The Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Advisory Committee (HIAC) is a joint committee of the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commission. It exists to provide oversight for the implementation of the Five Year Plan, which was adopted in 2016. That plan includes some very good ideas and suggestions. It also contains a large amount of five-year-old data. A new 5-year plan is not currently under development.
The committee members appear to be sincerely compassionate with an honest, but naïve, desire to do something to help homeless people. They just need someone to propose something that they can approve. There are plenty of elected activists and non-profits who will be happy to put together some flashy presentations that this committee would likely approve if it tugged hard enough at their heart strings.
We observed very little productivity in the two meeting recordings that we have reviewed (January and March, 2022).
- Few of the committee members spoke.
- They mostly received reports from city staff and local non-profits.
- They voted to accept minutes from prior meetings.
- There was a suggestion that planning for Code Purple begin further in advance than occurred last year.
- Several members asked questions regarding a preview version of the annual Point-in-Time Count (Scroll down midway on the page).
- There was a unanimous vote at the January 28 meeting to appoint Sara Coplai as Vice Chair of the committee.
Aside from that there was not much more to the meetings. There was no brainstorming on issues or their resolutions. Nor were there any discussions on how to spend money or any evaluations of how money already spent impacted homeless people or tax-paying citizens.
Like a spider in the corner, though, councilwoman Roney raised her hand at the January 28 meeting to offer information on the city’s Human Relations Commission’s request that HIAC joins them in a demand that the city council cancels three ordinances that require the removal of homeless encampments on city property. The proposal also suggests that funding for the enforcement of those ordinances should instead be used to help the homeless encampments thrive. Roney gets excited at any opportunity to defund the police, so this is right up her alley. A couple of people on the committee stated that they thought it would be good to talk to the HRC about joining forces to make the demand. But there was no passionate discussion of the proposal.
From what we can tell, the committee will wait for solutions to be brought to them for endorsement in order to give the tax-and-spend liberals in local government and non-profits an opportunity to check a box indicating that they dutifully sought (and valued!) community input.
City staff has been exploring options to restructure HIAC to better comply with HUD requirements for Continuum of Care governance. They have asked that four existing city appointment vacancies not be filled until restructuring decisions are made. No target date for reaching those decisions has been set. So, it will be difficult for any concerned citizens to formally join the committee and to have an actual vote in the decisions that the committee will make.
- You can join the next HIAC meeting and make your voice heard.
- Also, offer your feedback on the next clump of our tax dollars that Nancy and Chuck thought would help them by votes for the mid-terms, the so-called American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
This next batch of freshly printed money amounts to $4.7 Million and is to be “focused on assistance to individuals or households who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, and other vulnerable populations, by providing housing, rental assistance, supportive services, and non-congregate shelter, with the goal of reducing homelessness and increasing housing stability.”
Because we just haven’t thrown quite enough money at the ~550 homeless individuals in Asheville yet.
