Affordable housing proposals surge in Buncombe County after Helene
Buncombe County has 114 recovery projects on the books, but only a few housing efforts have moved past funding rounds and into direct help for displaced families.
Helene left Buncombe County with flooded neighborhoods, landslides, and a housing scramble that is still sorting real units from hopeful plans. The county and six municipal partners adopted a Helene Recovery Plan on Nov. 18, 2025, with 114 projects spread across seven local governments, including 31 in Buncombe County and 31 in Asheville.
The clearest warning sign came from the 2025 point-in-time count. The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care counted 755 people experiencing homelessness in Buncombe County on Jan. 28, 2025, up from 739 a year earlier. Unsheltered homelessness climbed to 328 people, a 50% increase from 2024, and 116 of those unsheltered residents said they were homeless because of Tropical Storm Helene. FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance added 1,548 people to the final HUD-reported count that night, showing how many households were still cycling through temporary shelter instead of stable housing.
Some of the fastest-moving help has come through rental assistance, not new construction. The City of Asheville received a one-time $1,748,141 HUD CDBG disaster-response grant that supported Buncombe County’s Helene Recovery Housing Assistance Grant program. By May 2025, 160 Asheville families had received up to three months of rental assistance, with an average grant of $3,554. The city later approved another $135,074.80 in May 2025, enough to help an estimated 27 more families.
The county’s Affordable Housing Services Program is now the main funding lane for developers and nonprofits trying to turn recovery demand into actual units. Buncombe County opened that application cycle on Dec. 17, 2025, with a Jan. 30, 2026 deadline, and put special priority on affordable housing for residents permanently displaced by Helene. The county says nonprofit and for-profit applicants can seek grants and loans, and the Affordable Housing Subcommittee reviews requests before making funding recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.
Even with money on the table, the bottlenecks remain plain. County officials reported more than 1.5 million cubic yards of right-of-way debris and 1.6 million cubic yards of waterway debris removed by September 2025, along with 23 demolished properties. At the Sept. 16, 2025 briefing, officials also said 898 of 2,905 RenewNC single-family housing applications statewide came from Buncombe County. That volume shows the pressure on local builders, inspectors, roads, and utilities. The region has a long list of housing ideas now; the harder task is turning the most advanced ones into roofs, closings, and occupied homes.
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