On a chilly Wednesday morning, a few weeks after Hurricane Helene upended the region, around 50 residents of Asheville and Buncombe County bundled up in coats and mittens and stood outside of the courthouse. They carried signs that read “No evictions in a disaster” and “Housing is a human right.”
The demonstration, organized by Just Economics and Asheville Food and Beverage United, highlighted calls from advocates across the region for a moratorium on evictions – similar to those enacted at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than two weeks later, they’re still asking. More than 1,100 people have signed a petition asking for an eviction moratorium, but beyond small grant programs, no widespread rent relief has been made available.
While FEMA financial assistance can be used for rent or relocating to another rented home, immediate help for tenants has been difficult to find.
When Helene hit the region last month, floods and landslides knocked out core infrastructure, homes and businesses, and disrupted people’s ability to pay rent. An estimated 12,000 people in Buncombe County filed for disaster-related unemployment.
Many storm victims lost cars, access to child care and their main sources of income. As the water crisis continues in Asheville – stifling businesses’ ability to reopen – many workers are in a state of limbo, wondering whether they will have a jobs to return to.
Emily Merz is one of the workers who has been impacted. Before Helene hit, she was a store manager for The Pot Stirred, an alcohol-free bar and cafe in the River Arts District.
Like many businesses and art studios, her workplace was destroyed by crushing floodwaters. Weeks later, she still grieves the loss and remains without a full-time job.
READ MORE: In first meeting since Helene, tourism board says Asheville needs visitors now to recover
"That place felt like a home to me,” she said. “It was a community of people that I got to be my weird little self with – without judgment – and I really loved that space. I loved working there. It was just such an inviting space.”
As she mourns her home-away-from-home, Merz, 30, faces mounting challenges at her literal home for the last five years in Asheville’s Richmond Hills neighborhood. Merz lives with her partner, Brennan Dugan, her 21-year-old sister, two pets, and a friend who was temporarily staying at their house before the storm.
Rent is $3,300 per month and has steadily increased each year, Merz said. In 2019, rent was $2,600 for the same house. Merz said her wages have not increased at the same rate as her rent increases.
“I do live paycheck to paycheck, and oftentimes I've relied on some level of government assistance just to keep food in the fridge and take care of my family,” she said.
The storm damaged the roof and two windows of their rental home. For days, Merz’s family was stuck at home without utilities or road access. Like most Asheville residents, they still have no clean running water.
Merz and Dugan’s other stream of income, a wedding photography business, also took a nosedive in the fallout of the storm as most weddings in the region were postponed or canceled.
Merz said she has applied for FEMA aid and disaster unemployment assistance but has not received anything yet.
Other renters are forced back on the housing hunt
Isabella Clark, 27, is another one of thousands of tenants across Western North Carolina who are worried about making rent under extraordinary circumstances.
Clark rents a home with three roommates in East Asheville. Before Helene hit, it was already difficult for the farmer and herbalist to afford rent. “It’s only really affordable if you have roommates,” they said.
Overall, the pre-Helene situation was good – Clark liked their roommates and enjoyed that the house was near the garden where they worked, as well as near their family.
But conditions at the house took a turn for the worse when Helene flooded the basement, destroying Clark’s herbalism supplies and special items like their prom dress and scarves from their grandmother, they said.
The loss — and health concerns about the water damage — made Clark decide to move.
Clark said they are not sure where they and their roommates will be when their lease ends in late November. They’re hoping for a three-bedroom for less than $2,000 a month.
Housing stock took serious hit from Helene
These new housing challenges compound an existing affordable housing crisis in the region.
Samuel Gunter, executive director of the NC Housing Coalition, put it bluntly: “If folks end up getting evicted, there is nowhere for them to go right now.”
Early projections from the governor’s office suggest that 126,000 homes were damaged by the storm. In Buncombe County, 670 residential buildings have been confirmed as damaged by the storm, with 294 destroyed, according to data from the county government.
Before Helene hit, rental stock was already in short supply in western North Carolina, with units failing to outpace demand from a large influx of newcomers. A report by the city of Asheville showed a need for 14,000 units by 2050 just to meet current population growth trends.
Buncombe County’s market-rate rent doubled in just five years. In the last census, about a third of residents were renters. Even traditionally rural counties, like Henderson County, are struggling with affordability.
“The units just don't exist to absorb that much displacement,” Gunter added.
He said evictions are likely to accelerate after Helene, pointing to a well-known piece of research: a 2019 MIT study that showed eviction rates tend to double in the two years following a major natural disaster.
Gunter worried about lower-income people being squeezed out of the region as a result, something that’s already been occurring as wealth has moved into the area and reshaped the local economy, he said.
“We have a lot of vacation homes, rental homes out there to accommodate that tourism industry that was already pricing folks who lived in Western North Carolina out of their own housing markets.”
Hundreds of eviction hearings already happening
Earlier this month, courthouses in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties resumed small claims court where eviction proceedings are held.
As of Oct. 29, in Buncombe County, 195 eviction hearings have taken place since the courthouse reopened. In Henderson County, there were more than 30 eviction hearings in the same timeframe.
Asheville’s Housing Authority filed for 16 eviction hearings in October.
READ MORE: Soiled sheets and overflowing toilets: Public housing residents decry post-Helene conditions
Vicki Meath, the executive director of Just Economics, is one of the people advocating for the courts to stop eviction proceedings.
“Some people don’t know if they have a job, some people’s jobs were washed down the river. People don’t have child care. There’s a number of barriers that are preventing people’s ability to earn income,” Meath told BPR.
“We still have people missing; we still have devastation that people have begun to mourn. This is not a time to evict people. This is a time to keep people housed.”
An eviction moratorium is possible, advocates say
David Bartholomew, an attorney with Pisgah Legal, said there is precedent for an eviction moratorium when big disasters hit — but that hasn’t happened yet in wake of Helene.
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress acted on the issue. In March 2020, it signed the CARES Act to protect the economy from collapse. The measure included a temporary ban on evictions.
The U.S. Supreme Court eventually rejected the nationwide moratorium, but some states held onto eviction protections and rent relief programs for months.
In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order clarifying the eviction moratorium and reinforcing its application in the state.
Three years ago, U.S. Rep. Val Demings – a Democrat from Florida – attempted to pass an automatic 90-day eviction moratorium following disasters, but the measure did not pass in Congress. However, just this year in Sonoma County, Calif., local leaders approved an ordinance that limits evictions during declared states of emergency.
“We really do need to take a deep breath and give ourselves time to help each other. It's really important for our community to take a pause and not displace more people and not add to the disaster. We need to work together to overcome it, not make it worse.”David Bartholomew, Pisgah Legal attorney
Ultimately, an eviction moratorium is a decision that has to happen at the state or federal level –from the North Carolina Supreme Court, the state legislature or the governor, Bartholomew said.
In the meantime, he hopes that on an individual basis, landlords are willing to take a pause while the region recovers.
“We really do need to take a deep breath and give ourselves time to help each other,” he said. “It's really important for our community to take a pause and not displace more people and not add to the disaster. We need to work together to overcome it, not make it worse.”
This story has been updated to clarify Clark's move.
