From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
ASHEVILLE — When Mary Chakales’ mother passed away a few years ago, Chakales knew she needed to move to someplace less expensive than the North Asheville home she and her mother had shared.
She found it at The Larchmont, an apartment complex developed by nonprofit Mountain Housing Opportunities near North Asheville’s Grace post office and a couple blocks east of Merrimon Avenue.
“It’s just fallen into place beautifully for me. … I walk everywhere,” said Chakales, 62, who works as a cashier at a nearby grocery store. “Walking’s the best exercise in the world. It’s a nice neighborhood. You don’t have to worry about things happening.”
City figures and interviews with Chakales’ neighbors suggest that at least some worries about what would happen after The Larchmont was completed in 2012 did not pan out, offering a lesson that could come up again as Asheville considers similar projects in which inexpensive apartments would be built near single-family homes.
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