The problem of finding affordable housing in Asheville and Buncombe County is getting progressively worse, the Council of Independent Business Owners was told during a Dec. 4 meeting at Chick-fil-A restaurant in North Asheville.

Providing an update on the area’s affordable housing were  Pisgah Legal Services’ Robin Merrell, managing attorney; and Jim Barrett, executive director.

“The state of affordable housing is bad” in Asheville and Buncombe, Merrell said. “I’m sure you’re all newspaper readers, so you know. “

She added that, “among lower-income folks, it’s a function of a zero percent vacancy rate. Last year, more than half of the people who died homeless, had a housing voucher. These were people with case management ... people to help them ... and they still couldn’t find a place to live. That’s bad.”

Merrell asserted that “fewer and fewer of our mountain people can afford to own a home, so that means they need to find a rental. 

“So the state of affordable housing is bad. It’s really bad. I call it a crisis. When we have people dying on the streets, it’s a crisis.... Any time we can have more density in affordable housing (as in the county), it drives down costs. And there’s a comparable ordinance in the city... that can also be a tool.”

In a question-and-answer session that followed, an unidentified man attending the meeting then asserted that, “in the early ‘80s, there was a backlash to mobile home parks... The county made it more difficult to develop” them. “I’m curious if this is being looked at in any county or city. I think there’d be a lot of developers who would like to jump on that (mobile home park development) if it were available.”

No answer was offered.

A female meeting attendee asked,  “Why isn’t money (that is) being put out by taxpayers going to developing sewer lines? If you used the same dollars you are using to subsidize housing, you could make more affordable lot options.”

Again, no answer was offered.

A male meeting attendee said, “I’d like to address the Section 8 issue. You can’t even get on the waiting list.”

Another man said, “It seems like the county could do a lot to make affordable housing available. Do you agree with that?”

“I agree with that,” Merrell replied. “I need to point out that the entire county is not zoned.”

At that point, Jon Creighton, assistant county manager and planning director, interjected, “The entire county is zoned.”

“Yes it is zoned, but so much of it is zoned ‘open use,’” Merrell said to Creighton. “I do agree, though, that the community-oriented” approach “could be a great help.”

CIBO member Mac Swicegood asserted, “The developer is going to build it (affordable housing) if he can make a profit.... We need to start focusing as a community on infrastructure. And the biggest thing we need is widening I-26.”

“I agree with you greatly that work on I-26 is needed,” Merrell answered. “If we had some better jobs, we’d have a lot more people who can survive without subsidy.”

Another male attendee of the meeting said, “I think what the county is doing with these incentives — because you’re saying ‘we’ll give you a tax break’” — is worrisome. “Just how many vouchers do we have for Section 8 in Buncombe County?”

“About 1,560 vouchers for Section 8,” Gene Bell, chief executive officer of the Asheville Housing Authority, replied.

The man who asked the aforementioned question, then said, “That’s not many for Buncombe County. I’d encourage you to try this in the future.”

In response, Bell said, “Right now, we’ve got about 1,530 people on our waiting list for rental units — and we only have 600 apartments available.”

To that, Merrell said, “Yes, if you want to build something, build us some one-bedrooms.”

Barrett then gave an overview of some of the services offered by Pisgah Legal Services.

In other action at the CIBO meeting, Creighton gave an overview of recent changes to the Buncombe zoning ordinance.

“A lot of things are just outdated with definitions that need to be changed... We wanted to make it (the zoning ordinance) easier.”

On a third matter, an overview was given to recent changes in Asheville’s stormwater services department by McCray Coates, stormwater services manager; and Greg Shuler, public works director.