ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville organizers are taking a unique approach to tackle the city’s housing crisis. The nonprofit BeLoved Asheville is building a community of micro-homes for people who make less than the city’s median income.

What You Need To Know

Asheville’s Point-in-Time survey identified a 21% increase in homelessness from 2021 to 2022

BeLoved Asheville is building a community of 600-square-foot tiny homes for the city’s homeless and low-income residents

BeLoved Village will host a mixture of homeowners and tenants who can both earn equity; the first model of its kind in the area

Potential tenants will have to earn 30%-40% of the city’s area median income to apply. According to the city of Asheville, for a single person that’s only $15,000 a year

They’re building 12 600-square-foot micro-homes on an acre of land on Overbrook Place. The community will be called BeLoved Village.

The one- and two-bedroom homes will come fully furnished, and potential tenants will have to earn 30%-40% of the city’s area median income to apply. 

This is just one solution — organizers say — for growing homelessness. Asheville’s Point-in-Time survey identified a 21% increase in homelessness from 2021 to 2022.

Amy Cantrell, a co-director of BeLoved, says the small homes aren’t just for the city’s homeless population, but anyone who can’t afford to live in the city.

“This village is really for people from all walks of life. We know people are on the streets right now, because they don’t have a home,” she said. “We also get calls every day right from community elders who are seeing an overnight $200 increase in rent.”

Both homeowners and renters can live in BeLoved Village, and all tenants can build equity. Cantrell says two-thirds of rent payments will go toward building equity that renters can take with them when they leave with the rest going toward property maintenance.

Once construction wraps up, applications will be taken for BeLoved Village.