The Coronavirus Pandemic appears to be winding down and with it, protections designed to ameliorate the ensuing economic devastation that would have wreaked further havoc on vulnerable low-income populations. 

When the Coronavirus Pandemic broke out in the United States in March 2020, Congress passed that CARES Act. Part of that legislation included a federal moratorium on evictions. The idea was the United States should keep people sheltered during a global pandemic, regardless of whether they could pay their rent in an economy that was quickly screeching to a halt. 

The amount of time Legal Aid lawyers spend on helping clients with housing issues doubled during the pandemic.

Dogwood Health Trust recently invested in affordable housing initiatives in Haywood and Jackson counties by awarding a $872,671 grant to Mountain Projects.

With vaccinations underway and COVID-19 restrictions easing, April home sales rose 48.8 percent year-over-year with 1,138 homes sold across the Asheville region. 

Despite gusting winds and a temperature of 42 degrees at the time the three-hour meeting began — it was 37 degrees and felt like 30 by its 8 p.m. conclusion — more than 50 people bundled up to attend an outdoor hearing on the fate of two Sylva apartment projects Thursday, April 1. 

After the results of a Town of Waynesville Planning Board meeting on March 16, Haywood County will now move into an exciting new chapter in the story of attracting affordable housing developments for its residents.

Waynesville Alderman Jon Feichter says that he’s proud of the concrete steps previous town boards took to address the affordable housing crisis, but if the presentation he made during a March 4 budget retreat had any impact, the town will soon embrace a less passive approach to one of the region’s most troublesome issues. 

Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday, Sept. 8, to join the Southwestern NC Home Consortium after previously opting not to join the regional effort. 

The affordable housing crisis in Western North Carolina isn’t anything new, but it is entering a dangerous new phase due to ever-increasing home values, limited supply and a red-hot real estate market that has refused to use the Coronavirus Pandemic as an excuse to cool down.