Summary: Asheville City Council will consider a resolution acknowledging the harm caused by redlining, urban renewal, zoning decisions, and development pressures, and committing the City to a comprehensive anti-displacement strategy. We appreciate both the depth of the resolution’s historical analysis and the direction it gives the City Manager. But the resolution provides no timeline for developing or implementing the promised protections. Before adopting the resolution, Council should amend it to direct the City Manager to return within 90 days with a step-by-step implementation plan, measurable milestones, meaningful community participation, and a schedule for public progress reports.

The Facts: The resolution would:

• Commit the City to neighborhood stability and helping residents remain in their homes.
• Acknowledge harms caused by redlining, urban renewal, zoning actions, inadequate protections, and development pressure.
• Direct the City to use data to identify neighborhoods particularly vulnerable to displacement and loss of neighborhood identity.
• Call for anti-displacement measures to be integrated into planning, zoning, development review, and housing programs.
• Direct staff to incorporate anti-displacement analysis into the comprehensive rewrite of Asheville’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), so that displacement risks are considered as the City revises its zoning and development rules.
• Prioritize engagement with renters, low-income residents, homeowners on fixed incomes, and other people vulnerable to displacement.
• Direct the City Manager to assess existing tools, identify additional protections, and develop operational improvements that balance additional housing with protection of communities at greatest risk.

City staff recommends adoption. You can read the staff report and proposed resolution here, and see the presentation slides here.

Our Assessment: We are marking this resolution “questionable” not because we disagree with its direction, but because its promises currently have no timetable or accountability mechanism.

GAPavl has been involved in conversations with the City about this policy direction, and we appreciate that the resolution does more than use the word “displacement.” It expressly connects present housing pressures with governmental decisions and historic racial harms. It also recognizes that increasing housing supply and protecting existing communities must occur together.

The steps it outlines are sound, are a meaningful statement of purpose, and are consistent with the recommendations we’ve been making to the City (both publicly and in our direct work alongside staff) for many months. But the resolution does not yet say when the City Manager must present an implementation plan, when the displacement-risk framework will be completed, how residents will shape the work, or how Council and the public will measure progress.

To its credit, Asheville has studied displacement extensively. But without concrete plans and timelines, meaningful action could be delayed indefinitely. Council should adopt the resolution once it has added a requirement that the City Manager return within 90 days with:

• A step-by-step implementation plan
• A list of responsible departments and staff
• Initial deadlines and measurable milestones
• A funded community-engagement process both during the development of the policy and also for regular evaluation of its impact
• A defined role for residents of historically harmed and displacement-vulnerable neighborhoods
• A schedule for regular public progress reports
  

The plan need not solve displacement within 90 days. It should tell Council and the public what will happen next, who is responsible, and when results can be expected.

Things to do: Email City Council and ask members to adopt the anti-displacement resolution, require a concrete implementation plan within 90 days, and approve the Home Repair Policy with transparent and equitable rules for selecting households (see next issue report below).

Email Template: You can send an email to the Asheville 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: AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Strengthen Asheville’s anti-displacement resolution and home-repair program

Dear Mayor Manheimer and Asheville City Council members,

I am writing in support of the proposed anti-displacement resolution and the allocation of $3 million for the Home Repair Program.

I appreciate that the anti-displacement resolution acknowledges the substantial harm caused by redlining, urban renewal, zoning decisions, inadequate protections, and development pressure. Its commitment to neighborhood stability, data-informed decision-making, community engagement, and integration of anti-displacement protections into City policy is an important step.

However, the resolution does not establish a timeline for turning that commitment into action. Please amend it to require the City Manager to return to Council within 90 days with a step-by-step implementation plan. That plan should identify responsible departments, initial deadlines, measurable milestones, a funded community-engagement process both during the development of the policy and also for regular evaluation of its impact, a meaningful role for residents of historically harmed and displacement-vulnerable neighborhoods, and a schedule for regular public progress reports.

I also support the proposed $3 million allocation for home repair. Helping lower-income homeowners address critical repairs is a practical way to prevent displacement and preserve intergenerational stability.

Because the City estimates that this funding may reach only 68–108 households, transparent selection is essential. Please require:

• Clear, publicly available rules explaining how applicants will be prioritized.
• Meaningful preference for households with the lowest incomes and greatest displacement risk.
• Accessible outreach and assistance for heirs’ property owners, people with disabilities, and residents who face language or technology barriers.
• Reasonable hardship protections connected with the program’s five-year loan-forgiveness period.
• Written reasons for adverse decisions and a simple, timely process through which applicants can correct application errors and request reconsideration.
• Public reporting on outcomes by income, race, age, disability, and neighborhood.

Please adopt both proposals while adding the measures necessary to make them meaningfully accountable. Asheville needs an anti-displacement commitment on a concrete implementation schedule, and programs that reach the residents at greatest risk of losing their homes and communities.

Thank you for your leadership.

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Neighborhood]

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