Wage challenge must be addressed before housing challenge is fixed

When it comes to affordable housing, the Asheville area is like a runner on a treadmill that is set too fast. No matter how hard we work, we keep falling behind. That’s because housing costs are only part of the problem.

Asheville has done a good job of providing affordable housing. In the last decade the area has added 800 affordable (less than 30 percent of income) rental units. Nevertheless, there were in 2012 only 31 affordable rental units available for every 100 families with income of less than $17,500 a year.

Why? “The increase in wages has been slower than the increase in housing costs, and that’s been a trend for about the past 20 years,” said Bob Kucab, executive director of the N.C. Housing Finance Agency.

As a tourism destination and cultural center, Asheville has a lot of low-wage service jobs. At the same time, the demand for second homes or retirement homes by the affluent drives up housing prices.

The average apartment rent for the Asheville market in 2013 was $864 a month, more than Greensboro ($705) and Wilmington ($800) and almost as much as Charlotte ($874) and Raleigh/Durham ($893). Meanwhile, the earning power of the average Buncombe County worker has fallen from $535 to $524 a week since 2001.

“We’re building 60 apartments at the corner of Eagle and Market streets downtown, and we fully expect to get 1,000 applications or more for those apartments because of the convenience of the location,” said Scott Dedman, executive director of Mountain Housing Opportunities.

MHO is not part of the problem. It is part of the solution. Since 1988, it has assisted more than 3,000 families to obtain “a safe, attractive, affordable home in a good neighborhood.”

Since 1974, the N.C. Housing Finance Agency, which uses bond funds and state and federal dollars for affordable housing, has helped finance some 4,200 homes and apartments in Buncombe County and has provided rental assistance to 5,100 households.

Asheville and Buncombe County have directed $17.4 million, mostly federal money, into affordable housing since 2007. The Asheville Housing Trust Fund accounted for $1.7 million, while $3.6 million came through Buncombe.

Sometimes the home owner’s labor can be a substitute for money when it comes to obtain affordable housing. Nick Reynolds fixed up a north Asheville home that he was able to buy for about $120,000 because of its condition.

“The house should’ve been torn down,” he said. “That’s how I was able to get into it.”

Treva Williams took advantage of MHO’s Self-Help Home Ownership program, which utilizes what is often called “sweat equity.” Williams and her oldest daughter worked weekends for 10 months on the subdivision where they and Williams’ two younger daughters now live.

“It still brings tears to my eyes,” Williams said, “to be able to provide that for my daughters.”

Clearly, more is needed, but what? Some favor a community land trust. The trust would hold title to the land beneath the house so that escalating land prices would not lake the home unaffordable.

“I think community land trusts similar to what they do in Durham or Chapel Hill would be great here,” said Asheville Vice Mayor Marc Hunt.

Dedman disagrees. To him the key is density. “We consider that model too complex to achieve scale to help a lot of people,” he said. “And it’s an anti-market approach that artificially controls the equity of the home and the value of property in your city.”

Ultimately, housing programs can do only so much. What Asheville really needs are higher wages. Otherwise, the affordability gap will just keep getting bigger.