Agenda - 01-22-2019 8-a - Minutes

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21 1 Sherrill Hampton, Housing Director, reviewed the information below: 2 3 BACKGROUND: 4 The Orange County Board of County Commissioners, at its June 19, 2018 regular meeting, 5 approved an initial $100,000 appropriation for a new local voucher program known as the OC 6 Local Rent Supplement Program. In addition, the HOME Consortium, now known as the Local 7 Government Affordable Housing Collaborative and consisting of the Towns of Carrboro, Chapel 8 Hill, and Hillsborough, as well as Orange County, approved a recommendation to award 9 $139,613 in FY 2018-19 HOME funds to be used for Tenant-Based Rental Assistance. Of the 10 aforementioned amount, $114,613 will serve as leveraged resources for the new OC Local 11 Rent Supplement Program. The remaining amount of$25,000 will be used for the Rapid Re- 12 Housing Program. The federal Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) approved 13 the FY 2018-2019 HOME grant award on October 3, 2018, and the grant agreement was fully 14 executed on October 10, 2018 by the County Manager. 15 16 The new OC Local Rent Supplement Program (OC-LRSP) in many aspects mirrors the 17 federally-funded Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. However, it is also designed to allow 18 for flexibility in meeting local identified housing needs. Attachment 1 provides a full program 19 overview and the proposed guidelines of the new OC-LRSP. In addition, a draft implementation 20 timeline and a copy of HUD's FY 2019 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are also included as 21 Attachments 2 and 3, respectively. The listed rents serve as the payment standards for the 22 rental subsidies offered under the new program. It should be noted that there has been an 23 increase in the FMRs in FY 2019 as opposed to those originally cited for FY 2018. OCLRSP is 24 able to handle the increase in rents due to the leveraging of the HOME funds. 25 However, the increased amount of HOME funds for rent subsidies will decrease the availability 26 of funds for security deposits and utility connections. Nevertheless, monies from the Risk 27 Mitigation and Housing Displacement Fund could be allocated to also cover the increase, but 28 these are usually one-time payments. 29 30 Implementation of the new OC-LRSP is proposed to begin in mid-January 2019 with an 31 announcement of the new program and a briefing for applicable service providers. The 32 application period is anticipated to begin February 1, 2019. However, this date may be delayed 33 for 10-15 days due to the integration of new software in order to handle the required new 34 Waiting List. 35 36 Approval is being sought to enter into an agreement with the Orange County Housing Authority. 37 This is due in part to HUD's review of the overall agency and best practices in the public 38 housing industry. HUD requires an agreement between the parties if Housing Authority staff will 39 be used to conduct any part of the work. Most other communities (District of Columbia, Hawaii, 40 Massachusetts, Toronto, etc.) in the US and Canada who have or considered having a local or 41 state voucher program utilize a Housing Authority to administer the program. 42 43 Sherrill Hampton provided a sheet of answers to questions she received from 44 Commissioner Greene's, the content of which she reviewed below: 45 46 RESPONSES TO COMMISSIONER GREENE'S QUESTIONS AND OTHER POINTS OF 47 CLARIFICATION 48 Question 1: 49 What would a "sponsor-based" rental assistance program be?