Priscilla Ndiaye Robinson looked across the empty fields where her Southside neighborhood once thrived. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all gone,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne thousand two hundred businesses and homes were lost.鈥�
The neighborhood, where approximately half of Asheville鈥檚 Black population lived, suffered major upheaval under Asheville鈥檚 urban renewal program in the 1970s and 1980s, one of the largest urban renewal projects in the Southeastern United States.
Ndiaye Robinson鈥檚 memories of childhood delights 鈥� a neighbor鈥檚 cupcakes, playing with chickens, charging up the grassy hills 鈥� are tainted by sadness and umbrage at what happened. 鈥淚t broke up a loving community. It tore up families,鈥� she recalled.
For Asheville鈥檚 Black residents it, urban renewal also undercut the foundation of generational wealth and dashed a revered piece of the American Dream. Predominantly Black neighborhoods were razed to make way for proposed highways or real estate ventures, often to the benefit of white investors.
When Ndiaye Robinson was growing up in Southside 鈥� called East Riverside under the program 鈥� 58 percent of Black families in Asheville owned their own homes. Today, in Buncombe County, 41.3 percent of Black households own their own homes, below the national average.
鈥淗ome Ownership Is a Big Deal鈥�
Last summer, in the heat of a national reckoning on racial injustice, both the City of Asheville and Buncombe County passed resolutions intended to begin making amends for generations of discrimination. The resolutions included a goal of increasing Black home ownership.
鈥淏lack people in this country and this city are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature,鈥� said Keith Young, a native Ashevillian and a former member of the Asheville City Council who drafted the city鈥檚 reparations resolution. 鈥淲e need to be made whole in areas where there are all sorts of disparities. There are healthcare disparities, educational disparities, employment disparities, criminal justice disparities, business ownership disparities, home ownership disparities, overall equity and overall generational wealth disparities.鈥�
鈥淗ome ownership is a big deal,鈥� Young said. 鈥淭he economic gap between Black and white citizens in the country is a big deal.鈥�
In Buncombe County today, 90.2 percent of all homeowners are white, compared to 3.9 percent for African-Americans, according to figures from the Urban Decision Group, American Community Survey and ESRI. The county鈥檚 Black population was approximately 6.3 percent 2019.
Two-thirds of white households 鈥� 65.9 percent 鈥� owned their own homes in Buncombe County in 2020, compared to 41.3 percent for Blacks, a gap of 24.6 points. This is only slightly better than the national 26.8-point gap in 1960, before the 1968 Fair Housing Act was passed.
As a result, whites are far more likely than African Americans to profit from soaring real estate prices in Asheville and Buncombe County, and more likely to pass that wealth to subsequent generations. And because of education, income and wage disparities, Blacks are less likely to be able to afford to enter the real estate market than whites.
鈥淯rban Renewal鈥� and 鈥淣egro Removal鈥�
Beginning in the late 1950s, Asheville and other cities across the United States displaced an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 families each year 鈥� most of them Black 鈥� in what white city officials called urban renewal, but which the writer James Baldwin called 鈥淣egro removal.鈥�
In the 1930s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Authority created residential maps based on what they considered lending and investment risk. The areas of greatest risk were classified as 鈥淒鈥� and were red, depriving residents access to mortgages and other credit, which over time resulted in the physical decline of those neighborhoods. In Asheville, those redlined neighborhoods were predominantly Black.
These same areas, variously described as 鈥渄ilapidated,鈥� 鈥渂lighted,鈥� or 鈥渟lums,鈥� were designated for destruction by white city councils, which in Asheville鈥檚 case was motivated by a drive to make the city a premier tourism destination.
In Asheville, those neighborhoods included Southside, East End, Burton Street, Hill Street, Stumptown, and Shiloh. Public housing projects were created to provide low-cost alternative housing for families uprooted from their generational homes.
A half century later, the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville has grown to 10 public housing developments. A majority of residents in the projects are Black.
Little Confidence in Reparations
Given Asheville鈥檚 history of urban renewal, redlining, racial covenants, credit and mortgage discrimination, and systemic discrimination in employment and education, many residents in the Black community are skeptical that the reparations resolutions will accomplish much to increase Black home ownership.
鈥淚鈥檓 not hopeful,鈥� said Ndiaye Robinson, who has researched urban renewal in Asheville鈥檚 Southside neighborhood. 鈥淗omeowners were promised another lot鈥� in their neighborhoods, 鈥渂ut that never happened.鈥�
Her family rented in Southside. The city鈥檚 Housing Authority placed them in new public housing, which eased the overcrowding in their former apartment.
But instead of renewal, 鈥渋t destroyed the community,鈥� Ndiaye Robinson said. 鈥淚t was an area of thriving Black-owned businesses, and you had many business owners who were teaching younger people their trades,鈥� she said.
The Rev. Dr. Wesley Grant Sr., a civil rights activist and prominent Baptist pastor who lived in Asheville for 75 years, enumerated the losses shortly before his death in 2007.
鈥淚n the East Riverside area we have lost more than 1,100 homes, six beauty parlors, five barber shops, five filling stations, fourteen grocery stores, three laundromats, eight apartment houses, seven churches, three shoe shops, two cabinet shops, two auto body shops, one hotel, five funeral homes, one hospital and three doctors鈥� offices,鈥� Dr. Grant said then.
Broken Promises
Andrea Clark, whose photography documenting the East End neighborhood before and after urban renewal is exhibited in the Pack Memorial Library, said of the city鈥檚 pledges on reparations: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe in them.鈥� She said she feels that the Black community鈥檚 history is littered with broken promises.
Clark鈥檚 father, James Howard Clark, the son of master mason James V. Miller, who built the Hopkins Chapel, the YMI building, and Mt. Zion Baptist Church among many other Asheville landmarks, lived on Valley Street in the East End. Clark grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but moved to Asheville in 1968 to live with her father.
Her father鈥檚 house situated, below St. Matthias Episcopal Church, and another small plot he owned were claimed by urban renewal when he was in his 90s. He was paid $11,000 for his house plus a bit more for the land as compensation, Clark said, enabling him to buy another house just up the hill on Max Street.
In terms of passing wealth from one generation to the next, the Clarks were more fortunate than some others. Clark still owns the Max Street house and rents it.
鈥淭hey Tore It All Down鈥�
Rita Lee, an Asheville real estate agent, said the city used eminent domain to claim the East End house owned by her grandparents during urban renewal. 鈥淭hey said they were going to make a highway there and offered my grandfather money to move,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淭oday, there is no highway there. They tore it all down, but the land is still there.鈥�
Lee said she would love to see the city adopt a reparation plan that would give back the land it took away during urban renewal.
Lee said her grandfather refused to move until his compensation for his house and another small piece of land he owned was enough to buy another house. In the end, he was able to buy a house on East Chestnut Street in the Montford neighborhood just north of downtown, which had a significant Black population at that time.
The family of Reginald Robinson, a local sports official, had a similar story. Robinson said his mother lost her home to urban renewal in the East End, and with her compensation bought a house on Tacoma Circle in Montford, where his grandmother lived in her own home.
Today, Robinson said he cannot afford a home, so he rents an apartment.
鈥淢y grandmother bought her house, and she worked in a factory,鈥� Robinson said. 鈥淪he could do that then.鈥� He said he believes that would be impossible today given wages compared to high home prices in the city, where the median price for a house was $385,000 in the final quarter of 2020.
After Montford was declared a historic district in 1977, taxes rose, as did obligations on upkeep, Robinson said. Both his mother and grandmother had to sell their houses, victims of gentrification, he said.
The Threat of Gentrification
Paul D鈥橝ngelo, Asheville鈥檚 Community and Economic Development Director, said the city is attempting to address the challenge of affordable housing and to increase Black home ownership by partnering with two nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity and Mountain Housing Opportunities (MHO), using loans and down payment assistance. Both Habitat and MHO build homes in cooperation with those who want to own a home but fall below a certain income level.
Habitat typically builds 12 to 15 houses a year, although this year it is likely to be lower, according to Andy Barnett, executive director of Asheville鈥檚 Habitat. Between 30 percent and 45 percent of Habitat clients are people of color, mostly African-American or bi-racial, he said.
Barnett said another Habitat program for repairs is key to helping people to keep their homes. In this program, which handles 50 to 60 homes a year, some 40 percent to 45 percent of the clients are African-American.
鈥淲e helped a homeowner on Southside a few years ago,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淗e inherited a home, and the property had gotten deteriorated. And he wanted to be able to keep that asset intact so he can hand it down to the next generation. We see that a lot in the repair program.鈥�
The threat here is gentrification, Barnett said. 鈥淚f people are not able to stay on top of maintenance, those are the houses that investors want to buy and flip. And that traces back to redlining and the lack of ability to access credit to make repairs.鈥�
While Habitat鈥檚 mortgages come interest free, its portfolio belies the common misbelief that lower-income people do not repay their loans. 鈥淲e have less than 1 percent of our mortgage portfolio more than 90 days delinquent, and that is roughly consistent with all mortgage loans,鈥� he said.
Mountain Housing Opportunities also builds and repairs homes, and it offers down-payment and closing-costs assistance for low-income home buyers.
Priced Out of Asheville
D鈥橝ngelo noted, however, that given lower prices for land, labor and materials outside the city limits, only about one-third of the 15 or so homes built by Habitat are in Asheville, and only about five of the roughly 30 built by MHO annually are in the city.
A newer avenue to assist in home ownership is the Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust, with over $1 million in funding from the city鈥檚 bond issue on affordable housing. It became fully operational last year. It explicitly aims to assist minority low-income homeowners by purchasing homes and then reselling those homes to buyers with a subsidy, according to Anna Zuevskaya, executive director of the trust.
Like all community land trusts, ABLCT sells the building but permanently retains ownership of the land, entering a long-term, low-cost lease with the homeowner. Zuevskaya added that lower-income families can also approach the trust for assistance in purchasing a home, though in return it would keep the land.
When the homeowner sells, the family earns the increased home value 鈥� guaranteed by the ABLCT to increase by 2.2 percent annually 鈥斺€漢elping the family to build wealth,鈥� Zuevskaya said. She added that the trust also plans to build homes, using a partner, on land it acquires.
Despite these nonprofit efforts, even with city assistance, the outlook for greater Black home ownership is dire. With the median sales price of homes continuing to rise, lower-income people 鈥� including most Black and minority citizens 鈥� have been priced out of Asheville.
The housing market 鈥渇orces people into rentals,鈥� D鈥橝ngelo said. 鈥淪o, the American Dream is not going to happen.鈥�
is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Barbara Durr is a former correspondent for The Financial Times of London. Contact her at bdurr@avlwatchdog.org.
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