2022 General Voter Guide: Asheville City Council

Website: FletcherForAsheville.com
Occupation: Musician/tour guide/freelance
Previous candidacy or offices held: Candidate, 2017 Asheville City Council
Key endorsements: Brian Haynes, Ben and Cate Scales, Sunrise Movement AVL
Amount of money raised: $9,660 (as of Sept. 26)
Top three donors: Elliot Eichler, Laura Conner, Andrew Fedynak

How do you view the city’s role in addressing homelessness, and what specific strategies will you pursue to fill that role? The city has a role in dealing with any problem in the city and an obligation for the care and safety of its residents, whether housed or not. The experience of houselessness should be rare, brief and safe. The continuing unaffordability of housing will continue to feed this problem as long as our solutions fall short of the problem. I support a low-barrier shelter, and it should be close to the city center and close to public assistance and resources.

What specific strategies do you most support for increasing affordable housing in
the city, and how will you fund that work? Short term, we need better zoning and enforcement to rid our city of illegal whole-home short-term rental investors. Neighborhoods should be for neighbors, and we need to stop losing our housing stock to Airbnb. Current enforcement efforts are weak and widely exploited by scofflaws. Long term, we need to fund housing for workforce tenants and buyers, as well as partner with nonprofits. I generally oppose subsidizing for-profit developers, but there are some zoning negotiations where that is a useful tool.

What do you see as the city’s most pressing transportation issue, and what approaches do you favor to address it? The most immediate issue is the loss of revenue as a result of city staff failures to capture money from public parking fees that fund transit. The second issue is a Council that says they support transit while cutting transit. Third, we need housing for workers close to jobs. This is a leadership problem, and it’s going to take new leaders who are more serious about transit and housing if we want better transportation and less traffic.

How do you assess the city’s progress to date on matters of equity, and what would you do to further that goal? The data shows that both the population and median incomes of African Americans in Asheville are declining. This should alarm our leaders. Asheville, like the rest of the nation, has systematically transferred resources from minority neighborhoods for decades and continues to do so. We need to stop doing damage and invest in what our historically marginalized neighborhoods are asking for. To help reverse the tide, I support the work of the Reparations Commission and await their recommendations.

What area of city government is most overfunded, and how should those resources be allocated instead? Pay for upper management, across departments, should be frozen to make room to raise wages for rank-and-file city workers. Many departments are currently understaffed, lowering the quality of city services that Ashevilleans expect. If we want better city services, we can start by paying workers enough to live in the city they work in.

How do you view the city’s role in addressing homelessness, and what specific strategies will you pursue to fill that role? In the city’s recently passed new budget, funding was allocated for the new position of homelessness strategy project specialist. Further, the Dogwood Health Trust has funded an evaluation of the city’s homelessness issues and will be recommending research-based solutions. Council also funded Homeward Bound’s conversion of the former Days Inn on Tunnel Road, which will also serve as its new headquarters and offer wraparound support services on-site, as well as permanent supportive housing for approximately 80 chronically unhoused persons.

What specific strategies do you most support for increasing affordable housing in
the city, and how will you fund that work? I leverage my dual roles as a member of Council’s Housing and Community Development Committee and the Council liaison to the Asheville Housing Authority to provide opportunities for developers to work with the Housing Authority to place voucher holders into housing, as well as to encourage responsible development of affordable housing. Since joining Council, we have voted to bring over 600 affordable units online.

What do you see as the city’s most pressing transportation issue, and what approaches do you favor to address it? I believe that the city and county must work together to create modes of transportation that connect outside of the city as well, such as park-and-rides. Another topical transportation issue is the cost of parking for downtown workers. The county is currently exploring options to subsidize the cost of monthly parking passes. As a candidate who was endorsed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), I am a strong supporter of workers’ rights, prosperity and well-being.

How do you assess the city’s progress to date on matters of equity, and what would you do to further that goal? Shortly after my appointment to Council, I devised the first dedicated funding stream for the reparations initiative. Notably, these funds do not come from taxpayers. To date, there is over $1 million in the fund. I am also a staunch advocate of equitable affordable housing and land sovereignty to prevent further displacement of Black communities. We are doing the work, but there is still more to be done as we strive toward racial and socioeconomic equity.

What area of city government is most overfunded, and how should those resources be allocated instead? I would not characterize any area of city government to be overfunded. In fact, the city is understaffed in a number of departments. The city’s most recent budget has been called the most equitable in Asheville’s history. Included were raises for all city staff, funding for after-school programs, funding the new urban forester and homelessness strategy project specialist positions and a $500,000 annual commitment to the reparations fund – all accomplished without raising the millage rate on property taxes.

Nina Tovish

How do you view the city’s role in addressing homelessness, and what specific strategies will you pursue to fill that role? Homelessness is a national problem, requiring changes in our social safety net on the national and state levels to resolve. As a municipality, Asheville’s role must be to mitigate suffering and help people overcome barriers to finding and keeping a stable home. 
Small-scale, modest-budget pilot programs — developed in collaboration with local social service organizations — would help us explore which strategies work best for our community. We should also enlist the full participation of neighborhoods and faith-based groups.

What specific strategies do you most support for increasing affordable housing in
the city, and how will you fund that work? Developing affordable housing on the scale we need is going to require *all* the strategies, including land use incentive grants and land trusts. Let’s start with zoning for denser residential neighborhoods, especially along transportation corridors. We should also consider the “social housing” model of mixed-income development on city-owned land, with affordability guaranteed in perpetuity. Construction can be funded by bonds, paid back in part from rent or purchase fees. Removing the middleman in housing development makes deeper affordability possible.

What do you see as the city’s most pressing transportation issue, and what approaches do you favor to address it? At a bare minimum, Asheville needs reliable, extended-hour public transportation service for our community’s necessity riders. Ultimately, we need transit that’s so good that people with cars will chose to ride it over driving themselves. Although it will benefit residents first and foremost, visitors will enjoy it, too. Great public transit reduces both traffic and infrastructure burdens; it’s good for our economy and our environment. We should collaborate with the county and prioritize transit investment in the city budget.

How do you assess the city’s progress to date on matters of equity, and what would you do to further that goal? There’s so much more to do, both to redress the harms of the past and to ensure just outcomes now and in the future. The Reparations Commission has begun its work; we await its findings and recommendations. The role of Council (and Buncombe County) will be to provide the commission with the resources it needs and to follow through in implementing its recommendations. Additionally, every Council decision must be deliberated and monitored with an equity lens in place.

What area of city government is most overfunded, and how should those resources be allocated instead? The premise that any area of city government is meaningfully “overfunded” is flawed. Human resources are our largest expenditure. Salaries, wages and benefits total over $121 million in fiscal year 2022-23. Operating expenses and capital/debt will cost less, around $88 million. City government is not overstaffed — quite the opposite. The new budget finally guarantees a living wage to employees; eventually, that should become a thriving wage. We might need to be more conservative about the salaries of our highest-paid staff.

Allison Scott

How do you view the city’s role in addressing homelessness, and what specific strategies will you pursue to fill that role? 

Homelessness is a solvable issue, but it’s going to take real investment from our local government and community to solve it. I support minimum wage initiatives that reflect the true cost of living in Asheville; I will champion creating city rapid-response teams similar to Buncombe County’s paramedicine teams; I will collaborate with all local organizations (faith-based, nonprofit, etc.) along with community residents to use our existing systems and facilitate partnerships for wraparound services to support our unhoused neighbors.

What specific strategies do you most support for increasing affordable housing in
the city, and how will you fund that work? When a worker in Asheville earns a minimum monthly wage of $1,256, average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,771, and the median home price is over $400,000, that’s a crisis for our community. Our government must commit to building and supporting deeply affordable living. This can be accomplished through working with community land trusts, rent assistance in addition to Section 8 vouchers and advocating for BIPOC community-led housing initiatives from the Asheville Reparations Fund Commission.

What do you see as the city’s most pressing transportation issue, and what approaches do you favor to address it? If someone lives near town and works near town on a M-F 9-5 schedule, then biking or using the bus may be possible. A lot of people I talk with say our public transportation system and living outside of the city proper can make it extremely difficult to use buses daily. The schedules and routes have too many gaps to make that work. Add in nonexistent bike lanes in most of the city, and biking becomes dangerous.

How do you assess the city’s progress to date on matters of equity, and what would you do to further that goal? Asheville’s legacy of redlining and urban renewal makes reparations a necessary part of achieving racial justice. I was pleased to see the committee members selected recently, and the city has earmarked in the budget continued funding for reparations. It is crucial that Black leadership continues to steer and control this process, with meaningful community input in the commission’s recommendations. Solutions such as home loans and business loans look very promising.

What area of city government is most overfunded, and how should those resources be allocated instead? Did not respond.

Sheneika Smith

How do you view the city’s role in addressing homelessness, and what specific strategies will you pursue to fill that role? The No. 1 cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. Our $2 million grant agreement for the purchase of the Days Inn on Tunnel Road for permanent supportive housing is a major step in the right direction. Partnering with Homeward Bound to convert the motel into 85 affordable units for those experiencing chronic homelessness is an intervention that faces the issue head-on. Housing solutions that offer adequate support services will increase social integration and stability rates.

What specific strategies do you most support for increasing affordable housing in
the city, and how will you fund that work? We should consider moving the remaining $6.5 million in Affordable Housing Bond funds to the Housing Trust Fund. We should update HTF policy to consider guidelines for land acquisition, a possible raise of the $1 million loan cap and increase on per-unit subsidy, and a new loan request cycle that aligns with other funders. Also, we should learn more about bond cycles, create a more robust set of criteria for subsidies and update policies to address lower income levels.

What do you see as the city’s most pressing transportation issue, and what approaches do you favor to address it? America’s bus driver shortage has left several transit systems in crisis, including ours. Earlier this year, the driver shortage impacted major routes. A few routes to major social centers, grocery stores and public housing communities could only operate once per hour, and other routes were canceled. Improved feedback between drivers and City Council will make drivers feel more “in the loop,” building a greater sense of community and growing the driver pool necessary to help Asheville meet public transit needs.

How do you assess the city’s progress to date on matters of equity, and what would you do to further that goal? Advancing equity is an ongoing and generational commitment. To advance equity and inclusion within municipal government, the Government Alliance on Race and Equity racial equity framework and equity tools have been used. To advance to yet another level, each department should draft an equity action plan, which maps out steps toward transformational change in order to deepen the conversation with communities, advocates and stakeholders around how we deliver equitable outcomes across and throughout the organization.

What area of city government is most overfunded, and how should those resources be allocated instead? Did not respond.