TITLE: Title
Orange County Five-Year Consolidated Plan
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Board to consider approving the submission of the proposed Orange County Five-Year Consolidated Plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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DEPARTMENT: Manager's Office
INFORMATION: A Five-Year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development Programs in Orange County is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order for Orange County, through the Orange County Home Consortium, to receive HOME funds. The Consolidated Plan details the housing needs of low and moderate-income families and special population groups within Orange County. The Plan also outlines the goals and strategies for addressing those needs.
The Town of Carrboro is a member of the Orange County HOME Consortium, along with Orange County, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. The Consolidated Plan must be approved by the governing bodies of the HOME Program Consortium: the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Orange County and Hillsborough Commissioners, and Carrboro Board of Aldermen before it can be submitted to HUD.
As the lead entity of the HOME Consortium, Orange Count hired Urban Design Ventures to develop the Plan. Urban Design Ventures held multiple community meetings, distributed a survey, and held one-on-one meetings to receive input from affordable housing and community service providers, citizens, and government staff on how to prioritize the affordable housing and community development needs in the County. Comments from these sessions and county data were incorporated into the Consolidated Plan.
Orange County and Urban Design Ventures are, at the time of this writing, still working to finish the final draft of the Consolidated Plan. The latest available draft of the Consolidated Plan has been attached for the Board's review.
Although Orange County is the lead entity of the Consortium, it is necessary to have approval of the Consolidated Plan from all four jurisdictions before the document is submitted to HUD by May 15, 2015. After submittal of the Consolidated Plan, each year, the Consortium will submit an annual update to HUD.
Approving Orange County's submittal of the Consolidated Plan allows the HOME Consortium the ability to receive and then distribute federal HOME funds to affordable housing projects and organizations in Orange County, including in Carrboro. This directly supports goals 1.1 (Increase the number of affordable homeownership units), 2.1 (Increase the number of affordable rental units), and 3.2 (Improve opportunities to identify affordability in a project) of the Affordable Housing Goals and Strategies.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: Approval and submission of the Consolidated Plan will allow Orange County to continue to receive federal HOME Program funds through the Orange County HOME Consortium. The Town of Carrboro, as a member of the HOME Consortium provides some matching funds. In FY 2015-16, Carrboro's contribution of matching funds will be $10,524.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends the Board consider approving the submission of the Orange County Five-Year Consolidated Plan to HUD.