Town Accepting Applications: $1.75 million Available to Create Affordable Housing Opportunities

The Town of Chapel Hill is accepting applications to create affordable housing opportunities in the community through noon Friday, May 1, 2020.

Awards will be made from the Town’s Affordable Housing Bond and Affordable Housing Development Reserve (AHDR).  In November 2018, Chapel Hill voters expressed their overwhelming approval of an Affordable Housing Bond Referendum. $1.5 million of the Bond funds is planned to be made available to outside agencies for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Chapel Hill.  Eligible uses of the Bond funds are:

• Acquisition

• Home Repairs

• New Construction

Outside agencies may also apply to the AHDR.  There is currently $250,000 available for this application period.  Since its creation, the Town has supported the development of 294 units of affordable housing with funding from the AHDR. The total funding available this fiscal year in the Affordable Housing Development Reserve was $688,395.  Eligible uses of AHDR funds are:

• Land bank and land acquisition

• Rental subsidy and development

• Homeownership development and assistance

• Future development planning

The Town’s Housing Advisory Board will evaluate applications and their recommended funding plan will be presented to the Town Council for final approval in May 2020.  This is subject to change, based on the impact of COVID-19.  To access the funding application and learn more, visit https://bit.ly/2vDWWne.

This is the first round of Bond funds being made available.  Another round of Bond funding is anticipated within the next two years.

Your Input Requested on Local Housing and Community Development Needs

The Town of Chapel Hill is seeking input on local housing and community development needs of Chapel Hill and Orange County to help shape future plans.

These plans -- the Orange County Five-Year Consolidated Plan, Annual Action Plan, and Assessment of Fair Housing -- inform how funding is allocated from the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to support community development and affordable housing initiatives.  Take the survey or learn more at http://orangecountync.gov/2337/HOME-Consolidated-Plan.

There will be a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the Hargraves Community Center, 216 N. Roberson St., Chapel Hill, NC  27516, and a virtual meeting to solicit input from residents, community organizations, and local interest groups.  For additional information on these meetings, visit https://orangecountync.gov/2337/HOME-Consolidated-Plan.

Consolidated Plan Questionnaire

The Consolidated Plan Questionnaire is an important method for understanding the needs of our community residents and gathering their input on how to allocate these funds. As a bonus, one respondent will win a $100 Amazon gift card.

Consolidated Plan Questionnaire (English)

Cuestionario del Plan Consolidado (Español)

Draft Goals & Next Steps

Input into community needs and priorities will be gathered from the questionnaire and public input meetings through Feb. 26. This input, along with relevant data, will be used to develop the Consolidated Plan draft goals. Goals will be updated as more information is received and will be available for review and comment in mid-March.

For more information, contact Erika Brandt at ebrandt@orangecountync.gov or 919-245-4331.

Volunteers Needed: Help Our Neighbors Who Are Experiencing Homelessness

The Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness (OCPEH) is working on back-to-back events to help our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness. OCPEH is a coalition of service providers, local governments (including the Town of Chapel Hill) and community members who work together to coordinate funding and bring best practices to the work of ending homelessness in Orange County.

A Point-in-Time count of people experiencing homelessness will be conducted on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Volunteers are needed. Sign up to help with this annual count here. Another way to help is by donating items for “Thank You” bags for people who participate in the survey. Find more information and sign up to volunteer at ocpehnc.com/point-in-time-count.

Project Connect returns on Thursday, Jan. 30! This one-day event has a new location -- the United Church of Chapel Hill at 1321 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Many different services will be available under one roof.

Volunteer slots are available the afternoon of Jan. 29 and all day on Jan. 30 – sign up here.

Donate household goods, cleaning products, toiletry items, and clothing to be distributed at Project Connect. These items will be available at the event for people to take what they need. Please drop off donated items at the United Church of Chapel Hill, 1321 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., between noon and 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Project Connect typically serves 100-200 guests.

For more information on Project Connect, visit ocpehnc.com/projectconnect

Share the Project Connect flyer! English | Spanish

Housing & Community Development RFP for professional services

The Orange County Department of Housing and Community Development is soliciting Request for Proposals from qualified individuals and planning consulting firms to provide professional services in the preparation of the Orange County HOME Consortium’s Five Year Consolidated Plan, Annual Action Plan and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. Specifically, this RFP is for the community engagement portion of the Plan to include the planning, coordination and execution of numerous community meetings, surveys and webinars and the qualitative data collection and analysis required to achieve full community engagement for preparation of the Plan.

The specific services requested by Orange County are detailed in the Request for Proposals. Copies also may be obtained from the Department of Housing and Community Development, 300 W. Tryon Street, 3rd Floor, Hillsborough NC 27278, during normal business hours. It is also available electronically by submitting a request to esutton@orangecountync.gov.

The deadline for submission of proposals is Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, at 4 p.m. in the Department of Housing and Community Development, 300 W. Tryon Street, 3rd Floor, P.O. Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278.

For more information or additional clarification, please contact:

Ms. Emila Sutton, Director

Orange County Department of Housing and Community Development

300 W. Tryon Street, 3rd Floor

P.O. Box 8181

Hillsborough, NC 2727

Telephone (919) 245-2490

Fax (919) 644-3056

Chapel Hill Expanding Efforts to Preserve Affordable Housing

The Chapel Hill Town Council recently reviewed and discussed a Draft Affordable Housing Preservation Strategy Framework to implement a strategic approach for preserving existing affordable housing in the Town, one of Town Council’s 2020-2022 Strategic Goals.  The Preservation Strategy is a tool to create a proactive and comprehensive approach to preserving affordable housing in town and mitigating the impact of redevelopment on low-moderate income residents.

The Town’s current preservation activities include funding homebuyer subsidy for purchasing homes and home repairs, supporting the Northside Neighborhood Initiative, and the Rental and Utility Assistance and Housing Displacement Assistance Programs, among other activities. The Town’s Preservation Framework calls for building on these strategies, scaling them, and implementing new strategies that will increase the Town’s ability to support preservation efforts. 

The three primary objectives of the Framework are to:

1.      Preserve existing affordable housing

2.      Improve or maintain quality of affordable housing, and

3.      Provide tenant protections and support for households at risk of displacement.

Many benefits come with preserving affordable housing, including: maintaining a range of housing options for residents, allowing residents to stay in their community, and retaining socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods.

Next steps for the Town are to implement Council feedback, refine and build out the Framework, then begin implementing Framework strategies in winter 2020.

Full Council meeting details, documents, and video can be viewed here.

Now Accepting Applications to Create Affordable Housing Opportunities

The Town of Chapel Hill is accepting applications to create affordable housing opportunities in the community through noon Wednesday, December 4, 2019.

Awards will be made from the Town’s Affordable Housing Development Reserve (AHDR), established by the Town Council in March 2015. Since its creation, the Town has supported the development of 286 units of affordable housing with funding from the AHDR. The total funding available this fiscal year in the Affordable Housing Development Reserve is $688,395.

The Town of Chapel Hill will accept applications for the following priority project areas:

• Land bank and land acquisition

• Rental subsidy and development

• Homeownership development and assistance

• Future development planning

The Town’s Housing Advisory Board will evaluate applications and present a funding recommendation to the Town Council for final approval in January 2020. There will be up to one additional funding cycle this fiscal year (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).

New this year, the Town is rolling out a streamlined application for all local affordable housing funding sources, including the AHDR. The application deadline is 12:00 pm Wednesday, December 4, 2019.  To access the application and learn more, visit http://bit.ly/2GBEtKV.

Affordable Housing Year in Review

Watch the Town of Chapel Hill's key affordable housing and community connections accomplishments over the past year.

In Fiscal Year 2019 (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019), the Town made more progress towards advancing Council’s affordable housing goals.  Highlights from the year include:

• Approval of a bond referendum to provide up to $10 million for affordable housing that was overwhelmingly approved by Chapel Hill voters in the November 2018 election.

• Deploying $1.2 Million to community partners for affordable housing development and preservation projects.

• Supporting the development of over 80 new affordable housing units and the preservation of nearly 150 units of affordable housing in the community, surpassing our annual target by nearly 20%.

• Completing phase two of Greenfield, the first low income housing tax credit project in over a decade in Chapel Hill, which added 69 units of affordable housing for low-income seniors.

• Acquiring nine units to our Transitional Housing Program. Our portfolio of homes now serves 17 families transitioning out of public housing to work towards their family’s housing and financial goals.

• Completing an analysis of Town-owned land to determine the feasibility of affordable housing development, and making progress toward developing a mixed-income affordable housing development on the Town-owned land on Homestead Road.

• Establishing new programs to respond to community needs, including the Housing Displacement Assistance Program and the Employee Housing Program.

For more information about our progress, see our quarterly reports here. 

Now Accepting Applications to Create Affordable Housing Opportunities

The Town of Chapel Hill is accepting applications to create affordable housing opportunities in the community through noon Friday, August 30, 2019.

Awards will be made from the Town’s Affordable Housing Development Reserve (AHDR), established by the Town Council in March 2015. Since it’s creation, the Town has supported the development of 286 units of affordable housing with funding from the AHDR. 

The total funding available this fiscal year in the Affordable Housing Development Reserve is $688,395.

The Town of Chapel Hill will accept applications for the following priority project areas:

1. land bank and land acquisition
2. rental subsidy and development
3. homeownership development and assistance
4. future development planning

The Town’s Housing Advisory Board will evaluate applications and present a funding recommendation to the Town Council for final approval in September 2019. There will be up to two additional funding cycle this fiscal year (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).

New this year, the Town is rolling out a streamlined application for all local affordable housing funding sources, including the AHDR.  To access the application and learn more, visit: https://www.townofchapelhill.org/town-hall/departments-services/housing-and-community/funding/affordable-housing-development-reserve

Recognized for Innovation: Chapel Hill’s Affordable Housing Data and Performance Measurement

A national organization focusing on innovation in local government has featured the Town of Chapel Hill’s use of data and performance measures to better understand the community’s complicated and growing affordable housing challenges.

Alliance for Innovation, a national network that connects local government thought-leaders through online discussion, in-person networking and events, hosted a webinar titled “How Performance Measures and Data Can Help Achieve Your Affordable Housing Goals.”

The Town of Chapel Hill’s Assistant Director for the Office for Housing and Community Sarah Osmer Viñas, and the Town’s Affordable Housing Manager Nate Broman-Fulks, focused on how Chapel Hill has turned to data and performance measures to better understand affordable housing challenges, inform decision making, track progress, and increase community knowledge about affordable housing. 

The Town collected and organized data from various data sources into a central database and then developed measurement tools to help monitor progress toward annual affordable housing goals. Data visualization tools like the Affordable Housing Dashboard and Affordable Housing Quarterly Report allow the Town to more clearly communicate its progress and make informed projections that assist in policy creation and investment for the future.

The Town will be presenting the most recent Affordable Housing Quarterly Report at the Town Council Business Meeting on Wednesday, May 22nd. 

For more information visit: https://www.chapelhillaffordablehousing.org/news

The full webinar can be viewed here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/6913689930036266755

Town Holds Housewarming to Celebrate New Affordable Housing in Chapel Hill

Before renovations

After renovations

On Monday, April 29th, elected officials, affordable housing organizations, and community members gathered to hold a housewarming event and celebrate the opening of a new addition to the Town’s permanently affordable housing stock. This newly renovated quadraplex in the Northside neighborhood is the latest addition to the Town’s Transitional Housing Program stock.

The Town’s Transitional Housing Program is designed to assist low-income families working towards their housing and financial goals to transition from subsidized housing to homeownership or renting on the private market.

Collaborative Effort

This new 4-unit affordable housing property was created through a partnership between the Town of Chapel Hill and the Northside Neighborhood Initiative. In 2018, the Town acquired the quadraplex from Self-Help Credit Union through the Northside Land Bank and used Community Development Block Grants to conduct extensive renovations. With renovations complete, the first residents will be moving into their new homes at the beginning of May.