Agenda - 04-20-2004-9b - Laserfiche WebLink

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There have also been suggestions that Orange County explore the success of other housing authorities such as Charlotte and Winston-Salem in acquiring vouchers targeted to persons with disabilities. County staff will contact these housing authorities and other local communities to gain more information regarding their mainstream programs in preparation for future funding opportunities. Comment #3: Current Waiting List Status Staff Response: In October 2001, the Department suspended receipt of new Section 8 applications because of the anticipated lengthy wait for assistance -three to four years based on a turnover rate of approximately 25% per year. With such a massive waiting list and associated waiting period, department staff considered it unfair to continue to accept applications when rental assistance may be years away. At that time the HUD Greensboro Office was consulted and they concurred with our assessment. In October 2001, there were approximately 1024 applicants on the waiting list. As of April 12, 2004, due to the process of withdrawing names from the waiting list when turnover vouchers became available, there are currently 529 applicants on the Section 8 Waiting List. The current waiting list is described below: Total applicants: 529 Disabled: 18 Elderly: 11 Applicants receiving SSI: 4 Working families: 276 In December 2003, HUD approved the designation of 24 project-based vouchers far persons with disabilities who lease a dwelling unit at the planned Club Nova Apartments in Carrboro. Construction is scheduled to be completed by December 2004. (This approval came after an initial rejection of the project by HUD in June 2003 due to concerns that the project would serve only persons with a specific disability, which is a clear violation of the Section 8 Project-Based Voucher Program. Additional information was then submitted to HUD to confirm that the project would be available to all persons with disabilities and the project-based vouchers were eventually approved in December 2003.) In preparation for the availability of these units at the end of this year (2004), the existing waiting list was reviewed to determine whether there are currently persons with disabilities on the list. After this review, it was found that there are less than 24 disabled persons on our existing list; thus, it will be necessary to open the waiting list and receive new pre-applications for Section 8 housing assistance in order to take advantage of the leasing opportunities at the Club Nova Apartments. Ccunty staff initially explored opening the waiting list to persons with disabilities only, however, upon consultation with the Greensboro HUD office, staff was informed that the waiting list must be open to all potentially eligible applicants and not just those with disabilities. County staff recommends the PROPOSED date for accepting new pre-applications for the Section 8 Program as September 2, 2004. Application interviews will be conducted at both the Chapel Hill and Hillsborough offices on Tuesdays and Thursdays only from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. This proposed date will allow the department to complete a planned computer system conversion, purge the existing waiting list, notify all interested parties of the opening of the list, and plan for the human resources necessary to resume application intake.