Former Asheville housing authority chief sues over wrongful termination, unpaid contract

Monique Pierre says Asheville’s housing authority still owes her the rest of a four-year contract after firing her in November 2024, turning a personnel fight into a question of public money, housing leadership and who is left paying the bill if she wins.

Pierre filed the wrongful termination complaint in Buncombe County Superior Court on April 22, 2026, under case 26CV002643. The suit says she was hired on April 17, 2023, under a contract that ran through April 17, 2027 and paid her $190,000 a year. Her complaint seeks the remaining compensation due under that contract, which would come from the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville if the court sides with her.

The filing lands at a tense moment for Asheville’s public housing system, which serves 1,525 apartments and distributes thousands of federal housing vouchers. The authority was created in 1940 under North Carolina law to house low- and moderate-income families, and the complaint says it now operates ten public housing developments along with numerous subsidy programs. Pierre’s lawsuit argues that the agency waived governmental immunity through its liability insurance and her employment contract, a claim that could expose the authority to a significant payout.

The case also revisits the storm-battered months after Tropical Storm Helene, when Pierre says she and staff worked hard to help residents. The complaint says a board member threatened to become “the worst enemy” the housing authority had ever seen if rent was required in October 2024, and it alleges Pierre was not fired for wrongdoing but for refusing to ignore that board member’s alleged violations of federal housing law. The suit says the claims against her were unfair. It also says she returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where she now lives, only to do laundry after previously living in Buncombe County.

The dispute followed a broader upheaval on the housing authority board. In February 2025, Asheville City Council unanimously removed board members Tilman Jackson and Reginald Robinson and cut the board from 11 seats to nine, leaving the commission without a public-housing resident representative until a replacement could be named. The board shake-up came after criticism over the authority’s response to Helene and over rent forgiveness demands that surfaced in late 2024.

Now the lawsuit arrives as the authority tries to recover from a separate financial squeeze. Current leaders said vacancies climbed sharply in 2023 and 2024 and helped drive the shortfalls that later led to staff cuts. On April 7, 2026, the housing authority announced a reduction in force affecting 34 employees, or 21% of its workforce. For Asheville residents waiting on repairs, vouchers and stable public housing, the fight over Pierre’s contract adds another layer of pressure to an agency already under strain.