Orange County NC Website
Approved 8/3/2016 <br />5 <br /> 216 <br />Patricia Roberts- I think another thing is that affordable housing has to include rentals. 217 <br /> 218 <br />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 <br />almost zero vacancy rate is an artificially distorted rental market. And I brought a couple of little facts in here because 220 <br />when I read this report one of the biggest missing pieces to me was the students. University of Chapel Hill has 221 <br />29,135 students according to US News and World Report, 47 percent of those students live off campus. I went and 222 <br />looked at the Carolina Demography site and it has really amazing… In North Carolina, statewide, poverty rate was 223 <br />17.2 percent in the 2009-2011 ACS. Among college students living off campus 57 percent fell below the poverty line. 224 <br />Statewide poverty rate declined 16.4 percent when off campus students were excluded from the poverty rates. They 225 <br />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 <br />12.2 percent was the largest among all North Carolina places examined in the study. That’s what’s missing to me 227 <br />from this study, is the impact of students. 228 <br /> 229 <br />Audrey Spencer-Horsley- And students are excluded so when you look at the demographics that’s included, and 230 <br />students were in fact one of the first things… The data takes the student numbers and takes that out of the 231 <br />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 <br />that’s why we use the HUD data because we cannot serve students with our programs. But let me just say a few 233 <br />things because you all have brought out several points. Regarding the students; that was one of the first things that I 234 <br />talked to the non-profit community about and some of the advisory boards, I think there has to be a conversation with 235 <br />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 <br />college or university policy but I think if you allowed that policy you are impacting the community. So how do you 237 <br />compensate for that? I think it’s more adversely affecting your seniors and people at the lowest end of the spectrum. I 238 <br />did some outreach so I talked to groups of seniors at the Seymour Center and at the Hasmor Center as well as just 239 <br />residents. I went to some classes that the County offers and I went to different parts of the County talking to folks and 240 <br />one of the consistent things is they feel like at this point seniors are not welcome and are being pushed out of the 241 <br />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 <br />taxes. And with those 2 things it really doesn’t leave them anywhere to live in this County and they did talk about... 243 <br />and they talked about it in particular relative to Chapel Hill and they said they feel like the County’s becoming one of 244 <br />privilege and part of that in Chapel Hill and the neighboring is it’s an attractive community and it’s doing what the 245 <br />market should do but I think the County along with the jurisdictions have to figure out how you strike the balance 246 <br />between allowing students to live off campus and still have affordable housing for everybody else, if you want a 247 <br />diverse community. That’s one side. I want to go back to the habitat homes. It depends on whom you’re talking to 248 <br />and who you’re trying to reach, because many of the residents specifically ask about being able to own a habitat 249 <br />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 <br />market. It was made for people who have limited incomes. It at least provides them an opportunity to become home 251 <br />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 <br />trying to provide all the resources and support we can to allow people to be upward mobile. But that is really more on 253 <br />the employment and job side, which is another issue that was discussed. So, it’s not just about the housing, it’s about 254 <br />the neighborhood, it’s about access to opportunity, it’s about transportation so that you do have the opportunity to get 255 <br />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 <br />of the primary reasons that keep habitat homes from being marketful is the restriction and the restriction is there 257 <br />because of what Maxecine says. That’s the only way you can keep them affordable, so you don’t want putting public 258 <br />investment or private investment in something that’s supposed to be affordable and then some flipper comes in and 259 <br />takes advantage of that investment and makes big bucks and moves on, you still don’t have affordable housing and 260 <br />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 <br />challenge of a community when you’re talking about inclusiveness and workforce housing is a part of that and I think 262 <br />what this plan has tried to do is to talk about the range of housing. It’s to build a range of rentals. 263 <br /> 264 <br />Patricia Roberts- Neighborhoods need to be mixed. Just not all one size house and people do need to be able to sell 265 <br />your house. Because if not you have put a millstone around our neck. Someone that needs to move out- like one that 266 <br />Maxecine was trying to sell, those people have moved out but they’re stuck with a house payment but they’ve moved 267 <br />on because they found another job somewhere else. You have to make sure that their houses are sellable. 268 <br /> 269