The city of Asheville is considering allocating an additional $19.2 million for the repair of single-family homes damaged by Hurricane Helene in late 2024.
Asheville City Council has control over how to spend a $225 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as a Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR grant. The city received the grant after Hurricane Helene caused hundreds of millions of dollars to homes, businesses and infrastructure in the city.
Elma King, the city’s CDBG-DR program manager, laid out a funding plan during a Tuesday Housing and Community Development Committee meeting. The committee is responsible for offering recommendations to Asheville City Council.
This policy conversation comes three weeks after BPR News published a two-part series on the dearth of funding for the program in Asheville and the more than 100 people who stand to be turned away from the program if the funding allocations don’t change.
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The funding is split into programs that include housing, infrastructure and economic revitalization, among others.
King’s plan would send an additional $19.2 million to the home repair program, with $10 million coming from infrastructure and $9.2 coming from multifamily housing. This would bring the total funds for the housing repair program to $22.2 million, enough to restore 55-65 homes damaged by the storm.
“Investment in this program provides impacted residents with the ability to build wealth and equity within their home. And data since December has confirmed that the cost and demand for repair requires a more robust commitment than the $3 million we initially had allocated,” King said.
When council voted to approve the spending plan last year, it set aside $31 million for housing, with only $3 million of that for repairing single-family homes. The rest would go to developers to build affordable housing units.
Some city leaders mistakenly thought the state would pay for home repairs through the state-run Renew NC program, but an agreement between the two entities shows that the state has only committed to covering the administration costs and that it’s up to Asheville to foot the rest of the bill.
The process of changing a spending plan, formally known as an action plan, takes several months. It requires a month-long public comment period, including a public hearing at city council, plus a vote and a submission to HUD for approval. Council will hear an update on the proposal and discuss the amendment in more detail at its agenda briefing on Thursday, May 7.
$17 million for multifamily construction moves forward
During Tuesday’s meeting, the committee – composed of council members Antanette Mosley, Sheneika Smith and Sage Turner – also voted 2-1 to recommend that City Council spend $17.89 million in affordable multifamily housing construction program funds. Turner voted against the measure.
“ I feel it's really, really important to me to make sure that we fix residents' homes, damaged and needed infrastructure before we fund new apartment complexes,” she said. “If I have to prioritize them, I am putting fixing people's homes at the top, fixing infrastructure at the top and subsidizing affordable apartments below both of those.”
The money will be split between three developers who plan to construct 331 affordable units using CDBG-DR money as well as other sources of funding.
The City Council will vote to approve this allocation on May 12.
