The Haywood Street Congregation readies to welcome back diners to its Downtown Welcome Table. Also: West End Bakery expands its hours and menu; several new restaurants celebrate recent openings; and more!
Volunteers operate Code Purple emergency shelter for six nights
For more than half of nights in November, the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Coalition called Code Purple: an emergency protocol, triggered when temperatures drop below freezing, to increase space in homeless shelters beyond normal capacity. But for all of those nights, people sleeping on Asheville’s streets had no officially designated place to go. The two Code Purple […]
Q&A with Stephanie Swepson-Twitty, CEO of Eagle Market Streets Development Corp.
The Block, an area that spans Eagle and South Market streets in downtown Asheville, was once home to a vibrant residential and commercial district for Black residents. But between the 1950s and 1980s, Asheville’s urban renewal policies that sought to address allegedly “blighted” areas of the city by removing homes and businesses to make way […]
Off-year elections shake up local municipalities
Western North Carolina bustled with electoral intrigue in 2021. From Woodfin, Asheville’s neighbor to the north, to the Jackson County seat of Sylva in the west, challengers bested incumbents in many nonpartisan town council and commission races.
Q&A with Vicki Meath, executive director of Just Economics of WNC
Many issues are close to Vicki Meath’s heart. She has spent her life in community organizing, working on environmental justice with Western Colorado Congress and striving to raise Ohio’s minimum wage with Cleveland Jobs With Justice. In 2010, she joined Just Economics of Western North Carolina, a nonprofit that advocates for a living wage, as […]
$14M in COVID funds up for Buncombe grants Nov. 16
No further details on the organizations that will get new funding or the amounts they could receive were linked to the Board of Commissioners agenda. Over 125 nonprofits, community groups and governmental entities have pitched to the board over the past several months.
Q&A with Joseph Jamison, United Way equity and network specialist
“One of the biggest challenges students face is a lack of voice in a lot of decision-making within our schools and the community at large,” Jamison explains. “For example, debates over masks or virtual over in-person learning. We’ve all heard a lot of loud adult voices at the table, but I think most people would be hard-pressed to recall a news clip or an article where they heard what students thought about those decisions.”
Local nonprofit workers discuss pandemic burnout
As the executive director of True Ridge, a Hendersonville-based nonprofit serving Western North Carolina’s Hispanic population, Lori Garcia-McCammon has never had an easy job. Her organization helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and refers clients to bilingual mental health counselors. Recent years have been straining, as many of the Central American immigrants her […]
40 Afghan refugees being resettled in Asheville
On Aug. 15, shock rippled around the world as Taliban forces took control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Over the ensuing weeks, people watched on their TVs and phones as people crowded Kabul International Airport attempting to flee. Among those trying to leave were Afghans who had worked with the United States military, nongovernmental […]
Q&A with Shannon Kauffman, homeowner services manager for Habitat for Humanity
In 2013, after years of struggling, Kauffman became a first-time homeowner thanks to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Today, she helps other area residents become homeowners themselves as Habitat’s Homeowner Services Manager, where she says her personal experience not only informs her work but inspires others.
Buncombe to preserve branch libraries
In a unanimous vote, the county Board of Commissioners directed staff to maintain the county’s current library branches — including those in Black Mountain, Oakley/South Asheville and Swannanoa — and explore other ways to improve the system.
Buncombe County’s Teen Court tailors justice to first-time offenders
When Jamie Lee Willocks was a teenager, she brought a cellphone with her to band class, which was not allowed. She received a text message from her mother, and the band director heard it. Willocks fessed up and paid the price with an in-school suspension. “I got in so much trouble and I did nothing […]
Formerly homeless residents discuss path toward self-sufficiency
To move clients from reliance on shelters and services to self-sufficiency, homeless advocates say, community support and permanent affordable housing are key — and their lack is the main barrier to reducing the homeless population in Asheville.
MAHEC program supports expectant mothers struggling with addiction
When Elizabeth learned that she was pregnant, she cried tears of joy. “I heard his heartbeat, and that was it,” she says. (Xpress is using her middle name to protect her privacy.) It was then that she decided to get clean. Elizabeth learned of her pregnancy while incarcerated for crimes she committed to support her […]
From CPP: NC counties base jail decisions on controversial consultant work
Recommendations to build bigger jails in North Carolina often come from the same firms that land jail design contracts, reports Jordan Wilkie of Carolina Public Press. Consultant methods may stack the deck in favor of big investments in jail construction.
From NC Health News: Six Republican counties in WNC pledged their support for Medicaid expansion. What’s changed?
For months, the CEO of the Cherokee Indian Hospital has quietly traveled to county commission boards throughout the western part of the state, giving presentations on the benefits of Medicaid expansion. As local leaders throughout the conservative region show support for the policy, will they change the minds of state Republicans?
Q&A with Katherine de Vos Devine, a lawyer who ‘speaks artist’
Originally from North Carolina, Katherine de Vos Devine found herself uprooted at a young age when her father moved the family to New York City for a new job. In many ways, this transplant shaped Devine’s life. “I grew up in a diverse and bohemian apartment building, surrounded by actors, dancers, artists and elderly Ziegfeld […]
Staffing woes disrupt programs at Swannanoa women’s prison
A staffing shortage across North Carolina’s prisons led to the temporary closing of a wing at Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women in late August and the relocation of several dozen prisoners and staff. The wing has since been reopened, but it’s unclear if or when the inmates who were transferred out will return.
Cherokee fight to save language from extinction
In classrooms throughout North Carolina and Oklahoma, students are learning about the periodic table of elements or the origins of the Civil War. However, in some classrooms, the lessons are a bit more personal — Cherokee students are learning the history and language of their people. Cherokee speakers have made great efforts to keep their […]
News in brief: Disaster relief available for Fred victims
The N.C. Division of Employment Security announced the approval of Disaster Unemployment Assistance benefits on Sept. 10. The move follows a federal major disaster declaration Sept. 8 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and White House at the request of Gov. Roy Cooper.
Buncombe to cover funding gap for Family Justice Center
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved nearly $97,000 in new spending from the county’s fund balance to cover nine months of services that had previously been supported by the Governor’s Crime Commission.