City staff review year of affordable-housing monitoring, report 1,102 units under watch

Antoinette Moseley, chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee, heard a year-end report Aug. 19 from the city’s affordable housing staff that summarized monitoring work, storm-response allocations and a push to standardize income verification across programs. Sasha Burtynsky, the city’s affordable housing officer, told the committee staff monitored 26 projects comprising 1,102 units over the past year. The report described storm-related reallocations and rental assistance: the city shifted $1,000,000 from returned housing trust fund general-fund allocations to rental assistance, contracted with local providers to distribute funds, and directed $759,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to Buncombe County’s rental program. Burtynsky said the combined federal and local funds used in rental-assistance efforts amounted to about $1.8 million and helped 649 families. Alex, the city’s affordable housing specialist, walked committee members through the monitoring methodology and the…