Housing Authority of the City of Asheville Records

TITIME LINE

1940

Housing Authority of the City of Asheville established by Asheville City Council

1940, June 12

Mayor appoints 5 community representatives to the new Housing Authority Commission

1940-1941

Housing Authority seeks $1000 for startup costs from City of Asheville.  The Housing Authority and the City enter into a cooperative agreement guaranteeing provision of city services for future housing projects including a special provision “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” whereby a portion of income from HA project are paid to the city in lieu of the HA paying property taxes.

1940-1941

Housing Authority applies for and is approved to receive Federal Housing Funds ($700K) from federal government.  This is quickly suspended due to WWII

1941

Housing Authority hires first executive director, attorney Clarence N. Walker.  Walker works with architect Henry Gaines visiting project in Charlotte and Atlanta in preparation for Asheville’s application for Federal Housing Funds

1942, May 31

Housing Authority becomes inactive due to WWII

1949, January 3

Housing Authority reactivates

1950

Housing Authority begins first low-income housing project, Lee-Walker Heights, located on a 12.5 acre tract just off Biltmore Ave.  Named after W.S. Lee of Stephens-Lee High School and Dr. J.W. Walker, tuberculosis specialist.

1951, May 25

Lee-Walker Heights dedicated.  Opening day saw 350 applications for 96 apartments.

1952, February 29

Housing Authority’s second low-income housing project, Pisgah View Apartments opens in West Asheville

1958

Redevelopment Commission formed to address the task of eliminating slums and restoring blighted neighborhoods.  RC utilized federal funds to carry out redevelopment work.

1959, December

Housing Authority’s third low-income housing project, Hillcrest Apartments opens

1960

William I. Cochran, Jr., Executive Director, Redevelopment Commission (letter)

1962

J. Alfred Miller, Chair, Redevelopment Commission (stationary)

1964

Redevelopment Commission’s first project, the Civic Redevelopment Project, begins.  This is largely a clearance project between City-County Plaza and I-240, and Market Street to the Beaucatcher Tunnel.

1965, October

Model day-care training program established at Hillcrest Apartments by the Opportunity Corporation under the new Federal Economic Opportunity Act.

1965-1966

James Green, Executive Director, Redevelopment Commission (letter)

1966

Housing Authority’s first tenant association created at Pisgah View Apartments

1967

Redevelopment Commission’s urban renewal chief James W. Greer resigns.  Housing Authority Executive Director Carl Vaughn assumes that position in addition to his Housing Authority duties, setting up the framework for the agencies’ formal merger in 1971.

1968

W. Neil Hanks, Executive Director, Redevelopment Commission (from letter)

1968

Redevelopment Commission begins the East Riverside Redevelopment Program.  This 407-acre project was a combination of rehabilitation and redevelopment.  It also involved improved street and utility systems.  This project was the largest such project in the southeast.  Substandard housing removed in the East Riverside area was replaced unit for unit with federal assistance by the Housing Authority.

1968, August

August 1, 1968 Public Law 90-448 approved.  HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1968. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], Washington, DC

1968

The Housing Authority purchased its first piece of property in the Riverside Renewal Area, 3.5 acres destined for Aston Park Towers and the new Housing Authority Administration building on South French Broad Ave.

1968

Tenants from Hillcrest and Lee-Walker developments, strike, refusing to pay rent until maintenance complaints were resolved

1969, January

Housing Authority Executive Director, Carl Vaughn resigns

1970, September

Housing Authority’s first elderly-handicapped public housing complex, Erskine-Walton Apartments, opens

1970

HUD begins to favor leasing, rather than building new units (beginning of Section 8 housing)

1971

Construction begins on 3 apartment complexes (to be leased by Housing Authority?): Bingham Heights, Deaverview, Kirkwood Apartments

1971

Redevelopment Commission and the Housing Authority officially merge under the directorship of Ray Wheeling

1971

Altamont Apartments open; Aston Park Tower opens

1973

W.C. King, Director, Department of Urban Renewal, Housing Authority of City of Asheville (Letter to him)

1974

Ray Wheeling accepts position with the Charlotte Housing Authority; Wilbur C. King becomes Executive Director of the Asheville Housing Authority

1974-1975

Klondyke Homes and Eastview Homes provide single family, low-rent housing

1976

Wilbur C. King resigns as Executive Director of the Housing Authority and is replaced by David Jones, Jr. (first African American in position?)

1977

Federal Section 8 Housing Program initiated shifting government from public housing construction to providing subsidies for the rental of privately owned homes and apartments

1977, 1978?

East End-Valley Street Community Improvement Project, funded with Community Block Grants begins.  Project encompasses a 250-acre area east-southeast of downtown.

1979, April

Bartlett Arms, elderly and handicapped development, opens

1980

Asheville Gardens, a 248 unit elderly section 8 complex opens on Tunnel Road.  Funded through a new corporation formed by the Housing Authority

1983

Housing Authority receives a national award from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the unique $1.00 building lots program in the East Riverside Development Area.

1984

Pack Plaza re-development project begins

1985

Housing Authority forms a second non-profit corporations, Asheville Assisted Housing, to purchase Bingham Height Apartments upon expiration of its lease

1990

In addition to housing (re)development projects and housing assistance programs, the Asheville Housing Authority has also developed numerous programs for its residents.  These include: Pilot Project Self-Sufficiency, Drug Prevention and Control, Crime Fighting and Victim Assistance, Job Training Internship Program, and the Resident Manager and Resident Home Ownership Initiative. 

1990

The Housing Authority’s Resident’s Council formed its own non-profit corporation and contracted with the Housing Authority for ground maintenance, general facility management, and moving services. In 1990 there were plans for the Resident’s Council to offer rental insurance and selected residents would be trained and licensed as insurance agents. 

1990

Project H.A.N.D. – Housing Against Narcotics and Drugs works towards reducing drug use and sales within Public Housing projects.  Funded by a North Carolina state grant, HAND components include implementation of a Neighborhood Stabilization Program.  

1990

Project Youthful H.A.N.D. teaches resistance techniques for drug and alcohol abuse.

1990

Preventive Victim Assistance designed to help residents ‘fight back’ and reduce crime in Public Housing.

1990

Resident Management program has 3 residents of Hillcrest Apartments trained and certified as Public Housing managers and they operate their own housing community.

1990

Hillcrest Apartments undergoing $5M in modernization in preparation for the sale of renovated units to qualified residents.