Affordable Housing Crisis: City Policies Cause Landlords To Quit
Are we losing affordable housing due to city policies toward the homeless, and nonprofit attitudes once people are in affordable housing? At what point do vagrant's and addict's rights end, and the taxpayer/landlord's rights begin—rights and services that they pay dearly for?
Revitalizing Asheville: Auditorium Woes and Affordable Housing Plans
Mayor Esther Manheimer suggested that Asheville City Council revisit what appear to have been commitments to capital investment that fell by the wayside. These investments include funding needed repairs for the now offline Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, reconsidering the highest and best use for the Pit of Despair, and building affordable housing into an upgraded transit station downtown.
Raising the Bar for Affordable Housing
Laurel Street, a Minority- and Women-Owned Business, is partnering with the City of Asheville to build affordable housing on city-owned land. President and CEO Dionne Nelson offered to make 20% of the 221 units affordable to persons earning no more than 60% AMI and another 10% affordable to persons earning no more than 80% AMI. The requested conditional zoning was approved, but members of council would have preferred more sub-market rents, more amenities, and more green features.
Affordable Housing on Prime Real Estate
The Development Finance Initiative of the School of Government is moving forward with selecting which parcels owned by Buncombe County in downtown Asheville will be converted into affordable housing developments. Also, the commissioners are leaning toward imposing a one-year moratorium on crypto farms.
Compounding the Housing Crisis
For years, conservative think tanks have been compiling reports demonstrating what should be obvious: zoning and land-use regulations pose costs of compliance that drive up the price of housing, significantly contributing to shortages in affordable housing. The reviewed article, by Vanessa Brown Calder, is an oldie but a goodie.
Manheimer Asks: Leverage Revenues for Affordable Housing Tax Credits?
Before awarding over $1.6 million in tax abatements to a developer of 29 affordable housing units, Asheville's Mayor Esther Manheimer asked if it wouldn't make more sense to let the developer build market-rate housing, collect the taxes, leveraging the revenues for affordable housing tax credits.
Tourists to Subsidize Affordable Housing?
Citizens petitioned the Buncombe County Commissioners to lobby the General Assembly to modify how the room tax is allocated and divert funds into the creation of affordable housing.
Buncombe Reviews Affordable Housing Policy
Irony was lost on the Buncombe County Commissioners as they discussed how the government was going to create more affordable housing with bond and tax revenues, not by building it but by subsidizing the costs of administering government grants to that end.
Asheville Housing Authority Ushers in New Affordable Housing Development
The "Reimagining Deaverview" initiative's first phase is a new rental complex with 82 apartments.
Council Slow to Fund Housing Urgency
Six years after voters passed a $25 million bond referendum for affordable housing, a change in plans left the Asheville City Council at-risk of forfeiting $6 million in proceeds. Here's how the council legitimized missing the deadline for spending all funds.