Asheville staff proposes $10M to WNC loan fund to leverage private capital; outlines draft uses of $20M affordable housing bond

City staff on July 30 proposed lending $10 million of the $20 million affordable housing bond to the Western North Carolina Affordable Housing Loan Fund — a Self Help Credit Union–administered vehicle seeded by Dogwood Health Trust — to leverage private capital for multifamily projects, and presented a draft distribution that also would direct $6 million to the city housing trust fund and $1 million to pre‑disaster home repair.

The proposal was presented by Sasha Versinski, Affordable Housing Officer for the Asheville City Housing and Community Development Committee. Versinski said the bond was approved by voters in November 2024 and that staff are coordinating those bond dollars with other housing sources, including federal CDBG‑DR funds the city received. “There are a lot of vulnerable folks who rent and, we’re very concerned about stabilizing those folks and making sure that they can stay in the community and that we make sure that folks don’t fall into homelessness unnecessarily,” Versinski said.

Self Help Credit Union staff described the loan fund's structure and products. JJ Freilich, representing Self Help, said the fund was launched with initial support from Dogwood Health…