The City of Asheville has taken a step forward in its long, often-delayed Affordable Housing Plan journey by contracting with Enterprise Community Partners, a Florida-based nonprofit. The contract is partially funded by Dogwood Health Trust, the nonprofit organization set up using part of the HCA purchase of Mission Health Care five years ago.
Equitable Housing Solutions, the part of Enterprise Community Partners that focuses on analyzing and developing affordable housing options, held a public “community feedback” session on March 27, 2024 to determine which of many ideas had the strongest community support. The presenters were Bithia Palmer, Director of EHS, and Jerah Smith, the project director for the Asheville project.
Some major questions have to be addressed before goals can be set and solutions designed to meet those goals; without such preliminary information a mismatch between goals and solutions can hamper success.
Who lives here today?
A far lower percentage, around 11%, of Asheville’s and Buncombe County’s population is African American than its historic norm of 18% to 20%. In part, that diminishing number results from the rapid growth of the population through in-migration—especially since Covid broadened the use of offsite work options—comprising retirees, artists, and young entrepreneurs, almost all of whom are white. Additionally, long-time programs of Urban Renewal (“urban removal”), gentrification of formerly mixed or primarily Black neighborhoods, and lack of affordable housing have driven numbers of Black residents away from the metropolitan region.
The coming decades are expected to see continued growth. According to population forecasts, 75% of all new residents will be over 50, with 1/3 of them 70 or above; only 6% are projected to be younger families and individuals ages 20-49. Therefore, homes that are…
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