From Staff Reports

Asheville City Council on Feb. 11 voted unanimously to remove the chair and vice chair of the Asheville Housing Authority. 

The vote also reduced the number of seats on the HACA board from 11 to nine.

Council voted specifically to remove Chair Tilman Jackson and Vice Chair Reginald Robinson.

Just prior to the vote, “Mayor Esther Manheimer used one word to describe recent events within the leadership of the Housing Authority of the city of Asheville — ‘turmoil.’ And, again, leadership is changing at the agency,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported on Feb. 12

What’s more, the ACT noted that council’s action came “months after the HACA Board of Commissioners faced restructuring and decided to fire its CEO” and said the firing marked “another major shake-up to the agency that provides housing to thousands of low-income people in Western North Carolina.”

Jackson, who was set to serve until June 11, 2026, is the chief operating officer of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries; and Robinson, who was set to serve until June 11, 2025, was the sole HACA resident on the board.

The Housing Authority of the City of Asheville directly oversees 2,117 affordable housing units between eight public housing developments in Asheville and distributes approximately 3,400 housing choice vouchers designed to assist low-income families in accessing safe, sanitary housing in the private market. 

Council’s “removal of the two commission members comes after months of turbulence inside of the housing authority,” the ACT pointed out.