Housing GSO: HRA Greensboro Affordable Housing Plan

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY

NOTES | Community Engagement Meetings

• Strategic Code Enforcement: What is actual capacity in Gboro to absorb rehabbed properties and get new owners in? o CHS can be involved in process at the time of assessing costs of rehab o Gene thinks this fits into a larger scale — The City needs to segment out properties in a “continuum of care” of sorts ▪

Far Left: what are the properties that just need education in terms of how to maintain the house before it goes to a broader point? ▪ Middle: Who are the homeowners who have money to pay for repairs, but are getting scammed by contractors? ▪ Far Right: What are the blighted properties that still aren’t being repaired? o Need for homeowner maintenance education as a preventative piece — this is helpful when coming from neighborhood associations — having neighborhood advocates that are trained by City to help their block get that information o Need to promote a list of qualified and reputable subcontractors to help people who don’t know how to navigate the system to get to that repair o Majority of the properties still not repaired from the tornado are from slumlord speculators and/or families in disputes over heir’s ownership — need for title clearance programs • They’ve definitely been able to see the “ripple effects” where neighbors of their repair homes are then using private contractors • Question: when you realize there’s a homeowner who needs a more costly repair, to what degree can you connect to the City’s weatherization/lead-safe programs? o They integrate other funding sources into their work “daily” o Sees it as a puzzle-like problem, plugging the other desired repairs through the homeowner by finding alternative funding, etc. o They always defer to the homeowner’s prioritized needs, but point out other needs as they find them o They say no to funding from Guilford County (and others) because of the requirements for repair tracking data and file maintenance, as well as the limits on repair $1500/home o They don’t want to become involved with City’s LeadSafe program, because of the rules and extra time/diligence you have to do — it becomes a much slower process o “If the City were to push more funding out” : it’d already align with CHS’ use of multiple funding sources and volunteer hour s ▪ They’ve done HOME and CDBG funding before o Challenges: MBE contractor requirements — general issues with subcontractors, who can choose to work with the private developers right now, because there’s so much work, and that will leave out the non-profit needs ▪ Some of the MBE/WBE contractors are not certified in the ways that the City needs ▪ Larger subcontractors aren’t interested, and smaller subs want to work with us but don’t want to go through City certification process ▪ These issues prevent other GCs from operating in this space – CHS and Habitat can’t be the only ones operating in this rehab space, but meeting MBE requirements is an example of a barrier. o SIXTH POINT BECOMES BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF THE CONTRACTORS o Very approving of a standardized form — perhaps even county-wide, if cities were able to align on funding priorities

HR&A Advisors, Inc.

Page 120