Orange County NC Website
• For every 100 ELI renter households, there are only 25 affordable and available rental <br /> units. <br /> • There are 6,270 ELI renter households <br /> • There are 1,564 affordable and available rental units <br /> • We need 4,706 affordable units to close this gap. <br /> We advocate that funding be prioritized for community members who are ELI, may be <br /> homeless, and/or have a disability. These are not three disparate groups; these three <br /> characteristics are intrinsically linked. According to the Technical Assistance Collaborative <br /> Priced Out 2012, persons with disabilities remain the poorest households in our communities: <br /> "The average annual income of a single individual receiving SSI payments was $8,714 — equal <br /> to only 19.2% of the national median income for a one-person household and almost 22% <br /> below the 2012 federal poverty level." According to Orange County's 2014 Point-in-Time <br /> Count, nearly half of the persons who are homeless in our county reported having a disability. <br /> As we have seen in the Come Learn with Us sessions at the Town of Chapel Hill, an average <br /> of 75% of persons of low wealth, persons with a disability and single parent families spend <br /> more than 30% of their income on housing costs. They disproportionately carry a high housing <br /> cost burden. <br /> By prioritizing funding for ELI households, therefore, we are preventing or ending the cycle of <br /> homelessness for the most vulnerable members of our community. <br /> CASA's second priority is for households earning less than 60% of the median. This group of <br /> renters is not served by the market. Not only is this group cost-burdened themselves, but <br /> because this group is competing for the limited number of available and affordable units, they <br /> are further constricting the availability of units for ELI households at the very bottom. <br /> Priority 1 Affordable Rental: New Construction and Acquisition and Rehab <br /> • Extremely Low Income Households 0-30% of Area Median Income <br /> • Persons who are homeless <br /> • Persons with a disability <br /> Priority 2 Affordable Rental: New Construction and Acquisition and Rehab <br /> • 30-60% AMI <br /> • Persons who are homeless <br /> • Persons with a disability <br /> Priority 3 Rental Subsidies <br /> • As part of the development negotiations request that all new multi-family developments <br /> accept rental subsidies (Housing Choice Vouchers, VASH Vouchers, Shelter Plus Care <br /> Rental Subsidies) in a percentage of their units. Given that insufficient federal supports <br /> such as vouchers are available, the least our community can do is not reject those <br /> supports that do exist. <br /> Commissioner Price said that the Community Home Trust Executive Director Robert <br /> Dowling was unable to attend this evening, but he has sent a request by email for $12,000 <br /> from the HOME program funds. <br /> Commissioner porosin said he has heard a lot of good things are happening, but he <br /> has also heard that there are a lot of challenges still out there. He said there is a need to think <br /> more creatively with this plan. He said new and creative solutions need to be added to <br /> address these continuing problems. He said a lot of the model has a heavy dependence on <br /> the private sector, but this community may have reached the ceiling with the private market. <br />