Thrive Asheville launches affordable housing community engagement project
Thrive Asheville, a local civic initiative of UNC Asheville, is on a mission to help simplify the path to affordable housing options and home ownership for residents and families of the Asheville area. In partnership with Aisha Adams Media and Children First/Communities In Schools of Buncombe County, Thrive has launched “Finding Home: Recommendations for Affordable, Healthy, and Connected Places for Families,” a civic engagement project that seeks to increase community understanding of the challenges and opportunities for affordable home ownership.
The project kicks off with a seven question survey about affordable housing and home ownership for community members, which will run through March 10, 2021. The results of the survey, which will be shared in mid-April, will inform the production of a series of videos that illustrate the questions, challenges and confusion around accessing affordable housing and homeownership in Asheville, as well as policy recommendations and other key learnings. Finally, the efforts of this initiative will culminate in May of 2021 with a free, virtual “Folding Chair” panel discussion and networking event hosted by the Lenoir-Rhyne Equity and Diversity Institute.
“What inspired this project is there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what we mean when we say affordable housing,” explains Kate Pett, executive director of Thrive Asheville. “It’s a complex idea and we want more people in the community to understand it.”
“Affordable housing is a critical component to the safety and well-being of all families. Here at Aisha Adams Media we are excited to take part in any initiative that looks to change policies, practices and procedures that could open up housing opportunities for ALL people — especially people who may have lacked access in the past,” says Aisha Adams, founder and owner of Aisha Adams Media.
According to the 2020 Regional Housing Needs Assessment conducted by the City of Asheville, the steep rise in housing costs and sparse inventory of homes priced under $200,000 in the Asheville area is slated to worsen over the coming decade. Moreover, nearly 18,000 renter households in Buncombe County pay disproportionately high shares of their income towards housing costs, with 46.1% paying more than 30% of their income toward housing and 19.4% of renters paying over 50%.
Pett continues, “As a community, we say we want affordable housing but sometimes when it’s proposed in our neighborhoods, people push back. Right now we’re experiencing a supply and demand problem. We have to create more supply and we need people to say yes to development so that there’s more room for people to live.”
“This puts homeownership further out of reach for many families as local wages have not kept pace with either rental or homeownership costs,” says Greg Borom, advocacy director of Children First, an organizational partner of Thrive Asheville. “Additionally, wealth and homeownership gaps between white and Black households persist in Asheville. Thrive Asheville’s survey can help connect and engage communities with policy decisions and programs expanding economic opportunity and affordability for families.