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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-03-2001-5gORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: April 3, 2001 Action Agenda Item No. ~^ SUBJECT: Orange Community Housing Corporation (OCHC)/Community Land Trust in Orange County (CLTOC) Mer er DEPARTMENT: Housing/Comm. Dev. PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Letter from Board Chairs Resolution Letter from OCHC INFORMATION CONTACT: Tara L. Fikes, ext 2490 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 - (Tabled from March 20, 2001 BOCC Durham 688-7331 Meeting) Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To adopt a resolution in support of the merger of the Orange Community Housing Corporation and the Community Land Trust in Orange County. BACKGROUND: The Board of Commissioners has received the attached letter from the Board Chairs of the Orange Cammunity Housing Corporation (OCHC) and the Community Land Trust in Orange County indicating their desire to merge the two organizations. The Orange Community Housing Corporation was incorporated in 1990 to address the afforciable housing needs in the County. SpeciFcally, the mission of the organization is to initiate and support the construction, conversion, or rehabilitation of both rental and owner- occupied housing units for families and individuals in Orange County with incomes at or below SO% of the area median income. The Community Lind Trust in Orange County (CLTOC) was incorporated in May, 1999 to provide a way to create a permanent stock of affordable housing for low and moderate income families in the community. The two organizations have worked together, utilizing the same staff, since the inception of the CLTOC, therefore, this merger is proposed in order to have greater organizational efficiencies by operating as one entity. During a discussion of this resolution at the BOCC meeting on March 20, 2001, questions were raised regarding the status of the Urgent Repair Program administered by the Orange Community Housing Corporation. The Executive Director, Robert Dowling has prepared an update regarding this program which is included with this abstract. Further, Mr. Dowling will be present at the meeting to answer any additional questions regarding this program or the organizational merger. . FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no immediate financial impact. The Board of County Commissioners presently provides administrative financial support to both organizations through the annual non-departmental budget. Should the merger occur, the cumulative total will be requested by one~organization. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board adopt a resolution in support of the merger of the Orange Community Housing Corporation and the Community Land Trust in Orange County. REC'DFEB232001 February 21, 2001 Board of Directors Korth D. Cask Chairman Wayne Kuncl vice-Chairman Josh Gurlifz secretary Rabin .Lsclcey Jaravbs Marion Bnavks Jim F,arnhardt Jim GiUazi weedy Famirrgton Jae Keg Rachael Murphey GarrySrnnce ;John 7Jvrnell' Bob Ward Executive Director RobertD6vwlimg Board of County Commissioners Chapel Hill Town Council Carrboro Board of Aldermen Hillsborough Town Board Dear Orange County Elected Officials: This letter comes to you from Orange Community Housing Corporation (OCHC) and the Community Land Trust in Orange County (CLTOC). As you already know, OCHC has provided staffing for CLTOC since the inception of the land trust in May 1999. After several months of consideration, we believe both organizations would significantly benefit by merging to form one nonprofit corporation. We are writing to request your endorsement of this merger. The primary, and compelling, motivations for merging OCHC and CLTOC are as follows: 1. A merged organization with one board of directors will possess greater clazity of mission and purpose. 2. A merged organization will allow greater operational efficiencies. The merger would be largely transparent to you, our government fenders. A board of directors that will include an appointee from each of the local governing boards will still govern OCHC (which may possibly be renamed in the course of the merger). In fact, we expect many of the existing board members from both OCHC and CLTOC to remain with the new organization. We will retain the same staff and will continue to work on existing projects like Legion Road, Meadowmant, Milton Avenue, the TANF program, etc. However, direction to the staff will come from a single boazd, rather than two independent boards. The new organization will be free to pursue projects within the land trust structure (which will be preferred) or outside of the land trust if necessary. We will also pursue collaborations with other providers of affordable housing. On the advice of our accountant, we hope to make the merger effective on July 1, 2001, the start of the new fiscal yeaz. This will simplify accounting matters for OCHC, CLTOC and the new organization. As we prepaze for this possible merger, we wanted to be su_ re you were all aware of our plans. We very much appreciate the support you have provided us aver the yeazs and we hope to work even more closely with all of you in the future. 3 P. D. Box 307 ~ 104_Clones FexxyRd ~ Carrbom, NC Z75I0 ~ 919--967-154,5 ~ Fax 9I9-96&-40.30 4 In order for us to continue our progress toward a merger, we would like your endorsement as soon as possible. We are happy to provide a presentation ar answer any questions you may have. Please let us knave how we should proceed. Thank you again for your support. Please feel free to call Keith at 471-1537, Alison at 962-6979 or Robert. Dowling at 967-1545 if you have any questions. Sincerely, -, ith D. Cook Baazd Chair OCHC ~~. Alison Weiner Board President CLTOC ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE MERGER OF THE ORANGE COMMUNITY HOUSING CORPORATION AND THE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST IN ORANGE COUNTY WHEREAS, the Orange Community Housing Corporation was incorporated in 1990 as a non-profit organization established address the affordable housing needs in the County; and WHEREAS, the Community Land Trust in Orange County was incorporated in May 1999 as anon-profit organization to provide a way to create a permanent stock of affordable housing for low and moderate income families in the County; and WHEREAS, the Orange Community Housing Corporation has served as the administrator of the CLTOC since its inception; and WHEREAS, each organization has operated with an independent Board of Directors and separate Bylaws; and WHEREAS, after several months of operation, it has become appazent to the two independent Boazds of Directors that it would be more operationally efficient to merge the two groups into one group; and WHEREAS, the two organizations have worked together, utilizing the same staff, since the inception of the Community Land Trust; and WHEREAS, the proposed merger is planned to be effective July 1, 2001; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Orange County Board of Commissioners, that the proposed merger of the Orange Community Housing Corporation and the Community Land Trust in Orange County, NC as described in the February 21, 2001 letter from.the Board Chairs of the two organizations has the support of this Board. This the 3rd day of Apri12001. 6 March 28, 2001 Chairman Steve Halkiatis and the Board of County Commissioners Orange County Hillsborough, NC 27278 Dear Chairman Halkiotis and Board Members: This letter is intended to explain why Orange Community Housing Corporation (OCHC) decided to at least temporarily discontinue our administration of the Urgent Repair Program (URP). In addition, we offer an option for restarting the program later this year. Please understand that this decision was not made lightly. The board and staff of OCHC have supported the program since its inception in late 1997. We recognize that URP offers much needed assistance to some of Orange County's neediest citizens. The decision to discontinue administering the program was based solely on circumstances at the time the decision had to be made, which was in December 2000. The circumstances I refer to include the following: Our rehab manager announced he would be unable to continue with the program after May 1, 2001. He is the third rehab manager to leave the position in three years. The main reason he is leaving is the program requires taa much time for the compensation provided. The rehab manager's decision to leave carne after we learned that two othear employees would be leaving early in 2001. We already knew that a third employee would be leaving in early 2001 to have a baby. Thus, we were losing 2'/s of our 3 ~/z staff members in a two-month period. Faced with this staff turnover, and an extraordinarily busy period (completing and closing on 1~ townhomes on Legion Road, marketing and closing on 4 homes an Milton Avenue, and completing our ZCP requirements for Meadowmant -- all scheduled for the first half of 2001), we were compelled to step back and assess haw the organization could meet these challenges. It was during this critical self-evaluation period that it was deternvned that a merger of OCHC with the Community Land Trust was necessary in order `for either organization to function effectively and achieve its mission. It was also during this process that we realized that in order for URP to be a truly sustainable program, we would have to have afull-time rehab manager on staff. However, since URP is not afull-time program, and since we da not engage in much rehab work, we questioned the need fora ~full- time employee. Ultimately it was decided that we did not have the capacity to manage the URP given our workload and staffing. How Can We Make URP Work? The board of OCHC is interested in continuing the URP. I have discussed this matter at length with Jamie Rohe, who manages the administrative portion of URP for OCHC. It is our belief that URP is best administered by a full-time rehab manager (as opposed to contracting this work out as we have done). However, this rehab manager's salary cannot be solely dependent upon the administrative funding offered by the NC Housing Finance Agency URP program. This administrative funding, like the administrative funding paid through the HOME program, is inadequate to support afull-time employee. Therefore the costs for the rehab manager would need to come from other sources. For OCHC to take on this responsibility, which is not in our proposed budget for 2001-2002, we would need additional funding to support this position. Along with salary, payroll taxes and benefits, we would also incur higher overhead costs for rent, phones, computer, etc. A realistic budget estimate for funding this program would be between $50,000 and $55,000 per year. Some portion of this amount could come from NCHFA if we were to be awarded with additional funding in late 2001. We have also explored the possibility of another agency assuming adntutistration of this program. An agency with existing capacity might be able to administer URP without additional funding. We would be happy to discuss these possibilities with you further. Orange Community Housing appreciates the support provided by the Commissioners, and we want to work with you to continue the Urgent Repair Program. If you would like us to continue to administer this program, we would be pleased to do so if we can assemble the required funding. Thank you again for your continued support. It is my hope that we will work even more closely with the Commissioners, as well as the other elected officials, to provide the services that best meet the needs of the cztizens of Orange County. Sincerely, Robert Dowling Executive Director cc: John Link, Jr. Keith Cook