The plight of Asheville’s homeless is always a good topic for a newspaper article, and so there is a lengthy assessment of the situation in the Mountain Xpress today. The failure of the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness to make its deadline is attributed to the 2008 housing crisis. Even so, the good people trying to help the homeless celebrate significant housing of the area’s chronic homeless. Point-in-time counts, however, indicate non-chronic homelessness is still widespread. Since ten years are now up, experts are now working on a Five-Year Plan.

Like other recent articles on the topic, this one mentions ways to increase the affordable housing supply in the area. I applaud the compassionate folks trying to help, but continue to resist the idea that pulling more money out of the economy is going to help the housing crisis. I don’t mind getting the EMS involved, and Obamacare is too big a Leviathan for me to tackle; but is the City of Asheville really the best real estate agency in town?

Proposed solutions, in addition to raising awareness, include inclusionary zoning (making developers subsidize a portion of new housing projects), land banking (getting the city to displace real estate brokers), increasing the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund budget, perhaps incentivizing landlords to house the homeless, and easing up on zoning restrictions. One out of many ain’t bad. Questioned about overhead, the reporter was told it was necessary to be eligible for grants from most funding sources.