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216 Patricia Roberts- I think another thing is that affordable housing has to include rentals. 217 218 Tony Blake: But by state law you can’t put a rent control or rent cap on anything. And so therefore Chapel Hill with an 219 almost zero vacancy rate is an artificially distorted rental market. And I brought a couple of little facts in here because 220 when I read this report one of the biggest missing pieces to me was the students. University of Chapel Hill has 221 29,135 students according to US News and World Report, 47 percent of those students live off campus. I went and 222 looked at the Carolina Demography site and it has really amazing… In North Carolina, statewide, poverty rate was 223 17.2 percent in the 2009-2011 ACS. Among college students living off campus 57 percent fell below the poverty line. 224 Statewide poverty rate declined 16.4 percent when off campus students were excluded from the poverty rates. They 225 go on to say Chapel Hill, home of UNC, had a poverty rate decline from 23.7 percent to 11.5 percent, the decrease of 226 12.2 percent was the largest among all North Carolina places examined in the study. That’s what’s missing to me 227 from this study, is the impact of students. 228 229 Audrey Spencer-Horsley- And students are excluded so when you look at the demographics that’s included, and 230 students were in fact one of the first things… The data takes the student numbers and takes that out of the 231 calculations… I’ll get you the data. It’s data that’s produced by HUD, that’s one of the very first things they do, and 232 that’s why we use the HUD data because we cannot serve students with our programs. But let me just say a few 233 things because you all have brought out several points. Regarding the students; that was one of the first things that I 234 talked to the non-profit community about and some of the advisory boards, I think there has to be a conversation with 235 the university. When you talk about the free market, I think to tell students, “You can’t live off campus”- to me that’s a 236 college or university policy but I think if you allowed that policy you are impacting the community. So how do you 237 compensate for that? I think it’s more adversely affecting your seniors and people at the lowest end of the spectrum. I 238 did some outreach so I talked to groups of seniors at the Seymour Center and at the Hasmor Center as well as just 239 residents. I went to some classes that the County offers and I went to different parts of the County talking to folks and 240 one of the consistent things is they feel like at this point seniors are not welcome and are being pushed out of the 241 County. And it’s not just because of the market taking over, that’s a big part of it but also they’re concerned about the 242 taxes. And with those 2 things it really doesn’t leave them anywhere to live in this County and they did talk about... 243 and they talked about it in particular relative to Chapel Hill and they said they feel like the County’s becoming one of 244 privilege and part of that in Chapel Hill and the neighboring is it’s an attractive community and it’s doing what the 245 market should do but I think the County along with the jurisdictions have to figure out how you strike the balance 246 between allowing students to live off campus and still have affordable housing for everybody else, if you want a 247 diverse community. That’s one side. I want to go back to the habitat homes. It depends on whom you’re talking to 248 and who you’re trying to reach, because many of the residents specifically ask about being able to own a habitat 249 home. So to a segment of the market, no, that’s not an option but it really wasn’t made for that segment of the 250 market. It was made for people who have limited incomes. It at least provides them an opportunity to become home 251 owners, and one of the things that I say to people who want to be upward mobile and I encourage that and we’re 252 trying to provide all the resources and support we can to allow people to be upward mobile. But that is really more on 253 the employment and job side, which is another issue that was discussed. So, it’s not just about the housing, it’s about 254 the neighborhood, it’s about access to opportunity, it’s about transportation so that you do have the opportunity to get 255 a better job or work 2 jobs if you desire, because you want that next house. And so there are pros and cons but one 256 of the primary reasons that keep habitat homes from being marketful is the restriction and the restriction is there 257 because of what Maxecine says. That’s the only way you can keep them affordable, so you don’t want putting public 258 investment or private investment in something that’s supposed to be affordable and then some flipper comes in and 259 takes advantage of that investment and makes big bucks and moves on, you still don’t have affordable housing and 260 you still have a problem in the community as far as having a range of housing to meet a range of incomes. That’s the 261 challenge of a community when you’re talking about inclusiveness and workforce housing is a part of that and I think 262 what this plan has tried to do is to talk about the range of housing. It’s to build a range of rentals. 263 264 Patricia Roberts- Neighborhoods need to be mixed. Just not all one size house and people do need to be able to sell 265 your house. Because if not you have put a millstone around our neck. Someone that needs to move out- like one that 266 Maxecine was trying to sell, those people have moved out but they’re stuck with a house payment but they’ve moved 267 on because they found another job somewhere else. You have to make sure that their houses are sellable. 268 269 10