Agenda - 03-17-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 1 served will decrease. She said there will be a greater pool of available housing. She said the 2 larger view is that section 8 is only one program, and it is not the silver bullet to make housing 3 affordablein this community. She said there is a whole menu of options to address the 4 problem that exists. 5 Commissioner Dorosin agreed, and he said that is an excellent point. He wonders if 6 section 8 is not as useful in this community, given the economic realities, as other menu 7 options. He clarified that the overall pool of money has not changed, so this is why the increase 8 in the value of each voucher means that the number served will decrease. 9 Jean Bolduc said that is correct. 10 Commissioner Dorosin asked about the situation with the Gateway Apartments in 11 Hillsborough. 12 Jean Bolduc said thatapartment complex is a project base section 8, versus a tenant 13 based section 8. She said these project base section 8 programs are run directly from HUD, 14 and her staff has no management in those vouchers. 15 James Davis saidone of the issues landlords mayin not accepting vouchers is that the 16 department does have a high standard from the inspection process. He said landlords know 17 that they can rent apartments to low income residents without vouchersand not have to meet 18 the quality standards that have to be met with a voucher. 19 Commissioner Dorosin said the County ought to be a resourcefor working closely with 20 other groups. He said there needs to be synergy in these efforts. 21 Commissioner Burroughs asked about the status of thewaiting list. 22 James Davis said there are about1300residents on the waiting list. He said there is an 23 average wait time of 5 to 8 years. 24 Commissioner Jacobs referred to his previous discussion of section 8 childcare 25 subsidies from the County. He asked if more affordable housing opportunities could be offered 26 to more people if there was enough money to bump the 110 percent up to 120 percent. 27 Jean Bolduc said HUD would probably not allow that additional subsidy, as it would be 28 counted as income to those individuals. She said of the housing department’s ideas is to take 29 some of the unrestricted funds from the sale of land to use for an incentive program for 30 landlords. This would provide a sign on bonus, and would pay for publicity to up the profile of 31 the program. 32 She said the County could also fund security deposits for residents coming into the 33 program. 34 James Davissaid this is permitted, and the Department of Social Services has been 35 doing this for people not already receiving subsidies from the towns. 36 Commissioner Jacobs said he hopesthere can be some strategizingabout how to 37 reduce the waiting list through judicious application of County funds, if the Board of 38 Commissioners can make them available. 39 He noted that the reduction of section 8 has been a concern of Congressman Pricefor 40 awhile, and he offered to have the Board communicate department information to the 41 Congressman. 42 43 b.Report of the Human Relations Commission 44 The Board consideredacceptingthe reporton the activities of the Human Relations 45 Commission (HRC) in response to the Commission’s request to address the issue of the 46 equitable treatment of womenand providing feedback to staff regarding any next steps. 47 Matt Hughesnoted that a report and plan have been submitted to the Board regarding 48 progress on addressing the topic of equitable treatment of women. He said there were 4 goals 49 in the report, as outlined below: