Minutes 02-03-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• 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. • Our struggle to operate as a board cannot be overstated. Following the retirement of one board member and the loss of two others due to lack of attendance (one new board member never appeared at all), we were forced to cancel several monthly board meetings for lack of quorum. How to confront this problem and our attempts to mitigate its consequences took an unfortunately significant amount of time for Mr. Davis and me. Takeaway: In the future, if faced with this type of issue, we will reach out to the Chair of the County Commissioners (and staffl for assistance much sooner. • We have begun efforts to secure an HCV participant as a board member (as required by HUD) and hope to have a recommendation for the Board of Commissioners' review and approval in the first quarter of 2015. With a more complete complement of board members in 2015, we hope to do more. We welcome your feedback and guidance as to how we can better serve Orange County in this important capacity of providing citizen oversight for the Housing Choice Voucher program. We look forward to a productive and progressive year ahead. Jean Bolduc said families affected by the changes to section 8 housing were all successfully relocated, and no one was abruptly displaced. She said it was still difficult, but it was not as bad as the publicity made it seem. She said it has been made clear that there is work to be done in educating the public and the landlords about the pros and cons of the program, and there is a need to get more landlords involved. She said Orange County is lucky to have a very well-run section 8 program, and she expects this to continue. Chair McKee thanked her for the report. Commissioner Rich asked about the struggles to get a quorum on this board. She said there might need to be discussion about solutions to this issue. She suggested that perhaps there need to be other people appointed to the board. Chair McKee said this has been a sporadic problem for all boards, and there have been letters issued to remove people for non-attendance in the past. Commissioner Jacobs said staff keeps attendance and provides a periodic report. Jean Bolduc said this attendance can be reported to the clerk on a quarterly basis. Commissioner Rich said she would like to get this for all of the boards.