Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
25 <br /> 1 to consider the approval in 2022, in order for the final plan to be submitted to HUD by the <br /> 2 federal deadline in July 2022. <br /> 3 <br /> 4 Corey Root, Housing and Community Development Director, introduced the item. She <br /> 5 said that HUD did not have the award amount available yet and she would be coming back to <br /> 6 the Board when the award is known in May. She said usually they know this amount by March. <br /> 7 She said the notice they received from HUD regarding the change was not sufficient enough to <br /> 8 cancel the public hearing since it had already been noticed. She reviewed the material in the <br /> 9 agenda abstract. <br /> 10 <br /> 11 A motion was made by Commissioner Bedford, seconded by Commissioner Hamilton, to <br /> 12 open the public hearing. <br /> 13 <br /> 14 VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> 15 <br /> 16 PUBLIC COMMENT: <br /> 17 Douglas Call, of Habitat for Humanity, said his organization helps homeowners with <br /> 18 down payments. He said these down payments are getting larger and larger due to the increase <br /> 19 in values. He said in FY17 they were given $285,000 and they helped twelve families. He said <br /> 20 that in FY20 there was less money available at $131,000, and that helped six families. He said <br /> 21 that last year, $450,000 was allocated to help fifteen families at $30,000 each. He said they <br /> 22 have nineteen homes they plan to close on this year. He said they hope to serve affordable <br /> 23 housing community as much as possible. He said that it will allow only $7,000 for each family. <br /> 24 He said they had requested $475,000 but these requests were made before the conflict in <br /> 25 Ukraine. He said there are a lot of changes in the amount of money that is allocated from <br /> 26 federal dollars. He said he was here to give details on how they use the funding and if further <br /> 27 monies become available, he will return to make a request to add to that amount. He said that <br /> 28 some homes built in Hillsborough that were assessing for $180,000 3-4 years ago are now <br /> 29 assessing at $300,000. <br /> 30 <br /> 31 A motion was made by Commissioner McKee, seconded by Commissioner Fowler, <br /> 32 to close the public hearing. <br /> 33 <br /> 34 VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> 35 <br /> 36 Chair Price said this would be up for approval at a future Board meeting <br /> 37 <br /> 38 6. Regular Agenda <br /> 39 a. Approval of a Network Development Agreement for Broadband Deployment <br /> 40 The Board approved a Network Development Agreement with North State Communications <br /> 41 Advanced Services, LLC to deploy broadband service in unserved locations in Orange County <br /> 42 and to allocate an additional $5 million, for a total of $10 million, in American Rescue Plan Act <br /> 43 funds to fully fund the Agreement. <br /> 44 <br /> 45 BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for households in Orange <br /> 46 County to have access to broadband internet, which is defined as twenty-five megabits per <br /> 47 second (mbps) download speed and 3 mbps upload speed Broadband has become a necessity <br /> 48 to fully participate in educational instruction, commerce, and civic life. This need is particularly <br /> 49 acute in the rural parts of Orange County where low density impedes the ability of internet <br /> 50 service providers to recover the cost of a significant capital investment. <br /> 51 <br />