Minutes 11-16-2021 Virtual Business Meeting

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7 activities. These activities included provision of down payment assistance for low-income homebuyers and provision of tenant-based rental assistance. Orange County must hold a public hearing to obtain residents' comments and feedback on the Consolidated Annual Performance Report (CAPER). Members of the public may also submit comments during the public comment period (November 16 — December 1, 2021) to Erika Brandt, Community Development Manager, by email (ebrandt(cD-orangecountync.gov), by mail (PO Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278) or by telephone (919-245-4331). Erika Brandt, Housing and Community Development Manager, reviewed the background information for the item. She said HOME is a federal block grant program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that allocates funds to communities across the country based on a formula that looks at population and other factors. She said Orange County is a consortium of the county and towns, and is the entity that receives the HOME funds. She said the Local Government Affordable Housing Collaborative is made up of one elected official from each jurisdiction in the consortium. She said this group makes funding recommendations on how the consortium should award HOME funds. She said recommendations go before each of the governing boards of the four jurisdictions for approval. She said the CAPER is an annual report that talks about how the consortium allocated HOME funds from a given program year, and how funds were actually dispersed in that program year. She said even though the program year aligns with the county's fiscal year, the actual timeline for dispersing those funds spans a lot longer than a year. She said it is common for an agency to receive funds during a program year but not spend them until a year or more later. She said typically agencies apply for HOME funds well before they are needed, in order to plan in advance. She reviewed the executive summary from the evening's agenda packet. Commissioner Fowler asked if CASA kept the same allocation for the nine units for people with disabilities. Erika Brandt said she can look into that and get back to her. Commissioner Richards asked what happens to returned funds. Erika Brandt said the funds are put back to the pot and added to the 2021 pot of funds. She said this is the first year there was enough funding to fully fund all requests. Commissioner Richards clarified that those funds are not part of this report. Erika Brandt said that is correct, that award was just made last fiscal year and this report is from the previous year. Commissioner Richards asked if the funds have been dispersed. Erika Brandt said no the funds have not been dispersed, but the award went to Habitat for homeownership assistance, but they are still drawing down funds for past fiscal years. Commissioner Richards asked if other organizations can apply for the funds. Erika Brandt said yes organizations did apply and the funds were awarded to Habitat. Commissioner Hamilton asked if project-based vouchers could be explained. Erika Brandt said the Housing Authority administers the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which has always been tenant-based in past. She said project-based vouchers are going to be for rental subsidies that are tied to a particular unit rather than a tenant. She said this will be more similar to public housing or any kind of affordable subsidized housing where the unit is subsidized and the renter can live there if they apply and qualify. Commissioner Greene said CASA applied for low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) status and was not successful, so then applied for HOME money and tried again for LIHTC and was awarded. She said because they knew that was their goal, they were strictly following federal guidelines for percentages of units that have to be affordable to different levels of people, and she does not think the allocation of units will change.