Asheville council looks at public housing
ASHEVILLE – City Council may add breaking what Vice Mayor Marc Hunt called “a cycle of poverty that perpetuates itself” in public housing to its to-do list.
During the first day of council’s annual retreat Friday, councilmen discussed adding changes in public housing to their priorities and putting more emphasis on improving student performance in city schools.
Hunt urged his colleagues to take up the issues and most seemed amenable, although no formal votes were taken on any issue during the retreat in the banquet hall of the U.S. Cellular Center.
Councilmen also said the city should look at several steps to increase its supply of affordable housing, improve the city transit system, study the building permitting system and take on nuisance issues like graffiti.
Hunt said some cities in the state have seen success in redeveloping public housing communities, creating new housing that is home to a mix of former public housing residents and people who pay market-rate rents.
Asheville, he said, has an “over-reliance on public housing as a place where generations of families continue to live.”
“There are other communities like the city of Raleigh that are changing it. ... It can be successful,” he said.
Council members said they want to keep the three broad focuses in city government’s strategic operating plan: Economic growth and financial sustainability, affordable housing and community development and a high quality of life.
They may add public housing and city schools as a fourth focus. And, the specifics of how the city pursues existing goals may change as a result of Friday’s discussions.
Some cities elsewhere in the country have taken steps to reduce the size of public housing communities on the theory that residents have a better chance of improving their economic situation if they are better integrated into the larger community.
Other councilmen said problems in public housing would be complicated to solve and council’s ability to affect conditions may be limited.
As Councilwoman Gwen Wisler noted, public housing in Asheville and the city school system are run by appointed boards, albeit with members appointed by City Council or the mayor. The Housing Authority of the City of Asheville and city schools are largely separate units of government.
But councilmen said the city could offer more after-school programs for underprivileged kids and install Wi-Fi hot spots in city community centers or elsewhere to help students whose families cannot afford good Internet access.
Council will formally adopt a revised strategic plan later. Here’s a quick look at some of the issues that came up during Friday’s discussion of plan changes:
• Housing: Councilmen said they want to continue the city’s focus on affordable housing, broadly defined as housing directed toward people with higher incomes than those living in public housing but who still struggle with the cost of housing in the city.
Hunt said the city should look at its zoning rules to gauge their impact on affordability.
City staff, with some interest from councilmen, said the city could consider automatically allowing developers to build more densely if they provide a certain percentage of affordable housing units in a project.
• Transit: Several councilmen said the city should look at ways to improve transit service, with adding Sunday service perhaps being the most popular change.
Mayor Esther Manheimer said, “I think there’s a shared goal here about improved transit service, Sunday service, longer hours, fixing the C route.” She was referring to a crosstown bus route that bypasses the center of the city that Councilman Cecil Bothwell said has been the subject of some complaints because of missed connections with other routes.
Federal and state funding for the system has been under pressure, Transportation Director Ken Putnam said.
Councilman Gordon Smith said the extent of changes the city will make will probably depend on how its budget shapes up for the coming fiscal year. “It’s going to come down to the numbers,” he said.
• Permitting: The city could recruit residents to perform what City Manager Gary Jackson called a “blue chip community review” of building permitting processes.
Manheimer said professional developers “navigate well. They give us good feedback” on the process. But people who are new to development or building sometimes “have a really hard time. That’s where we get complaints about regulations and process,” she said.
• Parking: Councilmen discussed looking at possible uses for what is now city-owned parking to the southwest of City Hall.
The property has been considered for a performing arts center, but Councilman Jan Davis said the effort appears to have stalled.
The second and last day of City Council’s annual retreat begins at 9 a.m. Saturday in the banquet hall of the U.S. Cellular Center and is scheduled to run until midday. Topics on the agenda are council’s legislative agenda, the city’s communications and public engagement strategy and the role of a council committee on governance.