Buncombe County’s latest Point-In-Time count — meant to record every resident sleeping on the streets, at a shelter or in transitional housing on a single night — found 232 unsheltered residents in January 2022, up from the 116 people counted a year before. Overall homelessness in the county increased by about 21% over the same period.
“I believe Maggie will listen to and elevate the voices within our community and create an inclusive, collaborative environment so we together can tackle our community’s critical challenges, which span housing to city services to climate change impact. “
A week after the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners doled out about $4.9 million of its own American Rescue Plan Act allotment, Asheville City Council will consider over $11.7 million in ARPA projects Tuesday, May 10.
AAAC Executive Director Katie Cornell discusses the latest candidate survey and the 2020 edition’s impact on local policies.
“Among Asheville’s leaders, she has distinguished herself as a brave community representative with the grace of humility and giving and has so often boldly been on target with the city’s needs.”
Asheville City Council’s April 26 meeting brought a new wrinkle to the already shambolic process of establishing permanent supportive housing at an East Asheville Ramada Inn.
The city used a scoring system to winnow the field of applicants, but at least one council member questions the fairness of that approach.
“She earned a reputation for building coalitions across broad ranges of interests — including housing, equity, transportation and climate action.”
New construction at Deaverview Apartments, Asheville’s second-oldest public housing community, will consist of two three-story buildings and one four-story building containing 82 total mixed income units.
In preparation for the primary election of Tuesday, May 17, Xpress sent questions to all candidates in contested races representing Buncombe County voters. Responses from candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, N.C. General Assembly, Buncombe County-level races and Asheville City Council are all collected here.
“Until the professed advocates of affordable housing and assistance for the homeless get off their BUTS and honestly attack these issues, nothing significant will happen.”
Primary candidates for the 2022 Asheville City Council race share their positions with Xpress.
“I would like to hear from the City Council on how they will be funding improving our desperately needed sidewalks in the coming year.”
Members of Asheville City Council discussed transit, parking revenues, personnel costs and weighed funding options for the newly approved updates to Memorial Stadium.
Aside from voting on its consent agenda, Asheville City Council isn’t scheduled to take any action during its meeting of Tuesday, April 12.
“Maggie Ullman Berthiaume is the only City Council candidate with environmental or climate credentials, and she has two qualities we need: 1) leadership on environmental issues and 2) a proven ability to work with the city.”
An exchange between protesters and Asheville City Council member Sandra Kilgore marked the start of Council’s March 17-18 retreat, where the elected officials heard feedback from top city staffers and plotted their approach to the coming year.
Neighborhood residents had been asking for a new track as part of renovations to Memorial Stadium since 2017, after Asheville voters approved a $74 million bond issue in 2016.
The number of complaints filed under nondiscrimination ordinances with city and county governments has yet to top 25, and it appears that no one has been found in violation of the rules so far. According to public records obtained by Xpress, Asheville had received five complaints as of January, and Buncombe County had gotten 17 as of early March.
“Development in places with preexisting infrastructure is a crucial strategy for combating sprawl.”
” If City Council is loyal and controlled by Putin or sidekick Trump, then ‘check-in’ is the way to go.”
