Summary: Renters need the support of the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commission. We’re calling on both the City and County to respond to a petition initiated by Asheville Food and Beverage United, and we’re encouraging GAP supporters to show up at the Asheville City Council meeting tomorrow to advocate on behalf of renters. We’d also like to see the City amend a proposal to defer loan payments from affordable housing developers so that it includes a similar extension of grace from those developers to their residents (see template below).

The Facts: Asheville Food and Beverage United are calling on the City Council and the Buncombe County Commission to offer immediate rental assistance, tap into funds collected by the Tourism Development Association, and declare a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions from Housing Authority properties. They have called for folks to show up outside City Hall at 3:30 on Tuesday, November 12th to show support for local renters, and then attend the City Council meeting at 5 pm.

At that City Council meeting, the City will consider Consent Agenda Item N, which proposes a temporary deferral of loan payments from developers who offer affordable housing and have loans via the Housing Trust Fund (Staff Memo).

Our Assessment: We are in support of a temporary deferral of loan payments for affordable housing developers. However, we wonder why this deferral isn’t being coupled with a pledge from these developers to defer rent payments and evictions for their residents – we think the City should insist that its support for these developers is contingent on those developers doing likewise for their residents. Right now, the criteria for these loan deferments does not include any such provision, but we see no reason why it couldn’t be added before being approved.

More broadly, we agree with the goals of the Asheville Food and Beverage Union petition, which calls on the City and County to step forward to support renters right now in all possible ways. We agree with the idea of using $3 million in HUD money for this purpose, pushing for significant reallocation of Tourism Development Authority dollars to supplement that, and the declaration of an immediate rent freeze and eviction moratorium for all Housing Authority residents. 

Our Ask: We suggested three actions related to this issue.

• Sign the Asheville Food and Beverage Union petition. 
• Email City Council about the affordable housing developer loan deferment program. 
• Come and show support for these issues at the City Council meeting on November 12th.

Report Back

The City Council and City staff discussed these issues at their November 12th meeting. 

• With regards to the rental assistance petition, the City said they were doing what they could to appeal to state officials. While we continue to think that more urgent requests should be made, we have no concrete suggestions for what City officials should be doing differently.
• They also discussed our proposal that they include a rent deferral criterion in their consideration of which affordable housing developers should receive loan deferrals. City staff said they didn’t have capacity to monitor the rent deferral practices for developers, but that their general impression was that rent deferrals were being offered. The City Council voted unanimously to approve the loan deferral proposal as is. We believe that the City should have greater responsibility for ensuring housing developers are held accountable to providing this valuable rent-deferral support to their residents if they are receiving the benefits of loan-deferrals from the City. 

GAP Supporter Actions Taken: 21