Supply, discrimination among factors impacting fair housing in Buncombe County: report

ASHEVILLE - After years as a top county for receiving fair housing complaints, a new study by the Land of Sky Regional Council shows that housing supply, accessibility and discrimination are all potential problems for fair housing in Buncombe County.

The study found five impediments to fair housing in the county and offered ways for the county to improve through funding, zoning code changes, education and incentives. At the county Board of Commissioners Briefing Dec. 5, Land of Sky Regional Planner Mary Roderick presented the results of the report, which was created to comply with a Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, managed by the state Department of Commerce, that the county received in December 2020.

"HUD really expects jurisdictions receiving funding to take what they call 'meaningful action' to address housing discrimination," Roderick said. "Now, with that housing bond ... I think you have an opportunity to support that. So, I feel like the analysis actually comes at a good time, even though it was really done out of this compliance requirement."

The $900,000 from the grant is going to county-managed mortgage and rental assistance, according to Buncombe County Health and Human Services' Economic Services Director Phillip Hardin, who introduced Roderick's presentation to commissioners.

In the first 20 years of the 21st century, Buncombe County was a top three county in fair housing complaints received per capita, a Legal Aid of North Carolina 19-Year Complaint Summary referenced by the study showed, with 87.3 complaints per 100,000 residents as compared to the state average of 37.93 complaints per 100,000 residents.

Those numbers fell in the last 10 years, Roderick said, but so did all complaint numbers, so that should not be taken to mean the county is necessarily doing better.

Housing supply

The first impediment found by the study was inadequate housing supply, both in the for-sale and rental markets.

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In the for-sale market, Buncombe County had a 0.7% availability rate. Healthy markets, Roderick said, are around 2% to 3%, though most markets nationally are below 2% at the moment. Out of 18 Western North Carolina counties, only three had a lower availability rate: Burke, McDowell and Henderson.

For the rental market, surveyed multifamily housing projects showed around a 95% occupancy rate for market-rate units; however, tax credit and government-subsidized units have a nearly 100% occupancy rate. The study used findings from the 2020 Bowen Report, which was authored by Bowen National Research about the housing needs of Western North Carolina under a commission from the Dogwood Health Trust in Asheville.

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"The (affordable housing) bond couldn't have come at a better time," Roderick said.

Tight rental markets may make discrimination worse, Roderick said, as people are less likely to make complaints out of fear of landlord retaliation. Andrew Paul, founder of the housing affordability advocacy group Asheville for All, told the Citizen Times he believes that just ending discrimination in housing will not help the overall market in the county.

"Ending discrimination is absolutely important, but if we don't increase the supply, and that includes supply overall of all kinds of housing ... then you're still going to run into these problems that we have," he said.

To help increase housing stock, Roderick recommended relaxing strict zoning codes and approval procedures around housing developments.

Minimum lot sizes and maximum density standards limit the "missing middle housing" required for a healthy market in zones where multifamily developments are allowed, she said, and four base zoning districts representing 46% of all county zoned land do not allow multifamily housing at all.

Projects with greater than eight units and four buildings require a special use permit, which must go before the quasi-judicial Board of Adjustment, where nearby property owners can potentially delay or change a project, even without the legal standing required to get the board to deny it.

This costs time and money, Roderick said, which prevents some developers from even trying, so she recommended raising the number of units and buildings that triggers a special use permit, allowing more developments to only require staff review.

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A good time to look at changing those codes and procedures would be in the county's upcoming 2035 Master Plan development, she said.

"That's the discussion to have with planning staff, with stakeholders, to say, 'If we made these changes, would you build more?'" Roderick said. "That is a conversation with developers, too."

The second impediment was an inadequate supply of accessible housing options. In the last five years, the county received 10 fair housing complaints, and of those, only three were found to have legal cause, each for discrimination because of a person's disability, the report showed.

To help, Roderick recommended funding for programs that improves the accessibility of existing structures and providing incentives to housing developers to increase the number of accessible units in publicly funded developments.

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Lack of finance options for those wanting to buy a home was identified as the third impediment. In Buncombe County, people of color are between one-and-a-half to two times more likely to be denied a mortgage than white people, the report showed, and also noted that people of color in the county are more likely to be renters than homeowners.

Housing supply in the county is also concentrated at higher prices, with housing less than $200,000 making up less than 9% of the total market, the study showed, again using the 2020 Bowen Report. Conversely, the study showed 36.4% of the total market share is made up by housing that costs more than $500,000.

Roderick said that financial counseling programs, especially those for people of color and low income households, should be expanded in both capacity and outreach.

"I think that is also a fairly low hanging fruit," she said about expanding programs. "Zoning changes are more challenging by far."

Income discrimination

The fourth impediment found by the study was discrimination based on source of rental income and previous eviction history.

While income source is not one of the seven characteristics protected by the Fair Housing Act ― which are race, color, national origin, religion, sex, including gender identity and sexual orientation, familial status and disability ― some cities and states have begun to include it in their own fair housing regulations, Roderick said.

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"People should not be discriminated based on the means by which they pay for their housing," Paul said. "It certainly goes against the tenant that housing is a human right."

The city of Charlotte protects against income source discrimination, and the Human Relations Commission of Asheville has recommended adding it to the city's non-discrimination codes, according to the presentation.

In addition to recommending the county adopt something similar, which would prevent landlords who receive public funding or incentives from refusing applications based on their participation in government housing programs, Roderick said the county could partner with legal nonprofits like Pisgah Legal Services to help those facing eviction.

The last impediment found by the report was the general public's lack of awareness of fair housing laws. The county's website on fair housing is already in the process of being overhauled, Roderick said, which will help to better educate people on what is and is not allowed.

Analysis like this is supposed to be conducted every five years that a jurisdiction receives HUD funding, however, the last time a fair housing study was undertaken was in 2012, and that study looked at the entire region, not just Buncombe County, Roderick said.

Christian Smith is the general assignment reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Questions or comments? Contact him at RCSmith@gannett.com or 828-274-2222.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Fair housing in Buncombe County is impacted by supply, discrimination