ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. — Cities and counties all across the state are proposing their annual budgets, including Orange County, which held its first public hearing on the budget Tuesday night.
Among the recommendations were a half cent tax increase, a 10% increase in funding for schools and millions of dollars for a behavioral health crisis diversion facility. Affordable housing could also get $15 million over the next 10 years under the proposed budget.
There’s a 32-acre site in Chapel Hill known as Weaver’s Grove that will eventually have 238 homes, and 102 of them will be affordable Habitat homes.
“We just did an application cycle for the first homes at Weaver's Grove and we received more than 250 applications, and that's just for the first six or seven homes here,” said Jennifer Player, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County.
It’s a $30 million project so when Player heard that Orange County’s new proposed budget recommends $15 million for affordable housing over the next 10 years, she was impressed.
“Both the county and the town of Chapel Hill have both made investments to make Weaver's Grove possible. And so, while we are almost ready to build homes here, we are looking at our next projects throughout the county,” Player said.
Player says the county has to consider a lot of needs in the budget and she hopes housing will continue to be prioritized.
“The county's really putting their chips on the table and saying, 'we believe that our community should have more affordable housing and that everyone who lives in this community deserves a decent place to live,'” Player said.
Orange County officials say that inflation impacted the budget process including cost of bids for construction jobs, employee pay and even the price of supplies like gas for county vehicles.
The next public hearing for the proposed Orange County budget will be on June 1 at 7 p.m.