AGENDA #5d
memorandum
to: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
from: Loryn Clark, Housing and Neighborhood Services Coordinator
Rae Buckley, Housing and Neighborhood Services Planner
subject: Update: Development of a Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy
date: January 14, 2008
PURPOSE
The purpose of this memorandum is to present a Draft Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy and to discuss next steps in the strategy’s development and implementation.
BACKGROUND
On June 25, 2007, the Town Manager held a listening session for non-profit providers of affordable housing throughout the Chapel Hill community. The Listening Session revealed the primary activities, issues, successes, and challenges for Chapel Hill’s key affordable housing providers. As a follow-up to the Listening Session, we proposed to develop a Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy that would expand on how the activities and issues that were identified in the Listening Session connect with each other and to the entire affordable housing system in Chapel Hill.
On October 8, 2007, the Council adopted a Resolution approving the development of a Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy. On October 30, 2007, we sent an affordable housing survey to 78 individuals representing Town and County advisory board members, affordable housing providers, stakeholders, activists and concerned citizens. We received 19 responses to the survey (24% response rate).
On December 5, 2007, we held two Affordable Housing Roundtable Discussions to receive feedback about affordable housing priorities and solutions. Twenty-three individuals attended the discussions, representing advisory boards, affordable housing providers, stakeholders, activists and concerned citizens.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of the Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the populations, organizations, housing types, and barriers that comprise the affordable housing system in Chapel Hill; and to create a strategy to help advance shared goals for the affordable housing system. Functionally, the strategy incorporates data from multiple sources and provides a concise, point-in-time overview of the affordable housing system’s components, solutions, and priorities.
The objectives of the strategy are to:
Objectives 1 and 2 are addressed in the draft strategy Section 2: Supply and Demand. The supply of affordable housing is illustrated in Table 1: Town of Chapel Hill Affordable Housing Matrix. The matrix offers an inventory of affordable housing units organized by housing type and population. The demand for affordable housing is illustrated through indicators drawn from the U.S. Census and the affordable housing survey. The analysis of demand could be strengthened in the future through research and data collection by Town staff and through collaboration with the University of North Carolina. A more thorough analysis of demand would further inform the strategy’s gap analysis.
Objectives 3 and 4 are addressed in the draft strategy Section 3: Solutions and Priorities. Instead of proposing new solutions, we conducted a literature review of prior discussions, plans, studies, and reports about affordable housing in Chapel Hill, Orange County and the Research Triangle Region (sources are listed in Table 7: Affordable Housing Discussions, Plans, Studies, and Reports 2000-2007). Our review of these sources produced a list of strategies, recommendations, goals, and opportunities that are presented as solutions in Table 8: Town of Chapel Hill Affordable Housing Solutions-Priority Matrix.
To provide a priority framework for the solutions, the matrix is organized by high, medium, and low priorities as well as the need for immediate, intermediate, and long term action. This matrix was discussed at the Affordable Housing Roundtable Discussions but could benefit from further feedback. We note that efforts are already underway to address five out of seven of the solutions in the “immediate, high priority” category. They are:
Objective 5 is addressed in the draft strategy Section 4: Goals. To help set goals for the affordable housing system in Chapel Hill, the strategy could be used as a reference document for elected officials, Town staff, citizens, and affordable housing providers, stakeholders, and activists. We believe the strategy complements existing affordable housing reports and plans by summarizing existing data and solutions into a concise overview of the affordable housing system in Chapel Hill.
The strategy could also be used as a benchmarking tool to evaluate affordable housing efforts in the future. The development of the strategy incorporated public input through the affordable housing survey and roundtable discussions. If conducted annually, these activities, along with the annual budget public forum process, could be an opportunity for interested parties to reevaluate the affordable housing solutions and priorities for progress and relevance.
Finally, we believe the strategy could facilitate ongoing affordable housing collaboration with Orange County, Carrboro, Hillsborough and the University of North Carolina. Although the Town currently cooperates with these entities on many affordable housing projects, strengthening collaborative efforts was a priority that was emphasized during the Affordable Housing Roundtable Discussion. The strategy could provide a common point of origin from which to continue affordable housing discussions and plans.
NEXT STEPS
Tonight’s presentation to the Council of a Draft Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy completes the development plan authorized by the Council’s October 8, 2007 resolution. We believe the draft could benefit from further review and feedback from the Council and the public. If the Council would like this additional input, we could incorporate the comments into the document and return to the Council for review.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that the Council refer the Draft Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy to the Council Committee for Affordable Housing for review and comment. We also recommend that the Committee develop a plan to receive Council and public feedback.
ATTACHMENT