DRAFT
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Work
Session Minutes of the Town of Cary, NC
Affordable
Housing
August
12, 2008
Conference
Room 10035, 316 N. Academy St., Cary, NC
At 5:07 p.m. council members
left Cary Town Hall to tour affordable housing projects within the Town of Cary.
Council members present:
Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Robison, Council Members
Gale Adcock, Don Frantz, Erv Portman and Jennifer Robinson
Absent:
Council Member Jack Smith
The purpose of the tour was to
acquaint council with the type of affordable housing created in the Town of
Cary. Council toured two affordable
housing projects.
The first projected visited by
council was Callan Park (Habitat for Humanity) which consists of five minimally
attached homes. The houses were
designed to follow the look and feel of the existing community.
Council next visited Highland
Village (DHIC) and toured The Commons, which consists of 52 one-bedroom and 16
two-bedroom apartments for seniors 55 and older; the Manor, which consists of 32
one-bedroom apartments for seniors 62 and older; and Highland Village apartments
which have 50 one, two and three bedroom non-age restricted apartments.
Highland Village Towns were under construction and when completed will
feature 48 three bedroom townhomes.
Council was also shown some
rehabilitation housing projects in downtown Cary, which is a program for
low-income homeowners who need one or two major repairs made to their home.
The tour ended at 6:10 p.m.
__________________
Mayor Weinbrecht called the
work session to order at 6:28 p.m.
Present:
Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Robison, Council Members
Gale Adcock, Don Frantz, Erv Portman, Jennifer Robinson, and Jack Smith
Philip Smith of the Planning
Department said that the purpose of the work session is to provide council with
an update to the affordable housing and consolidated plan.
Tracy Stone-Dino, of the
Planning Department, provided an overview of the work session and stated that
the Town has been using two funding sources.
(Staff’s PowerPoint Presentation is attached to and incorporated herein
as Exhibit A.)
Mrs. Robinson asked if the Town
uses Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for rehabilitation and
whether that is considered affordable housing.
Mrs. Stone-Dino said yes. She
said the Town helps individuals who may not necessarily meet the income
requirements but have an apparent need in terms of housing.
Mr. Smith said projects are based on the greatest need, the income of the
family, and the estimated cost of the rehabilitation project.
Mrs. Stone-Dino said that staff
has received feedback that the existing goals established in 2000 are good goals
to build upon. She said that the
Town can continue to build upon its successes through partnerships made with
non-profit organizations and strategically position ourselves with community
resources from the affordable housing fund, the CDBG, and other funding sources.
Mrs. Stone-Dino introduced the
consultants working on the project with the Town:
Dr. Ernest Swiger, Swiger
Consulting, Inc. (Stroudsburg, PA); Carol Lowy, Housing & Community
Development Services, Inc. (S. Jersey, NJ); and, Dr. Ned Murray, Professor at
Florida International University and Associate Director of the Metropolitan
Center at FIU (Miami, FL).
Mr. Swiger reviewed the project
objectives. He said that consultants
met with stakeholders to gathered information.
He said that everyone interviewed agreed there is a need for affordable
housing in Cary. He said they would
like to develop some baseline of support and activity for the program.
Ms. Lowy said that in 1974 when
the housing act was passed by the federal government it was to be a program
operating under a business plan—the concept wasn’t focused on housing.
She said that under the
business plan benchmarks have to be reported to Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) and the community. She said
that the community development fund doesn’t provide the flexibility to build
housing; it allows you to acquire land, pay for soft costs related to developing
housing, and allows for infrastructure and financing, but it doesn’t allow you
to build the actual structure.
Ms. Lowry says that HUD money
is a national objective to assist low moderate income families.
Moderate income is 80 percent of the median income for the area.
She said that within that group 15 percent or less of that income is
considered the lower income group. She
said it’s difficult to providing housing for the 30 percent less than median
income group because of their financial situation.
She said that HUD is looking at increasing the threshold for what is
considered to be affordable housing and local resource subsidize those
structures. She provided examples of
affordable housing projects in
Mr. Murray discussed the
methodology for determining the demand for affordable housing in the Town.
He said that the methodology is based on an economic assessment of Cary,
looking at the relationship between demand and need.
He said that estimates are based on Cary’s current existing sales.
Mr. Portman said a more
appropriate analysis would be to identify the sales of the most affordable 20
percent of homes in Cary, compare the median market average to that income, and
do that for each tier. Dr. Murray
said that is something they will do. He
said it’s a process of looking at where Cary is relative to the various income
categories and comparing it to the typical home price in the Town.
Dr. Murray said that the number
of owner and renter households are currently cost burdened (anything over 30% of
monthly income going toward housing costs).
Mr. Portman asked how those numbers were ascertained.
Dr. Murray said they came from the American Community Survey which is
based on census numbers.
Mr. Swiger reviewed the
preliminary opportunities, challenges, and next steps.
He stated that the affordable housing and consolidated plan has to be to
HUD by mid-May.
Mr. Smith said that staff would
like to get initial direction from council regarding the type and size of the
program they would like to see. He
said that staff would then bring back to council implementation strategies for
different aspects of the plan.
Mayor Pro Tem Robison asked
staff to provide council with more elements of the consolidate plan.
Mr. Jack Smith said that he would like an understanding of Cary’s
existing inventory and who it provides for so that council has the whole
picture. Mr. Murray said their game
plan is to focus on the consolidated plan. He
said that HUD sets the types, amount and analysis of data needed.
He said they need to think about programs, objectives and means.
Mayor Pro Tem Robison said she
would like to have some elements of the consolidated plan done by the next work
session so that council focus on strategy. Mr.
Portman said he would like a statistical analysis of Cary and some best
practices in terms of what can be done. Mr.
Frantz would like focus to be on incenting the private sector for some
contributions.
Mayor Weinbrecht said he would
like to see data inside of the Maynard loop as opposed to outside of the loop.
Mayor Pro Tem Robison said she would like to see geographic strategies.
Mrs. Robinson said that houses needing rehabilitation are inside the
Maynard loop; she would like to target affordable housing outside of the Maynard
loop. She said the school system looks at free and reduced lunch as a means of
assigning children and dispersing affordable housing outside of the Maynard loop
would help some of those families.
Mr. Frantz said he would like
council to tour some of the projects that they don’t want to encourage; he
would like to see some of the projects that were done 5 or 10 years ago and
identify things they don’t want to repeat.
Mr. Smith said that staff will
schedule another work session later in the fall to provide more data to council.
Mr. Jack Smith said there needs
to be a lot of interacting with council along the way, prior to the next work
session.
The work session ended at 7:52
p.m.