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Asheville survey of nearly 6,900 residents finds overwhelming support to rebuild water and roads stronger
Summary
A city-commissioned survey of about 6,900 responses shows residents rate resilient infrastructure as the top recovery priority after Hurricane Helene, with housing stability, food security and economic recovery also rising; city staff stress the survey is a first, non-representative step and more engagement will follow.
Dawa Hitch, the city’s communications and public engagement director, told the Asheville City Council at a retreat presentation that nearly 6,900 people completed a recovery-priorities survey the city ran after Hurricane Helene.
"Ninety-six percent of participants identified strengthening infrastructure as essential or very important," Hitch said, summarizing the headline finding and noting the survey was framed using the National Community Survey format to measure importance. She said the outreach combined online and paper options, multilingual materials, daily social media promotions, direct neighborhood outreach and door-to-door efforts by community connectors.
Council members at the retreat responded to several of Hitch’s breakdowns of the results. The presentation showed 94 percent of respondents supported rebuilding infrastructure to be stronger and more storm-resilient even if it takes longer, 74 percent rated affordable housing development as essential or very important, and 77 percent rated food security as a high concern. Hitch also reported that renters, lower-income residents and respondents identifying as BIPOC rated housing and immediate needs proportionally higher.
Hitch cautioned the council that the engagement was not a statistically representative sample of the city’s population. "This was not a representative sample," she said; the team plans to supplement the survey with targeted outreach where voices are missing and publish a fuller report with demographic cross-tabs. She also listed follow-up opportunities tied to the city’s CDBG-DR planning process and said staff will post detailed results and hold more focused sessions that will be available on the city’s engagement hub.
Bridget Herring, the city’s sustainability director and deputy recovery coordinator, told the retreat the city is already working to turn response into recovery—activating rental-assistance funding, extending sheltering and starting waterway debris collection—while preparing for FEMA inspections and the longer work of rebuilding.
The city will present more complete survey documentation, including geographic and demographic details and follow-up events for CDBG-DR plan input, in coming weeks.
