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County expands homeowner grant into General Assistance Program; early surge of renter applications reported
Summary
Economic services staff said the homeowner grant has been retooled into a General Assistance Program to include renters, removed a prior tax-exemption disqualification, lowered the resource threshold to $5,000 and has seen more than 1,100 applications since launch, with about 75% from renters.
Kimberly Fullerton, representing Economic Services, described substantial changes to the county's homeowner grant program: it has been expanded into a General Assistance Program that now allows renters to apply, removes prior tax-exemption disqualification, and lowers the countable-resource threshold from $60,000 to $5,000.
Fullerton said the change is already producing high demand. "So far, we don't have our final numbers, of course, but we're just now the beginning of August, and we've already received more applications than we did for all of last year," she said. "I think, yesterday, it was up to 1,147. 75% of those are renters." She added staff will keep the application open until funds are depleted and noted coordination with the City of Asheville on funding levels.
Committee members asked about outreach and referrals to other programs; Fullerton said staff are referring many callers to energy assistance and other services and that the economic services portal is being used as part of a one-stop approach.
