HomeMy WebLinkAboutAHAB minutes 021219 Orange County Affordable Housing Advisory Board Minutes
Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Southern Human Services Center— Conference Room D
2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Members Present: Douglas Boemker, Keith Cook (Chair), Olivia Fisher, Tammy Jacobs, Ellie
Kinnaird, Mae McLendon, Noah Oswald, Narayanan Venkatakrishnan Parlikad, Arthur
Sprinczeles and Allison Mahaley(?)
Members Absent: Alison Brown, Nannie Richmond and Blake Rosser
Public Present: Margaret Edwards and Emmy Johnson, UNC-CH Master's in Social Work
Candidates
Staff Present: Sherrill Hampton, Housing and Community Development Director and Diane
Beecham, Community Development Specialist
I. Call to Order/Introductions — The Chair, Mr. Kevin Cook, called the meeting to
order at 6:05 pm. He asked the members present to introduce themselves and tell
where they live in Orange County.
II. Approval of Minutes —The minutes for the January meeting were not available and
will be presented at the March meeting.
III. Board Members' Comments —The Chair stated that he has had some recent
health issues but is thankful that he is still here and able to make it to the meetings.
IV. Annual Work Plan Discussion — Ms. Kinnaird asked about the local rent
supplemental program's inclusion in this year's work plan. Ms. Hampton responded
that the program was developed by the BOCC and staff through the OCHA and so
should not be included as part of AHAB's work plan.
Mr. Cook stated that the list that he provided to the members about potential work
plan activities includes some ideas that were discussed at previous meetings as well
as some of his own ideas. He would like the AHAB to be more involved this year
than in the past. He would like Board members to be more involved in the
community, such as attending other boards and organizations' meetings and
reporting back to AHAB.
There was discussion about the need for a central repository for what services are
available in the County and the organizations that can provide the assistance. Ms.
McLendon responded that the Triangle United Way used to have a resource book,
which may have been called 211 or 311. Ms. Hampton added that DHCD provides
anyone who calls with a two-page list of resources as well as how to access the
gosection8.com website to find properties and landlords that are participating in the
voucher program. There are models of centralized clearinghouses already available,
such as in Mecklenburg County. The AHAB has been talking about this need for a
clearinghouse for many years.
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The Board discussed that the development of a formal clearinghouse for information
regarding food, shelter and safety will be a multi-year effort. The first step for the
Board will be to begin to work on the clearinghouse's system design. The Board
would like to invite Wake County to an AHAB meeting to talk about their set up and
Ms. Hampton responded that she will contact them.
There was discussion that the AHAB should coordinate more closely with OCHA and
provide quarterly reports on their activities to the BOCC.
Mr. Cook indicated that for next year he would like to have all the non-profit housing
providers come to an AHAB meeting to present a progress report on the activities
that they received funding for from the County.
Ms. Kinnaird asked about the process of housing inspections as part of the Housing
Choice Voucher (HCV) program and the fact that landlords do not like the turnaround
time for the inspections. Is there something that can be done about this to increase
landlord participation? Ms. Hampton responded that the timing of inspections is
driven by federal regulations and the challenge is the timely completion of the
repairs. Ms. Hampton explained that process of the initial, annual and special
inspections. As for the initial inspection, if the property does not pass then the HCV
holder cannot enter into a lease with the landlord. As for annual inspections, if
something is found that needs to be fixed, then the landlord has 60 days to complete
them. If the work is not completed within these 60 days, the County must abate
(hold back) the lease payments. If the work is still not done after an additional 30
days, then the landlord is terminated from the HCV program. DHCD tells landlords
that if they have had three consecutive annual inspections where no deficiencies
were found then they should make a request to HUD to allow for inspections every
two years. DHCD's inspection turnaround is good.
Ms. Sykes stated that issues surrounding the rural buffer should also be included on
the "emerging issues" list. The County's Planning Manager should be asked to come
to an AHAB meeting to make a presentation about the rural buffer. Ms. Hampton
responded that there will have to be separate conversations about the rural buffer
and the Greene tract. Presently, the County and the towns are collaboratively
looking at the Greene tract and potential development scenarios (high, medium and
low densities)were discussed at the most recent Assemblies of Government
meeting. The Board agreed to have the discussion about the rural buffer and if it
comes up in any other meetings such as the Assemblies of Government, then that
information will be provided back to the Board.
Another potential action item on the AHAB's work plan is trauma-informed training,
which teaches how to interact with people who have dealt with trauma in their loves.
The action item would be to research what organization could provide this type of
training.
Another action item is to have at least two AHAB members attend the annual
housing conference held in October.
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There was discussion that since the AHAB has eight new members there should be
another bus tour of affordable housing sites in the County. It was also discussed that
there should be amble time to view the sites and time for discussion or questions.
The previous bus tour did not allow for enough time to adequately view the sites and
ask questions; it seemed too rushed.
Mr. Cook stated that another action item is to have DHCD staff come to AHAB
meetings. Ms. Hampton responded that after discussion with the legal department
she will allow the programmatic staff(not clerical or administrative) to attend once a
year. Mr. Cook explained that staff should come to the new member orientation so
to provide information about the DHCD programs. Now, it sometimes takes new
members a couple of years to fully understand the scope of the programs. There
should be a new member orientation once a year and the public should be invited to
attend.
It was decided that the investigation of potential affordable housing funding sources,
such as the Ford Foundation, should be part of the clearinghouse discussion.
Items on the Action List: 1) clearinghouse; 2) bus tour; 3) trauma-informed training;
4) attend the state annual housing conference; 5) expand outreach into the
community by scheduling AHAB meetings at a different location at least once a
quarter; 6) extend an invitation to all the clergy in Orange County to attend an AHAB
meeting to find out what they are doing so as to minimize duplication; 7) as part of
community outreach, explore opportunities to partner with school social workers,
especially in schools in the northern part of the County that have a higher population
of at-risk students; and 8) investigate the possibility of more interaction with the
Human Relations department.
The emerging issues to be included in the Annual Work Plan list are issues
surrounding the rural buffer; gentrification and mobile home parks.
At the next meeting, it was decided that the Board should begin to establish
subcommittees to start work on the Work Plan action items.
The following members indicated that they would attend the following outside board
and agency meetings and report back to AHAB:
Arthur Sprinczeles: Hillsborough Water Board
Ellie Kinnaird: CASA, Empowerment Inc., Community Empowerment Fund
Jenn Sykes: Hillsborough Planning Board, Orange County Transit, Hillsborough
Water Board.
V. Adjournment—On a motion by Noah Oswald and seconded by Tammy Jacobs, the
Board voted to adjourn at 7:45 PM.
Submitted by Diane Beecham, Community Development Specialist
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