ASHEVILLE - The fate of the former Ramada Inn was back before Asheville City Council Sept. 24, with a different developer, a new ask and a reconfigured project. Council narrowly approved an amendment to the existing deed restriction on the East Asheville property — allowing 50 units of supportive housing for homeless veterans and 50 units of affordable housing.
With that needed vote, the developer plans to close on the property Oct. 1 and, contingent on securing project-based vouchers from the Asheville Housing Authority, the property will move forward with this newest iteration of housing after nearly a year left in limbo.
There was hugging in the hallway outside the council chambers following the 4-3 vote, but public commenters, Including council members, had been split. For some, this version of the project was a letdown — offering fewer dedicated units for those among the city's most vulnerable unhoused — while others, such as nearby business and property owners, decried any housing for the homeless at the former hotel.
Still, more speakers and council members said while perhaps not everything they had hoped, the proposed project was better than losing out on housing altogether.
Mayor Esther Manheimer said she shared the disappointment and concern around releasing 50 of the permanent supportive housing units, a decision she described as giving her "heartburn."
"This has been a really difficult journey for all of us to work through," she said. But, as she also noted, the project requires no city funding.
Manheimer, along with Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore and council members Sage Turner and Maggie Ullman, ultimately voted to support the project.
Eleanor Ashton, formerly with Homeward Bound, now retired, urged council not to change the deed restriction. She helped raise $17 million for the nonprofit's own permanent supportive housing project, Compass Point Village, which opened with 85 units last September.
The Ramada modifications, she said, resulted in the most "fragile and traumatized" members of community being left behind.
"Yes, the change will provide 50 units of affordable housing, which the city desperately needs, but at what cost?" Ashton said. "It should not be at the expense of our unhoused neighbors. If they lose the opportunity for this type of housing, they may never get another one."
Who is the developer?
Previously, the parcel's deed restriction required that any future development must include 100 units of permanent supportive housing, a model that targets chronically homeless individuals, typically those who have been unhoused for at least a year and have a disability, offering long-term housing with wraparound services.
The new proposal is a loss of the 50 units that would have housed those in the city's general chronically homeless population, with supportive services for those beds provided through a contract with Homeward Bound.
To fund those wraparound services for four years, the developer had planned to request $1.5 million from the city — money once promised to the project when it was in the hands of LA-based developer, Shangri-La , before it lost the property to foreclosure in December 2023. Now that ask is off the table, freeing up more than a million dollars in city funds.
This iteration of the project is headed by another California-based developer, Friendship for Affordable Housing, which will purchase the property for acquisition and renovation with an estimated $18 million in private capital. Several former Shangri-La employees are now on staff with Friendship.
So what's new?
Rather than all 113 units being transformed into permanent supportive housing — what homeless service providers have stressed is a deep need in the Asheville community and was the initial pitch from Friendship in June — it will instead convert 50 of its motel rooms to house homeless veterans through the HUD-VASH program, with another 50 designated affordable housing for people earning 50% of the area median income using project-based vouchers from the Asheville housing authority.
That's an annual income of $32,700 for one person in the Asheville metro area, per the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and $37,400 for two.
The remaining 13 rooms would also be affordable units, but without vouchers or a specified population.
The reconfiguration came after feedback from the Continuum of Care, a community-driven planning body addressing homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County; City Council's Housing and Community Development Committee; and community members.
The CoC's funding committee did not recommend approval of the initial proposal, citing a high financial risk, though the board narrowly did in August. But when the CoC board heard the new proposal earlier this month, despite some disappointment, members voted to support it, as well.
Ayahlushim Getachew, a principal with Friendship, said the pivot helped address those financial concerns — most of which lingered around how to continue funding Homeward Bound's supportive services once the $1.5 million was spent and a hefty security budget.
If Friendship closes on the property in October, it anticipates occupancy in December 2025.
Council concerns?
There were questions from council members around co-locating voucher-based affordable units on the same parcel as housing for formerly homeless veterans.
"If you're living in a community and your neighbor might have some type of crisis, it effects everybody, that's why we have models like restorative justice, because an incident can effect and harm more people involved than just the individuals in crisis," said council member Sheneika Smith. "So if we're having high-acuity individuals in one living space, even though they are two separate buildings, people will be impacted."
Smith said she would prefer to see supportive service for the "civilian" residents as well.
Council member Antanette Mosley said a community member who lived in public housing, who spoke with her, likened it to "placing Compass Point in the middle of Hillcrest."
In answering concerns, Jerry Kivett-Kimbro, HUD-VASH supervisor, said in the city's current housing landscape, there are many pockets of neighborhoods where there are "large concentration of high-acuity veterans and civilians who may or may not be on federal rental assistance, but are living in, what I would consider, affordable housing complexes."
It's a "baseline," he said, for what affordable housing already looks like in Asheville.
"I'm more inclined to support the original proposal or a new proposal, next proposal, that has services for everybody, not just supporting half the residents," said council member Kim Roney, who along with Smith and Mosley, was a dissenting vote.
"It does feel like we're operating from appropriate urgency, totally understood, but also scarcity, and that is why it feels like eating scraps of bread, because we're not bringing the whole loaf, and that feels like a choice."
What about the city's $1.5 million?
City Council also voted Sept. 24 to redirect the $1.5 million no longer set aside for supportive services at the Ramada. Reserved for the project was $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $1 million in city capital funding. The ARPA funds were previously authorized for this project and, per U.S. Department of the Treasury guidance, must still be used for homeless services.
The $1 million can be reprogrammed at any time. The staff report recommended its use be reconsidered as part of the fiscal year 2026 budget development process.
Council members voted unanimously to redirect the $500,000 — with $278,000 to fill gaps in requested Code Purple funding this winter, which are shelter beds that triggers when temperatures drop below freezing; and $222,000 for emergency shelter and supportive services, with recommendations to come later this winter from the CoC.
More: Ramada Inn proposal changes: Less dedicated housing for homeless, now affordable units
More: Asheville homelessness board moves new Ramada proposal forward; Council has final say
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on X, formerly Twitter, at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times .
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 50 affordable units, 50 beds for homeless veterans: Ramada proposal gets council OK
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