Asheville for All

Asheville For All sent the following letter to the City of Asheville’s Community Development Division, in response to a call for public input.

The letter is in support of a staff-proposed amendment that would add below-market-rate multifamily housing construction as one possible category for spending federal dollars. (You may view a presentation on the proposed amendment that was delivered at the February 24th Asheville City Council meeting here.)

* * *

Dear City of Asheville Community Development Division:

We are writing in support of the proposal to add affordable rental construction as a goal to the 2025-29 Consolidated Plan.

Asheville has a housing gap of more than 11,000 homes, and closing that gap is essential to relieving the costs of living for working families. Multifamily construction is the best means that Asheville has to close the gap in a manner that produces housing type diversity, makes efficient use of infrastructure, mitigates sprawl, preserves our environment, reduces transportation costs for working people, and builds the city’s tax base in a sustainable way.

By subsidizing the construction of below-market multifamily homes, this amendment has the additional benefit of meeting the city’s anti-displacement goals and seeing that Asheville may remain a home for all kinds of people.1

Thanks for all that you do,

Asheville For All Lead Organizers

1. Page 68 of Asheville’s 2024 Affordable Housing Plan suggests a role for CDBG/HOME funds in subsidizing multifamily home construction. ↩