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Home My WebLink AboutOCHA Minutes 11-18-21 ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY n4vCHCD BOARD MEETING MEETING MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING&COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 6:00 PM VIRTUAL MEETING: https://zoom.us/l/98126441099 Attending: Tammy Jacobs, Evelyn Johann, Corey Root, Blake Rosser, Michael Webb MINUTES There was not a quorum present, so October minutes are tabled until the December Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA) Board meeting. PROGRAM MANAGER REPORT Blake Rosser, HCV Program Manager, gave a report on the monthly operations of the Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA). • HCV staff have re-processed 40 of the 49 November recertifications to reflect the higher payment standards —four of the voucher holders received lower rent portions • DISCUSSION ITEM —currently OCHA issues Housing Choice Vouchers only for people who are connected with the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness (OCPEH) HOME Committee who are experiencing homelessness; should OCHA also issue vouchers to people on the HCV waiting list who are not experiencing homelessness o How many vouchers does OCHA cycle through in a month? Hard to tell because staff have been extending vouchers indefinitely during COVID; attrition rate is 3/month o What happened to the Local Voucher program? It was never implemented and was morphed into the Emergency Housing Assistance program o The alternative would be to keep issuing vouchers to people exiting homelessness, without pulling from the general waiting list o A related question is opening the waiting list—allowing people to apply to join the HCV Waiting List; Opening the waitlist would give people false hope since there are so few vouchers that could be issued o Purging the waitlist could be a good idea o Some of the search times could be tightened up a bit o Could issue one voucher per month, pull 5 or so folks from the existing waiting list understanding that some people will not be eligible o Will revisit this conversation when new OCHA Board members are seated in the coming months Mailing Address: P.O. Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Main Office:300 W.Tryon Street, Hillsborough,NC 27278 Chapel Hill Office:2501 Homestead Road,Chapel Hill,INC 27516 Telephone(919)245-2490• Fax(919)644-3056 ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY n4vCHCD BOARD MEETING MEETING MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING&COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 6:00 PM VIRTUAL MEETING: https://zoom.us/l/98126441099 • One extra HUD-VASH voucher was awarded —this is the program for homeless veterans operated in conjunction with the Durham Veterans Administration. OCHA now has 21 total HUD-VASH vouchers; staff will check on the ability to reapply for more vouchers • Staff are hoping to implement Project Based Vouchers (PBVs) in Spring 2022. These are the vouchers that are tied to units rather than being tied to tenants. There are 2-3 projects that will start construction in 2022-2023 that want to use PBVs including the Trinity County RAID conversion from Chapel Hill Public Housing. Staff will seek out training on RAID to better understand the requirements for these PBVs. • OCHA awarded the first two (of 19 available) Emergency Housing Vouchers. These are the additional housing vouchers funded via the American Rescue Plan; each EHV voucher holder has a $3500 service fee, staff working to revive a furniture program • Staff are in a holding pattern on a few areas o Four HCV holders are interested in Homeowernship Vouchers and are awaiting taking the required homeownership course o OCHA and Dept. of Social Services staff are awaiting award notice from HUD for 5 vouchers for people aging out of foster care in the Foster Youth to Independence program o Staff continue to work on converting the database from Elite to Yardi — vendors are submitting a proposal request now • Staff continue to see many people in housing search —there is a virtual landlord briefing scheduled for December; staff will also work with staff from the OC Partnership to End Homelessness to let service providers know about the increase in Fair Market Rent available for people with HCVs who are in housing search • Staff continue to work with HUD and the Orange County Finance Department to straighten out accounting and financial practices Mailing Address: P.O. Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Main Office:300 W.Tryon Street, Hillsborough,NC 27278 Chapel Hill Office:2501 Homestead Road,Chapel Hill,INC 27516 Telephone(919)245-2490• Fax(919)644-3056 ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY n4vCHCD BOARD MEETING MEETING MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING&COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 6:00 PM VIRTUAL MEETING: https://zoom.us/l/98126441099 Monthly Overview • PROGRAMMATIC REPORTS— Utilization continues to be favorable WIVW October i Number of Vouchers(excluding PIV,VASH) 643 Number of Household Participants(including POV, PIV,VASH) 564 Number of OCHA Households(excluding POV, PIV,VASH) 533 Voucher Utilization 88% (83%) HAP Utilization 97% • No major changes in expenses, October expenses: Housing Assistance Payments(HAP)-excludes Port-Out/in&WASH HAP iPrograms Paid on 1st of the month $353,180 VASH $11,422 Paid after 1st of the month(pro-rated) $406 PIV(Port-In) $9,021 Total-October $353,586 POV(Port-Out) $8,032 HOV(Homeownership) $1,856 Total $30,331 • Leasing is steadily increasing - P Jan 496 $325,399 24 $656 Feb 504 $334,868 15 $664 Mar 518 $343,981 19 $664 Apr 528 $349,770 14 $662 May 541 $357,209 11 $660 June 546 $364,873 6 $668 July 551 $361,778 8 $657 Aug 555 $364,438 3 $657 Sept 562 $369,873 3 $658 Oct 561 $374,896 6 $668 TOTAL 109 $663 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Main Office:300 W.Tryon Street, Hillsborough,NC 27278 Chapel Hill Office:2501 Homestead Road,Chapel Hill,NC 27516 Telephone(919)245-2490• Fax(919)644-3056 ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY n4vCHCD BOARD MEETING MEETING MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING&COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 6:00 PM VIRTUAL MEETING: https://zoom.us/l/98126441099 • No hearings were held this month FEEDBACK REQUEST Funding is available via the American Rescue Plan through the HOME-ARP program. There are four eligible categories of uses: • Affordable housing development • Rental assistance • Development of non-congregate shelter • Services This funding is designated to serve people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, people at greatest risk of housing instability, people fleeing domestic violence, and veterans who fit into these categories. HOME funds, including HOPE-ARP funds, are administered by the HOME Consortium, also known as the Local Government Affordable Housing Collaborative — this group is seeking feedback from a wide variety of community stakeholders, including from the OCHA Board. People can submit comments via a survey --tinyurl.com/OC-HOME- ARP—or send them directly to Corey Root, croot@orangecountync.gov, 919-245-2492. BOARD MEMBERS • 2 new OCHA boardmembers have been recommended to Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) - Valerie Sauer and Dennis Carmody, their nominations will be considered at a December BOCC meeting • There is currently one opening, and two applications have been received (Jana Murdock and Saru Salvi). OCHA will not consider these applications and work to recruit another HCV program participant to have more than one participants on the OCHA Board A motion was made to adjourn the meeting [Jacobs, Webb]. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Main Office:300 W.Tryon Street, Hillsborough,NC 27278 Chapel Hill Office:2501 Homestead Road,Chapel Hill,INC 27516 Telephone(919)245-2490• Fax(919)644-3056