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17 <br /> <br />• On March 6, 2018, the Rehabilitation Specialists in the Housing and Community <br />Development Department conducted an inspection of three (3) of the units at the <br />Homestead Mobile Home Park. The Rehabilitation Specialists determined that none of <br />the manufactured homes could be moved safely without significant investment. <br /> <br />• On March 7, 2018, the graduate interns working in the Housing and Community <br />Development Department, along with other UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students, held a <br />“phone-a-thon” to contact the 100 manufactured home park owners in the County to <br />gather information and identify available vacancies. <br /> <br />**In mid-April 2018, an information session will be held with manufactured home park owners to <br />provide information gathered during the “phone-a-thon”. <br /> <br />• The Rapid Response Team met on March 13, 2018 to review a draft proposal of <br />services for residents of the Homestead Mobile Home Park. <br /> <br />• On March 17, 2018, staff will meet again with the residents of Homestead Mobile Home <br />Park to discuss and evaluate potential options for relocation. <br /> <br />Staff is proposing two options to relocate residents at Homestead: <br /> <br />Option 1 – Assisting residents with locating alternative affordable housing and providing <br />displacement funds to facilitate the relocation. Working with the Community Home Trust, staff <br />has identified vacancies at the Landings at Winmore as one potential relocation option. These <br />units are dedicated to serving low and very low income individuals and families. <br /> <br />Option 2 – Contracting with Empowerment Inc. to provide Relocation Coordinator Services. <br />Staff is recommending that the County allocate up to $280,000 to enter into an agreement with <br />Empowerment Inc. to provide mitigation displacement services to the low and very low income <br />individuals and families living at the Homestead Mobile Home Park. Empowerment would <br />purchase manufactured homes to be used by eligible individuals and families and would provide <br />property management services for the units purchased. <br /> <br />Empowerment would provide services such as: <br />• Determining program participant eligibility; <br />• Using the County’s centralized database of manufactured home park owners to find <br />available manufactured homes and/or spaces for lease; <br />• Ensuring that any manufactured home purchased are sold or leased to families earning <br />no more than eighty percent (80%) of the HUD Area Median Income; <br />• Ensuring the long-term affordability of the manufactured homes (twenty (20) years); <br />• Providing written leases and lease-purchase agreements with residents, as appropriate; <br />and <br />• Providing general maintenance on manufactured homes to ensure continued standard <br />housing conditions. <br /> <br />The Orange County Housing and Community Development Department, along with the <br />Permitting and Inspections Division in the Planning Department, would conduct all the <br />necessary inspections to ensure that the housing is adequate, safe and sanitary. The County <br />would ensure the long term affordability of the manufactured homes through the legal