Partnerships

The Housing Trust is actively pursuing relationships in the public and private sectors to advance programs that will add to the county’s inventory of affordable housing and provide opportunities for homeownership.

To broaden the scope of housing leadership and outreach, the Trust also collaborates with such entities as the Urban Land Institute, the League of California Cities, and the Building Industry Association, as well as the Orange County Association of Realtors, the UCI Paul Merage School of Business-Center for Real Estate, Neighborhood Housing Services of Orange County, and the Orange County Business Council.

Orange County Association of Realtors

Most recently, the Housing Trust has aligned with the Orange County Association of Realtors (OCAR) to generate funding for a program that will:

• Provide financial assistance to qualified low and moderate income, first-time buyers.
• Reduce traffic congestion and shorten commute times by offering incentives for working families to move closer to their workplace.
• Attract and retain younger workers who are impacted directly by high housing costs.
• Encourage first-time buyers to attend a certified home buyer education program taught by Neighborhood Housing Services of Orange County.

Orange County Home Ownership Preservation Collaborative

The Housing Trust is a member of the Orange County Home Ownership Preservation Collaborative. OC HOPC has held ongoing meetings to share resources, coordinate educational forums, discuss solutions, and advocate for collective response to home ownership preservation challenges in Orange County. OC HOPC now has dozens of active participants of diverse expertise in all aspects of home ownership and asset preservation.  In effect, OC HOPC serves as collective voice on the importance of foreclosure prevention throughout the region. The organization leverages local resources whenever possible and ensures that local strategies complement statewide and national initiatives in foreclosure prevention.

Protecting Affordability

A primary goal of the Housing Trust is to preserve housing affordability. To this end, the Trust has also made itself available to Orange County cities to assist in overseeing affordability covenants to ensure they are properly enforced.