ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —

Skyrocketing housing prices and a shortage of affordable housing are driving a crisis of homelessness all across the country.

That’s the common ground Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer found with mayors of cities big and small this week, before she returned from a U.S. Conference of Mayors Homelessness Task Force lobbying blitz in Washington, D.C.

“This trip was very focused on the federal portion of this,” Manheimer said, as the mayors asked White House officials, cabinet secretaries and members of the U.S. Congress to provide more resources for local efforts, remove regulatory barriers to expanded housing programs and give them more ways to address the issue at home.

“We have to have our foot on the gas pedal. This is one of those issues where the work is never going to be done,” Manheimer said.

From Sunday through Tuesday, Manheimer and more than four dozen mayors from around the country collaborated and met with federal policy makers to press for their needs.

Manheimer said a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who also chairs the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, was somewhat frustrating because the mayors need financial resources and his department faces budget constraints.

“It was a frustrating meeting for him and for us, because his department had the deepest cuts of any federal department,” Manheimer said. One thing they all agreed: “It’s absolutely clear we’re facing a crisis.”

In meetings with White House officials, lawmakers and leaders of various federal departments that oversee different portions of the homelessness response, the mayors focused on a specific list of areas where the federal government can help.

Manheimer said that included lobbying for:

  • Increasing funding for housing voucher programs.
  • Raising the cap on the number of Project Based Vouchers that can be used in privately-owned buildings — from 20 percent to 50 percent.
  • Increasing the number of local development projects that qualify for the highest level of tax credits for affordable housing.
  • Changing the way veterans qualify for housing vouchers so they are not penalized for disability payments or forced to choose between veterans benefits or housing.

According to ABC News, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who chairs the Task Force on Homelessness, said: “Do you think when we come to Washington, it’s just to ask for money? Of course, we always want money… but money is not everything. We also need changes and rules and regulations – getting rid of the red tape – so we can get people off the streets.”

Manheimer’s trip came shortly after Asheville’s Continuum of Care board released results of an annual Point-in-Time count that found increased numbers of people in the city who are unsheltered, in shelters or in transitional housing — 739 in 2024 compared to 573 in 2023.

The mayor said she takes heart that the number of people being served in shelters increasing, thanks to additional local resources put into bed space. Even so, “I’m very clear it continues to be a crisis,” she said.

Last week, Manheimer was absent from a City Council meeting when concerns about the treatment of people experiencing homelessness dominated a public hearing over a proposed downtown Business Improvement District, which would collect property tax assessments in the downtown boundaries to use toward public safety and cleanliness issues. Among dozens of speakers both for and against the proposal, many raised concerns that the proposed hiring of downtown “ambassadors” could result in harassment of unhoused people or attempts to drive them out of the downtown.

“I don’t agree. I think council has control over that,” Manheimer said. She said that if the council decides to move forward with creating such a district, it can require that ambassadors receive specialized critical incident training “so they understand how to interact with someone who is experiencing trauma.” She also said the city could require training in all the systems already in place to provide resources for those experiencing homelessness.

“The things we’ve done (on the issue of homelessness), I don’t want to see dismantled,” Manheimer said. “If I thought that was going to happen, I wouldn’t support the BID. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Returning from the Washington trip, Manheimer said she has even more on her to-do list: “I personally am committed to putting all these pieces together in a humanitarian way that dignifies the person dealing with the crisis.”