‘Everyone is worthy of a home’: Nonprofit to bring deeply affordable housing to WNC
By Kristen Aguirre
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — In an effort to combat the housing crisis in WNC, BeLoved Asheville is gearing up to break ground on what it calls deeply affordable housing.
It comes in the form of a community — BeLoved Village.
“Something happens to my personhood when you tell me who I am and you say, ‘You’re a human being who has dignity, and worth and value,’” said Amy Cantrell of BeLoved Asheville.
Cantrell said each home will be fully furnished with a full kitchen, bathroom, at least one bedroom and a washer and dryer.
“We believe everyone is worthy of a home,” she said.
BeLoved Village is targeted for people at 30% of the area median income which often incudes the elderly on a fixed income, people with disabilities or people living on the street.
“Our housing situation is getting worse and worse and worse, and we need a housing solution that’s homegrown and really works,” Cantrell said.
BeLoved Village will also build equity for residents.
“We know equity for the majority of Americans has created wealth, and so we know equity can lift people out of poverty,” she said.
Residents will chose between a home ownership or a rent-equity model to pay into.
“They’re building that equity so they don’t ever have to live in poverty again,” Cantrell said.
Right now, this village is 100% community-funded.
“What we projected is a pure cost to build one of these if we were paying for all the materials and the grading and the utilities in the ground,” Cantrell said.
That pure cost number per home is about $94,700, but it goes down as more community members step up.
“Now — we need to be the change,” Cantrell said.
For example, the land where the first village will go was donated by a faith group.
Cantrell said about 1,000 volunteers have put their time into this first village so far.
“Anybody, anybody who comes in here, no matter their situation — a lot of people haven’t been able to access home equity, and we wanted to change that,” she said.
Cantrell said they’ll begin to lay foundation for the other 11 homes in the village in January. Residents are expected to move in late next summer.
“This is just the beginning,” she said.
BeLoved hopes to build more villages like this throughout Buncombe County.
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