Agenda - 03-19-2015 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 2 OCHA 2014 Report 02/03/2015 and we both took questions from reporters during and following the press conference. Takeaway: The Orange County Community, including several segments of housing providers, advocates, political leadership and the general public would benefit from learning much more about the HCV program and how it works in Orange County. Following the mayors' press conference in August, the Housing Authority, as promised, hosted an information session for landlords and the public about the program and how to participate as a housing provider. It was held at the Orange County Library in Hillsborough and had modest attendance. We were disappointed that none of the housing advocates were able to attend, after repeatedly requesting such a meeting. As a beginning to our educational efforts, we have (in addition to the PowerPoint created for the Landlords meeting) created a brochure that was printed in January 2015 after review with the County's Public Information Officer. We are also looking forward to taking advantage of new information infrastructure soon to be available when the County launches its new website. It's critically important that Orange County's Voucher program not "rest on its laurels" after many, many years of being a quietly well-run, effective program. Takeaway: The Orange County Government has long supported the HCV program and now does so at an even greater funding level following Federal Sequester. During 2015, we would like to raise the profile of the HCV program and its benefits to taxpayers to highlight the value of that investment. In response to the increased pressures on the Orange County housing market, our board voted at year -end to exercise its authority to increase the program's payment standard to 110% of the HUD Fair Market Rent (FMR) rate. We are able to make this change without authorization from HUD, but to extend further (up to 120 %) we would need written consent from HUD's Greensboro office. This will allow many families to stay where they are, despite rental increases due to renovations. It expands the affordable options for those assisted by the HCV program but will tend to reduce the total number of families overall that we can help. We have also taken administrative steps to bring onto our books some of the voucher holders who have moved to Orange County with the permission of their authorities. Most of these are families with vouchers issued from the Durham Housing Authority. This process is called "absorption" and means that instead of simply accepting a "pass -thru" payment from Durham with those vouchers being counted by HUD as Durham vouchers, they become Orange County vouchers and are administered in the future just as any other we issued. This is important for us to do because it helps to more accurately reflect the number of families who are here and receiving assistance from our program. It also reduces the administrative burden that is created for the two agencies who are cooperatively managing one voucher in two jurisdictions.