Agenda - 05-10-2016 - 1 - Discussion of the Proposed Orange County FY 2016 - 2020 Affordable Housing Strategic Plan

Browse Search

5 Attachment A May 3, 2016 Dear Board of County Commissioners, On behalf of the Orange County Affordable Housing Coalition (OCAHC), I would like to express our appreciation to the Board of County Commissioners and staff for the opportunity to provide comments on the Draft Affordable Housing Strategic Plan. Audrey Spencer-Horsley met with the Coalition on April 8th to answer questions about the plan, and encouraged us to submit our comments in writing prior to the May 10 work session. The comments below reflect the experience and expertise of the members of the Coalition, who together have decades of experience in the affordable housing arena, and who are deeply committed to working together toward an Orange County where everyone has a decent, affordable place to live. We are grateful to the staff for the work that went into the creation of this plan. We applaud the focus that the commissioners and staff are placing on the critical and growing need for more affordable housing in our community. The plan sets an ambitious goal of 1000 units of affordable housing over five years, and presents a broad range of needs and strategies. We support such an ambitious goal wholeheartedly. We feel the next step is to distil down the broad goals and strategies into a concise, specific, actionable plan that prioritizes goals and includes site specific strategies, budgets, sources of resources, and timelines. We recommend that this implementation plan be created through a truly collaborative process . The Coalition has suggested to Ms. Horsley that the process could be modeled on the Town of Chapel Hill's Mayor's Task Force on Affordable Rental Housing, which utilized community collaboration to produce an actionable plan within a short time frame. Below are some specific comments and concerns in regards to the 2016-2020 Draft Affordable Housing Strategic Plan. 1. The plan should clarify that affordable units in the pipeline, but not yet funded, will count toward the overall goal of 1,000 units. Also, the language describing the composition of the 1,000 units is somewhat confusing in terms of the overlap of income and other designations (seniors, special needs, etc.). 2. We suggest that the plan clearly show how the data supports each of its goals and strategies. The format of the plan, with the data listed separately, makes it difficult to see how the goals and strategies were derived from and relate to the data. For example, there is no analysis of the housing needs of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and no information about the current inventory and unmet need for housing for this population, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, affordable rental housing, and emergency shelter. AR16.2 states a Domestic Violence shelter should be created; there is no supporting evidence this is the greatest need or most effective use of resources. 3. The plan should reference goals in existing plans of the other jurisdictions, such as Carrboro's Affordable Housing Strategy Report, the Chapel Hill's Affordable Housing and Affordable Rental Housing Strategies, and the Partnership to End Homelessness' Plan to End Homelessness.