Asheville – Mayor Esther Manheimer began Asheville City Council’s meeting on a somber note. “Well, as we say that Pledge of Allegiance tonight, I would say that it has a resonating meaning for me, and I think for a lot of people, as we face a lot of challenges in our nation and a lot of questions that are being created in our communities. We want to send our hearts out to anyone who does not feel safe and secure in their homes and in their businesses in our communities. We think of Asheville as a place that’s open and welcoming to everyone, and I hope that that continues to be the case.”
The memorandum on the “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs,” issued by Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, had been issued just one day prior. The pause was set to go into effect just as the meeting started. Manheimer said every head of government in America, from leaders of federal departments to school superintendents, was now “trying to find guidance” on what this memo meant. Written in broad, colloquial terms, it announced that federal funds would cease to be available for programs that did not replace the “woke agenda” with “the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential [sic.] priorities.” Given the outright dependencies state and local governments now have on federal funds, noncompliance would effectively be a cease-to-exist order.
Philosophically, the proverbial punchbowl had been taken away from the welfare state party. Pragmatically, many people were going to endure real physical pain. Would the city lose all its hurricane recovery funds because of its preferential policies for contracting with woman- and minority-owned businesses? Would poor and disabled people be kicked out of public housing because some leader somewhere didn’t remove his pronouns from his electronic signature? As much as one may despise the woke agenda, it would be difficult to comply with top-down orders to conform to a presumption of tyranny of the majority and uphold one’s oath of office. Yanking back funds that have been promised to the poor and needy begged the question: What un-American force is behind this?
Throughout the meeting, comments would be made about the uncertainties imposed by the pause memo. Manheimer was hopeful that all the pushback and litigation descending on the White House from groups like the National Council of Nonprofits and the American Public Health Association would return council to its regularly scheduled programming. Fortunately for suing plaintiffs, the next day, a federal judge placed a temporary injunction on the pause orders until she could figure out what the memo was trying to say. Shortly thereafter, the White House rescinded the orders in the memorandum. What was a victory for hurricane victims, however, only piled on the heartburn for anyone trying to reconcile this now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t decree with the rule of law. Now on pins and needles, public leaders could only wonder, “What’s next?”
Prior to the rescission of the pause, however, council heard a manager’s report on affordable housing. Council had floated bonds and set big goals. On September 24, Community and Economic Development Director Nikki Reid updated council on the progress being made toward constructing hundreds of units. Then, Helene came along and destroyed thousands of homes in Asheville alone. So, Reid and Planning and Urban Design Director Steph Monson Dahl were invited back for a reupdate. City Manager Debra Campbell explained that staff had to pivot to address the housing losses, and some plans had to be delayed, but they are not forgotten.
Reid boldly spoke of priorities like equity and anti-displacement guiding staff’s actions in applying for federal housing funds. These fluff terms would normally blow in one ear and out the other, except Reid was demonstrating that the mayor wasn’t messing around when she spoke about Asheville staying the course and being welcoming and inclusive. Unlike with the flash-in-the-pan memorandum, staff had begun getting clarification on terms and conditions for federal Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Relief funds. Ironically, the city elected to “press pause on” two of its programs: one was tax relief for low-income homeowners, and the other was its Land Use Incentive Grants (LUIGs). “We’re going to press pause to those policy revisions only to understand what our budget reality is and how we could improve that policy to fit within our budget reality,” said Reid.
Editors Note: On January 14, the City of Asheville announced that HUD had allocated $1.2 billion to the state of North Carolina and an additional $1.6 billion to North Carolina communities for Hurricane Helene disaster relief. Of the latter, Asheville was awarded $225 million.