Jamie Rohe

CHAPEL HILL – Orange County is one of the wealthiest counties in the state—but when affluence is prevalent in an area, poverty and those affected by it can be pushed aside. Jamie Rohe is the Homeless Program Coordinator for the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness. “The housing situation has gotten worse because of the recession, and also because of a lack of funding from the state and federal level. A lot of public housing has been privatized over the years. We’ve hundreds of thousands of public housing over the last several decades,” Rohe said. Rohe joined other panelists on the Inconvenient Truths discussion for WCHL’s community Forum. She says there have been enormous cuts in federal funding for affordable housing. Between 1978 and 1983, the Department of Housing and Urban Development experienced a 70 percent drop in their budget. Orange County commissioner Mark Dorosin the state has a wealth classification system for its counties, made up by three tiers. He says there’s certain funding that counties have access to if it’s a Tier One or Tier Two. Orange County is Tier Three—the wealthiest classification. “So in some ways if you’re a low-wealth person, you have better access to getting resources if you’re not in a wealthy county. That is the disparities make it harder to access resources,” Dorosin said. He says periodically, the community is confronted with the...