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Orange County, NC <br />Consolidated Plan for 2000-2005 <br />Executive Summary <br />Background <br />Located in North Carolina, Orange County includes not only the towns of Carrboro and <br />Hillsborough, but also Chapel Hill, the home of the largest campus of the State university. The <br />presence of university students, more affluent and transient than other county residents, has <br />created an imbalance in terms of housing and community development needs. Orange County <br />must, therefore, concentrate its efforts on serving a strong urban community and rural areas as <br />well. <br />The important housing issues in Orange County have not changed. The high cost of <br />homeownership has left many families out of the housing market or sent them to surrounding <br />counties to buy homes and commute into Orange County for work. The rental market, inflated <br />by the ability of UNC-CH students able to pay higher rents, is beyond the means of families with <br />incomes below SO% of the area median. For families in need of three or more bedrooms, very <br />little housing stock exists. The number of women and children staying at the homeless shelter <br />continues to increase dramatically, and transition from the shelter into permanent housing in <br />Orange County is nearly impossible since no transitional housing exists. Housing for special <br />interest groups such as the elderly, persons that are developmentally disabled and persons with <br />alcohol or drug addiction, is limited in Qrange County. <br />Action Plan <br />The Consolidated Plan for Qrange County has a total budget of nearly $1.1 million, of which <br />$466,000 comes from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds and $S36,S50 from <br />HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds (with $98,SS0 in applicant match). <br />Citizen Participation <br />Development of the Consolidated Plan for Orange County was undertaken by a staff working <br />group that included a representative from each participating jurisdiction. Three public hearings <br />were held prior to plan development. The first hearing was held in Chapel Hill on January 31, <br />2000 during a regulazly scheduled meeting of the Chapel Hill Town Council. The second hearing <br />was held on February 29, 2000 during a regulazly scheduled meeting of the Orange County <br />Board of Commissioners. Both hearings were advertised in local newspaper -The Chapel Hill <br />Herald and notices were distributed via the U.S. mail to local non-profit organizations, <br />neighborhood groups, and other interested citizens. A third public hearing was held on Mazch <br />29, 2000 after formulation of the action plan for CDBG Entitlement funding for the Town of <br />Chapel Hill and preliminary development of the HOME Investment Partnership Program funding <br />for the Orange County HOME Consortium. Again, groups were notified of the hearings by <br />newspaper advertisements and the mailing of notices. <br />The Draft Plan was available for review at the Chapel Hill Public Library and the Orange County <br />Public Library during the public comment period April 14 -May 1S, 2000. <br />