Agenda - 06-02-20; 6-a - Eviction Diversion Program and Approval of Budget Amendment #9-A

Browse Search

4 Be assessed through Coordinated Entry as at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness and who have identified safe, decent, and affordable housing OR Referred by various Orange County Departments and local service providers (e.g., Aging, Health/Family Success Alliance, Criminal Justice Resource and Social Services, Community Empowerment Fund, Interfaith Council, Compass Center, etc.) *Preference will be given to applicants earning under 50% ofAMl The Towns and County streamlined application and policies in April so that all Orange County residents can be assessed through the Housing Helpline process, which uses a research-based Coordinated Assessment process to connect people with community resources. One of these resources is the Towns' and County's Emergency Housing Assistance. Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro each have funds for emergency housing assistance. Prior to the coordination of these funds, access to the separate funds was not systematized, resident requests were not tracked across the County/system, and eligibility for each fund was disparate. Now, there is a coordinated intake system for requests and eligibility criteria are streamlined. Before streamlining, there were instances of residents not being eligible for Town funds living in the Towns' jurisdictions, so the County would cover these costs. OCHCD has established a reimbursement process with the Towns for eligible costs incurred from residents residing within the respective Town's jurisdiction. The amount incurred from each jurisdiction is recorded and tracked. This has been a fully collaborative effort between Town and County staff with the goal of lowering barriers and increasing access to emergency housing assistance funds. The fund offers one-time assistance per household, and there is a funding maximum of $2,000 per household. The average amount of assistance the fund provides is $1,297, so the additional $130k allocation could serve approximately 100 people. Thus far, OCHCD has only had one person to request assistance for a second time. However, this could become more common as issues with affordability and job security are ongoing. While the emergency housing assistance can keep someone from eviction for now, that person may not be able to afford their dwelling six months from now depending on employment, rent stability of the current housing, and other factors. However, keeping an eviction off someone's record is a powerful way to help them access housing in the future, as an eviction record can bar people from housing for years into the future. The need for ongoing flexible housing assistance is great. Based on the current data on cost- burdened renters, there are more than 12,000 Orange County residents in need of rental subsidy to keep their income to rent ratio affordable. OCHCD, in partnership with the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness (and through initial staffing support from DSS), is providing case management to eligible Orange County residents in need of ongoing rent assistance through the County's Housing Help Rapid Re- Housing program, which provides rent assistance and case management for roughly 20-25 Orange County residents. OCHCD is also leveraging the Housing Choice Voucher program by implementing existing Orange County Housing Authority preferences for people experiencing homelessness and people impacted by natural disaster (to include the pandemic) to obtain longer term rent assistance through a Housing Choice Voucher. This month OCHCD began mailing HCV applications to people meeting the preference definitions with the goal of issuing 75-130 additional vouchers in 2020. All of these programs will work in tandem with the Eviction Diversion Program to help address the growing need, exacerbated by this pandemic, for affordable housing in the County.