TITLE: Title
Minor Revisions to the Rental and Utility Deposit Assistance Program
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Board to review and consider approving revisions to the Rental and Utility Deposit Assistance Program.
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DEPARTMENT: Manager's Office
CONTACT INFORMATION: Nate Broman-Fulks, nbroman-fulks@townofcarrboro.org, 919-918-7314
INFORMATION: On June 27, 2014 the Board passed a resolution creating a program to assist Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) recipients relocating within Carrboro. This program provided loans for rental and/or utility deposits to HCV recipients whose landlords would no longer be accepting HCVs.
On March 3, 2015 the Board approved allowing this to be a grant program. Staff brought this change to the Board based on feedback from the affordable housing community that HCV recipients were worried they would not be able to repay the loan, and therefore, were turned away from applying for this program.
Since the creation of this program, Carrboro has not received any applications for funding. Town staff discussed some of the potential reasons for this with Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), the main nonprofit working with potential applicants for this program. CEF has successfully worked with HCV recipients to receive funding from a similar program in Chapel Hill. The draft revisions to the program are based off of staff conversations with CEF.
The draft revisions contain three notable changes. The first change opens the eligibility up to more HCV recipients by taking out the stipulation that applicants must be relocating due to their current place of residence no longer accepting HCVs. Staff has found there are other reasons why an HCV recipient may need to move out of their current residence. One example is a resident who receives HCVs was recommended by their doctor to relocate due to health related issues that were being made worse due to their current residence. Removing this stipulation...
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