Buncombe subcommittee hears public pleas for shelter, repair and down-payment aid as it reviews 11 AHSP applications

The Buncombe County Affordable Housing Subcommittee opened its March 17 meeting with a packed public-comment period as providers urged support for shelter expansion, emergency home repairs and down-payment assistance while staff led a review of 11 AHSP grant applications.

The subcommittee heard from Jeffrey Barton of Mountain Housing Opportunities, who said the agency conducted more than 250 emergency home repairs last year and has exhausted prior county home repair grants, asking for renewed county support for an emergency essential home repair program and an administrative support grant to sustain program operations. "We depleted and fully utilized our last county home grant and are seeking additional support," Barton said.

Representatives from housing organizations stressed the need for down-payment aid. Anna Zeske of the Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust said most of the group’s buyers prequalify for about $150,000 but ABCT’s resale prices typically fall in the $180,000–$250,000 range, creating a financing gap the proposed AHSP down-payment assistance could help close. "The reason for our request is to be able to open up our pool of applicants more so to our program," Zeske said.

Safe Shelter described a yearlong winter response and plans to expand capacity. Anna Pizzo said Safe Shelter ran a continuous winter shelter from Nov. 1 to March 31 and stood up a 20-bed overflow site in January and February; the organization is seeking capital funds to install fire sprinklers and expand emergency bed capacity and asked for seed funding for a tiny‑home pilot to house people exiting homelessness. "We have contractors lined up and permits submitted," Pizzo said, adding that Safe Shelter expects an IRS determination letter soon after recently incorporating as an independent nonprofit.

Staff framed the formal review of 11 applications around three funding categories: down-payment assistance, administrative support, and new-start projects. Matt Card of Community Development outlined two down-payment proposals: ABCT requested $300,000 to serve 10 households (about $30,000 per household under the applicant’s model) while Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity requested $816,000 to impact 23 households for an average of about $35,000 per household.

Staff noted program rules that limit AHSP down-payment assistance to about 10% of a purchase price per loan and flagged that ABCT’s land-trust model would need contract tailoring to meet that cap. On the new-start side, staff advised that Wild Abundance’s $45,000 request for materials to build and donate a tiny home is eligible for construction funding but that the AHSP currently expects ownership assistance to be formatted as a repayable loan, so staff recommended the applicant either refile under construction or revise the financing approach.

Several administrative-support requests were presented, including $50,000 proposals for Homewardbound’s housing-stability team and for Pisca Legal Services’ homelessness-prevention legal work. Homewardbound’s request would support a housing specialist who helps place chronically homeless households and manage landlord partnerships; Pisca’s application would fund legal staff that provide eviction-prevention services at the courthouse. "Every time we represent somebody, we help them be able to stay in the community," a Legal Services representative said.

On procedural business, the subcommittee voted to recommend that the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approve an updated joint cooperation agreement to formally add Mars Hill and Marshall to the Asheville Regional HOME consortium, which coordinates HUD HOME funds across four counties.

Next steps: staff will continue vetting financial documentation and eligibility details, and the subcommittee plans further consideration of remaining construction requests at its March 31 meeting, with funding decisions to follow. The subcommittee adjourned.

(Reporting based on Buncombe County Affordable Housing Subcommittee meeting transcript, March 17, 2025.)