Orange County NC Website
3 <br /> Commissioner Gordon said that the Section 8 position can be specified, but the rest of <br /> the members should be at-large. The Section 8 position is the only required position. She <br /> asked about the statute. <br /> Geof Gledhill said that this statute is regarding how the appointments work. There is <br /> another statute, which is not in these materials, that says with respect to County housing <br /> authorities, where the term "Mayor" is used, it means Board of County Commissioners. There <br /> does not need to be anything in the bylaws. <br /> Chair Jacobs said that he is not clear that the term definition is referring only to the <br /> Section 8 position. He said that this is saying that, if the Commissioner in the Section 8 Housing <br /> seat on the Authority ceases to receive such assistance, the term would end. He asked that this <br /> be put in the term definition. Jabrina Robinson said that it could be changed. <br /> Geof Gledhill said that there is potential that Orange County could, in the future, create <br /> public housing through the Authority. That is why it is written in this manner, to include that <br /> possibility. <br /> III. Long-Term Affordability Documents <br /> Tara Fikes made reference to her memorandum, which explains how she is trying to <br /> secure the County's interest in long-term affordability in all of the housing projects that receive <br /> County funding. For all affordable housing documents, there are normally four documents that <br /> go along with the money. The first is the development agreement between Orange County and <br /> the development organization, mostly non-profits. This outlines the requirements of the <br /> organization. This is the contract with non-profit organizations. The money is normally provided <br /> as a deferred loan, so there are security documents for the loan such as a deed of trust and a <br /> promissory note. The deed of trust is recorded against the property and is recorded before any <br /> other liens. The restrictive covenants place a 99-year affordability requirement on the property. <br /> Once the property is in ownership of the non-profit organization, the County asks the <br /> organization to immediately record the declaration of restrictive covenants before any other liens <br /> are placed on the property. This has been done with all affordable housing projects. The deed <br /> of trust is recorded in the Register of Deeds so that it becomes a document of record. <br /> There have been a few cases where the County has granted money to non-profit <br /> organizations to help the financials of the projects. In those cases, there have been no deeds of <br /> trust or promissory notes executed. There has been some tweaking over the last couple of <br /> years. <br /> Geof Gledhill said that recently, there was a more sophisticated review of the documents <br /> with the suggestion that they be changed in a fairly significant way. The promissory note that <br /> the County uses for the loans made ends up on the books as a liability for 99 years with the <br /> interest at 10% accruing for 99 years. At the end of the 99-year period of the deferred loan, <br /> there is a huge liability. There was concern about this, and he has been looking at the <br /> transaction from this perspective and made a decision to make the promissory note what is <br /> called non-recourse, which means that, for non-payment of the loan, the County has no <br /> recourse. If the property stays affordable for a 99-year period, then the loan goes away. There <br /> is no expectation to get money back from the loan, but the expectation is for long-term <br /> affordability of the housing. A decision was made to eliminate the possibility that the County <br /> would go after the non-profit if something went bad in the transaction and the property was <br /> taken back, but money was still owed because of the 99-year note with interest accruing. The <br /> County's recourse will be to get the property back only and hopefully it will be turned over to <br /> another non-profit. <br /> In answer to a question by Commissioner Carey, Geof Gledhill explained that if the non- <br /> profit defaults in that it fails to keep the property maintained, then the County would notice a <br /> default on the loan and give them the opportunity to cure the default and get the property in <br />