Affordable Housing Recap

Meeting Our Panelists

Affordable housing, loosely defined by the cost of housing remaining lower than 30 percent of one’s household income, has become a faceted issue gaining a lot of attention in Asheville in recent years. AVLMeetup’s three guest panelists, Sasha Vrtunski, Traci Thompson, and Jonathon Jones, discussed some of the key problems surrounding affordable housing in Asheville. The panel discussion was also dedicated to discussing potential solutions which among a room full of local investors, developers, loan officers, agents, and planners was not met with much consensus.

Vrtunski has spent 30 years working on affordable housing in the Asheville community and is the city’s Affordable Housing Officer. Vrtunski is working toward launching an affordable housing plan for Asheville in September that will evaluate the last few decades and improve upon some of the ongoing issues. Thompson is a housing planner working directly with Land of Sky Regional Council. Jones tackles affordable housing, homelessness, and federal grant programs through Buncombe County’s Community development team.

Problems Surrounding Affordable Housing In Asheville

One of the longstanding issues has been financing the building of affordable housing. Thompson noted that North Carolina has lost more affordable housing units than any other state in the last ten years. Most affordable housing programs within Asheville and the greater Western North Carolina region focus on those with 80% of area median income and below. Due to a lack of affordable housing units combined with Asheville’s cost of living being in the top 25% of the country, those working in affordable housing have expended most of their resources on trying to get rental housing and affordable rental units developed. Despite that 50% of renters are experiencing house cost burden in Buncombe County and surrounding counties, developing rental properties is still the primary focus of the city of Asheville. Between a stark rise in the cost of living in Asheville, low voucher use, and construction issues unique to Asheville’s mountainous terrain, there is an unlimited excess of hurdles that city council members, housing planners, and developers face.

Funding

In 2016 Asheville passed an affordable housing bond for 25 million. The city council hopes to pass another bond in the fall of 2024. Asheville needs to generate more layered funding that is not derived strictly from the government. Preservation funds are a great way for cities or developers to buy an apartment complex and keep it affordable before it gets sold to someone else. Figuring out how Asheville should use its bond money is a large part of Vrtunski’s upcoming housing plan.

Upcoming Bill For Commercial Code in NC

Even more critical than zoning is making changes to the commercial code in North Carolina. Removing duplex, triplex, and quadruplex’s out of the umbrella of commercial code and into the residential code has been a subject of much debate. Builders also need to be more strategic about how they use the limited amount of land they have in Asheville and assess community needs. Currently, a new bill in North Carolina could change commercial coding laws. House Bill 488, which was pushed back to August 16, will directly impact the current provisions to the building code and land development regulations to increase the project cost minimum. Voting and creating partnerships between landowners, property owners, developers and those working within the government is crucial to make housing in Asheville more affordable for the community.