Commissioner Ferguson said until there is a viable funding source the CHT cannot expand. She said rehab is always more expensive, and this is a very cash hungry business. She said the Home Trust itself is looking at how it can best serve the community, but the hard reality is that you need cash in order to expand. Council Member Matt Czajkowski asked what parts of Orange County are being defined when looking at affordable housing. He said Chapel Hill defines affordable housing by how much exists in the actual community of Chapel Hill. He said the CHT started out primarily providing single family residences and townhomes, being built by developers already working on these projects. He said there are now virtually no single family residence applications coming through, and the town is seeing rentals almost exclusively. He said this provides a whole host of other challenges. He said the land in Chapel Hill is prohibitively expensive for affordable housing. He said land is less expensive in Orange County, and there are some single family developments happening, and he questioned where we should look to expand affordable housing and whether it needs to be defined by specific community. He said questioned how success is defined in terms of affordable housing when there is affordable housing in Orange County versus in Chapel Hill. Alderman Johnson said they cannot rely on the CHT to meet all of their affordable housing goals. She this is important, but some things are being mixed up. She said this was really about the inter-local agreement, and it is connected to our goals, but it will not address all of the affordable housing needs. She said there was interest from all of the municipalities, at the last Assembly of Governments meeting, in having some sort of committee to work on supporting their action plans related to affordable housing. She asked about the status of this group. She said it is important to maintain their focus on the purpose of the inter-local agreement. Commissioner Pelissier said her comments are related to affordable housing and transit, and she said people are now looking at housing plus transit when talking about affordable housing. So when you think where you may want to put affordable housing,