March 29 Housing and Community Development Committee meeting

Housing and Community Developmen­t Committee struggles with nonprofit grant requests

“I don’t know how to stretch $230,000 into three-quarters of a million. I just don’t know how to do it. Maybe if I had Jesus here with the fish, and he was feeding everybody, maybe we could do that,” said committee member Keith Young to laughter from the audience. “That’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek response, but it is tough.”

SEARCH Listening Session

Mission Health’s approach to Dogwood Health Trust worries local nonprofits

“There’s real fear among nonprofit organizations that not supporting the current iteration of the board could mean retaliation in the form of being cut from the $1.5 billion that DHT will control once the sale is final,” wrote Asheville-Buncombe NAACP President Carmen Ramos-Kennedy. “In order to truly build trust, citizens and organizations must feel free to speak their hearts and minds without fear.”

Holding on: Local child services weather funding cuts

Every nonprofit director has a horror story about the perils of relying on outside funding. “It’s a house of cards,” says Jim Barrett, executive director of Pisgah Legal Services. “Stressful,” says John Lauterbach, executive director of Caring for Children. “It’s competitive every year.” “I’ve done WIC for 28 years now,” adds Georganna Cogburn, nutrition program […]