Summary: The Asheville Housing Recovery Board is considering a proposal to shift $19.2 million in disaster recovery funding away from affordable housing construction and toward single-family home repair and reconstruction. We support helping homeowners recover from Hurricane Helene, but we do not believe the City should do so by sacrificing hundreds of affordable housing opportunities. Asheville should – and can – pursue both goals.

The Facts: On Wednesday, June 3, the Housing Recovery Board will consider a proposed amendment to Asheville’s CDBG-DR Action Plan.

The City’s original recovery plan allocated:

• $28 million for affordable multifamily housing construction.
• $3 million for single-family home repair and reconstruction.

City staff are now proposing to:

• Move $9.2 million from the affordable multifamily housing program.
• Move $10 million from infrastructure funding.
• Increase the single-family repair and reconstruction program from $3 million to $22.2 million.

According to City staff, the current allocation is expected to serve approximately 8 households through home reconstruction, while the proposed amendment would serve approximately 60 households. Staff estimate that maintaining the current multifamily allocation would support roughly 600 affordable housing units, while the proposed amendment would reduce that number to approximately 400.

The City notes that multifamily housing maximizes the number of households served and creates long-term affordability, while single-family repair prevents displacement and preserves generational wealth.

You can see the presentation slides that will be shared at the meeting here.

Our Assessment: We agree with City staff that homeowners affected by Hurricane Helene need help rebuilding their homes.

We also agree with the many housing advocates, nonprofit leaders, and affordable housing providers who have warned that reducing affordable housing investments would be a serious mistake. (Many of them are quoted in this Asheville Watchdog article.) Asheville is experiencing a housing crisis that predates Hurricane Helene and continues today. Hundreds of low-income renters remain unable to find housing they can afford.

The proposed amendment would help additional homeowners, but it would do so by reducing the City’s ability to create affordable rental housing that could serve hundreds of households for decades to come.

This is a false choice. Asheville should not have to choose between existing homeowners and future affordable housing residents.

We have discussed this issue in several past GAP Reports:

• https://gapavl.org/asheville-needs-to-prioritize-deeply-affordable-housing-with-recovery-money/
• https://gapavl.org/asheville-should-move-forward-with-the-proposed-cdbg-dr-affordable-housing-investments/
  

Our Proposal: We encourage the Housing Recovery Board and City Council to reject the amendment in its current form and pursue a solution that supports both home repair and affordable housing construction.

The City should preserve its commitment to affordable multifamily housing while identifying additional resources to address home repair and reconstruction needs. One potential source is local housing bond funding, which could be used to help homeowners recover without sacrificing affordable housing opportunities created through disaster recovery funds.

Asheville has an opportunity to demonstrate that recovery can both preserve existing communities and create new affordable housing opportunities. We should not pit one goal against the other.

Things to do: Submit a public comment to the Housing Recovery Board and City Council urging them to revise the proposal so Asheville can support both affordable housing construction and home repair.

Email Template: You can send a public comment email to the members of the Asheville Housing Recovery Board and City Council by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to the recipients, and enable us to track how many emails were sent overall in the campaign. If you prefer to write your own email, you can copy and paste (and adapt) our template text – please cc: or bcc: info@gapavl.org on your individualized email, so we can better track how many emails were sent.

Important: If you receive a response to your email, please forward it to us at info@gapavl.org so we can reflect that in the report back.

To: housingrecoveryboard@publicinput.com, AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Support both affordable housing and home repair

Dear Housing Recovery Board Members and City Council Members,

I support helping homeowners recover from Hurricane Helene, and I appreciate the City’s efforts to address those needs.

However, I am concerned about the proposal to reduce funding for affordable multifamily housing in order to expand the single-family repair program. Asheville needs both affordable rental housing and assistance for homeowners who are struggling to rebuild.

The good news is that we can do both: we can use the federal CDBG-DR funds to focus on multifamily affordable housing, and use other funding (such as the housing bond) to support home repair and reconstruction by local builders such as ARCHR. By using locally controlled funding, work on those single-family houses could begin much more quickly and reach more homeowners. Recovery funding should help us build a more resilient and affordable community, not force an unnecessary choice between two important priorities.

Thank you for your consideration.

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