The nearly 100-year-old building was originally a hospital for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Now, it’s one of the rare places in Asheville where a family, or a single person, can rent a two-bedroom apartment for under $1,000. It draws tenants who are elderly or disabled, living with young children or are otherwise vulnerable.
The cheap rent comes at a cost for some residents. In a series of interviews with BPR, multiple residents at Evergreen Ridge said that leaky pipes, festering mold and neglected repairs are harming their health. Evergreen Ridge Apartments declined to comment, and its parent company, Shadow Ridge Associates, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mold trouble isn’t a problem unique to Evergreen residents.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, residents across the region are expressing more concern about mold problems. In early June, Buncombe County surveyed 210 randomly selected households after Hurricane Helene, asking them to rank their biggest post-storm health concerns. Mold was a top environmental health concern. 14.3% of households reported seeing or smelling likely mold in their homes right after the storm, and two-thirds of that number are still noticing evidence of a continued growth in their homes.
But when mold strikes, remediation is anything but simple, especially in North Carolina, where legal protections for renters are sparse and a shortage of affordable housing means there are not a lot of options to move elsewhere.
The housing code in Asheville doesn’t regulate mold, which means some landlords generally do not take the problem as seriously as their tenants would like. What’s more, mold and mold-related health problems are not tightly defined in the law or in public health, so residents often live with the problem long-term.
The housing code in Asheville doesn’t regulate mold, which means some landlords generally do not take the problem as seriously as their tenants would like. What’s more, mold and mold-related health problems are not tightly defined in the law or in public health, so residents often live with the problem long-term.
A headache for renters
“Regina,” a single mother who lives in Evergreen Ridge with her school-aged son, said the mold in the closet, behind the refrigerator and around the bathtub in her apartment is never far from her mind — ever since she moved in seven years ago, when a broken dishwasher flooded her apartment. BPR is using an alias for some of our sources to protect their identities.
That problem only got worse after Hurricane Helene. The storm sent water rushing in around the sides of the windows in her son’s room, warping and discoloring the wall.
“They pretty much just painted over it,” Regina said, pointing out faint brown spots by the side of the windowpane, and trim that appeared loose. Her son has had bad reactions to mold in the past, and though he hasn’t yet had a reaction in this apartment, the possibility keeps her up at night.
“I think it really impacts my mental health more than anything to be honest,” she said. “Only because, you know, clean space, clean mind.”
Mold affects health, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how in part because it doesn’t get well-reported or tracked. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, mold can produce allergens that can trigger reactions or even asthma attacks in people sensitive to mold.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services can’t track mold-related illness on its own – just respiratory ailments like infections, allergies and asthma, which mold can exacerbate. Meanwhile, climate change and climate disaster — including extreme rain and increased heat and humidity — are also creating the perfect petri dish for mold’s impacts on health and housing to intensify. But as yet, there’s not a lot of research on how, exactly, this is unfolding. Some scientists, like one team at Duke University, are working to understand exactly how climate disaster fuels mold growth, and how that in turn impacts human health.
“For those people that have chronic respiratory illnesses or have exacerbating conditions like asthma, things that fungi are producing are probably causing them to aggravate their health symptoms. And so, that's what we're really trying to find out,” Dr. Asiya Gusa, a microbiologist working on the study, told BPR.
“For those people that have chronic respiratory illnesses or have exacerbating conditions like asthma, things that fungi are producing are probably causing them to aggravate their health symptoms. And so, that's what we're really trying to find out,” Dr. Asiya Gusa, a microbiologist working on the study, told BPR.
She is following up on Helene-related reports of mold, but also on long-running accounts of conditions like “Katrina Cough,” a collection of respiratory issues that include a runny nose and dry cough, reported by Louisiana residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Though the link between mold and health problems isn’t clear, it’s a consistent complaint from people who have to live with it.
Residents of Evergreen Ridge report unspecified sinus problems, leading some who can afford it to leave. But not everyone has the money to move. One Evergreen resident, “Dana,” told BPR she wakes up every morning with sinus congestion that only started when she moved in three years ago.
“I don't want to have to wake up every day like that,” Dana said.
Post-Helene, the housing stock is weaker
Residents at Evergreen Ridge expressed a desire to find a new living situation, but told BPR that there are fewer options than they once were.
Affordable housing in Asheville was already an issue pre-Helene, with more than a third of Asheville households spending more than 30% of their income on rent. BIPOC residents were disproportionately burdened compared to the city’s overall population, according to the city’s 2024 affordable housing plan
Then, Hurricane Helene wiped out existing rental inventory and slowed down future apartment construction.
Thousands of rental units in the Asheville metro area saw at least some battering from Helene, with 2,817 residences listed as storm damaged and about 400 rental units considered uninhabitable, according to the 2025 Asheville Area Housing Needs Assessment. Overall, the study showed the Asheville metro area — which includes Madison, Buncombe, Transylvania, and Henderson — is nearly 14,000 rental units short of what’s needed.
Ginger and Amanda Simmons, a married couple who rent in Asheville, were forced to move out of their former home, which sat near the French Broad River in Emma after flooding from Helene drenched their three-bedroom house and caused mold issues.
They’ve lived in temporary housing ever since, mostly short-term rentals, as they search for long-term solutions that will accommodate their family’s budget and health concerns. Their 8-year-old daughter is sensitive to mold and has a history of respiratory health issues, so they’re worried about moving into a space with an active mold problem.
Over a year later, they’ve had no luck. Many of the rentals they’ve considered contain signs of mildew or water damage.
“I’m nervous to get a rental out here because at this point so many of these houses have had water damage,” Ginger said. “I just don't know if the owners will disclose it or fix it or even know about it.”
She added, “We had several experiences where we went to look at rentals and it either smelled or it affected our breathing after walking around and being inside of the place for about 20 minutes.”
Remediation is tricky
It’s generally agreed that mold is an unpleasant phenomenon in a home; but creating a legal case for remediating it, or receiving financial compensation for damages, is an uphill battle, according to David Bartholomew, an attorney with Pisgah Legal Services.
Mold remediation often involves complicated and costly repairs. Property owners are sometimes reluctant to address the problem, especially because no one is forcing them to do so.
In North Carolina, the main recourse for tenants battling mold is to request, in writing, that the property owner address the problem.
That’s challenging at Evergreen Ridge, where tenants say a telephone line is the only avenue for tenants to communicate maintenance requests.
Regina said her dishwasher took three years to get fixed; her carpet never got changed after the dishwasher flooded the unit; and her A/C has struggled to work, giving her son heat rashes in the summer. It took calling the landlord over and over again to make these repairs happen, she said.
“There's not any updates, like what's up? Are you going to fix it or not? Like, this is becoming unhealthy for my son to be living in,” she said. “No matter how many times we talk to you about it. No matter if I speak kindly, aggressively, it doesn’t matter. It doesn't feel like anything's recorded or noted or anything.”
State law — N.C. G.S. 42 Article 5 — mandates that landlords must respond to written requests “within a reasonable period of time” but it does not define how long. The law classifies things like unsafe wiring, broken windows or “excessive standing water or inadequate drainage” that contributes to mosquito infestation or mold. But it doesn’t address mold itself.
If the written maintenance request goes unaddressed after a “reasonable amount of time,” a tenants’ next step is to file a lawsuit. In Asheville, tenants can also file a complaint with the city; however, the city’s minimum housing code only addresses “sources of moisture that might lead to excessive mold growth,” rather than the mold itself.
BPR filed public records requests with the City of Asheville asking for a list of complaints in the past year from tenants of Evergreen Ridge Apartments alleging violations of the housing code, specifically with regards to water damage, and has not yet received a response. None of the residents BPR spoke with said they've filed complaints with the city.
Renters face “elaborate trials”
The lack of state and city laws directly overseeing mold places a heavier burden on tenants who want it remediated, Bartholomew said. A tenant is not legally allowed to withhold rent during the process, something that Bartholomew said could serve as powerful leverage. Once someone has exhausted the avenue of written requests, a tenant has few options besides moving forward with a lawsuit — a move that is costly and involves a lot of hoops to jump through.
“You have to prove that there is a duty for the landlord to fix it. You also have to prove who's at fault for it,” he explained. “And then, when you're looking at harm, you need to have an expert come in and testify to what kind of mold this is so that you can prove that it is harmful. And then, also, you've got to prove the injury. And that involves medical records, like how much did it cost, how much did it affect the quality of life. That can be difficult.”
“You have to prove that there is a duty for the landlord to fix it. You also have to prove who's at fault for it,” he explained. “And then, when you're looking at harm, you need to have an expert come in and testify to what kind of mold this is so that you can prove that it is harmful. And then, also, you've got to prove the injury. And that involves medical records, like how much did it cost, how much did it affect the quality of life. That can be difficult.”
Bartholomew has helped represent tenants in hundreds of mold legal cases. He guessed that there are “easily thousands of people” who have had mold issues exacerbated by the storm. Since April, he’s seen a 35% increase in mold-related legal cases at his nonprofit from residents throughout Western North Carolina.
If a tenant is able to successfully prove that the mold in their unit is harmful, they can be financially compensated, but typically, the cases prove to be “elaborate trials,” he said.
The tenants at Evergreen Ridge, many of whom are low-income, don’t typically have the time or money for that kind of elaborate trial.
Dana, one of the Evergreen tenants, said it’s a frustrating problem to navigate.
She’s working with the North Carolina Tenant’s Union to bring more awareness – and possible solutions – to the issue, but tensions have run high at the apartment complex in the last month after canvassers from the Tenant’s Union conducted some door knocking. The effort resulted in an intense encounter with a maintenance worker.
The tenants want “a safe, affordable, comfortable living situation,” Dana said. “And that's it. “
“We’re trying to figure out how to navigate this without retaliation,” she continued. “This is a really bad situation for us. We’re stuck and we’re scared.”
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
