Pisgah Legal gets $250,000 grant to prevent evictions in WNC

Pisgah Legal Services won a $250,000 Housing for Everyone grant that will bolster eviction prevention work in Asheville and across Western North Carolina at a time when Buncombe County renters are still carrying heavy pressure.

The local legal aid group sits inside a housing crisis measured in court filings and family budgets. The Legal Services Corporation’s Buncombe County profile lists 5,237 eviction filings since March 16, 2020, along with a 53.4% rent-burden rate and an 11.8% poverty rate. County grant materials say Pisgah Legal Services provided housing-related legal services to 975 households and 2,093 people during the first three quarters of fiscal 2024, while 2,262 Buncombe County families faced an eviction filing in 2023.

TD Charitable Foundation announced the $10 million grant round on April 21, distributing $250,000 to each of 40 nonprofits nationwide through the 20th annual Housing for Everyone program. TD said the 2026 effort is centered on eviction prevention through early intervention in low- to moderate-income communities, with legal help, mediation and tenant navigation among the strongest approaches because they can stop a filing before a household loses its home. The foundation’s materials cite research estimating 2.7 million U.S. households face eviction each year and say housing loss can lead to school disruption, job loss, poorer health outcomes and lasting financial insecurity.

For Buncombe County, the timing matters. The North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management estimated after Hurricane Helene that the storm destroyed thousands of homes and damaged tens of thousands more across western North Carolina, with statewide damage and needs reaching $59.6 billion. A North Carolina Rural Center report published in January said housing remained one of the region’s most pressing concerns after Helene and warned that the western mountains were at risk of a full-blown housing crisis, with 20 of the 24 westernmost counties seeing housing prices rise at least 10% faster than the national average from 2020 to 2025.

Pisgah Legal Services has become part of the county’s housing safety net. Its 2024 impact data show 25,842 people helped overall, with housing issues making up 34% of closed legal cases. Founded in 1979, the Asheville-based nonprofit has 139 employees and serves clients across Western North Carolina.

The new grant will not erase the region’s housing shortage, but it gives Pisgah Legal another tool in a county where even a short legal intervention can be the difference between staying housed and joining the next wave of displacement.