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LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: The lessons of Alpine Woods

By Bill Moss, Published: April 5, 2015

Sybel Lanier is a typical resident of Alpine Woods Resort, the trailer park featured in last week's issue of the Lightning.

"My granddaughter and my great-grandbaby come up to live with me so we moved over here because we couldn't find nothing right at the moment that we could afford," said Lanier, who is 60 and originally from Gaffney, S.C.
Right now, few people in Lanier's position can find something they can afford.
A detailed study of Henderson County's housing market released this year showed that 67 percent of renters are overburdened by their housing payment and that all the affordable options through subsidized apartments or homes are filled. That's right. The vacancy rate is zero. There are long waiting lists, even for the 54 units that the study graded as C in quality.
The story of Alpine Woods will be a horrific and depressing for those of us who make the comfortable ride from our homes to town, passing other nice neighborhoods and pleasant surroundings. But the dirty little secret of the Alpine Woods Resort is that it represents what passes for affordable housing today.
"It's just a very unfortunate dilemma, and I honestly think that this is not the only place like this in Henderson County," said David Jacklin, whose job description with Homeward Bound requires him to know about these things. 'This is the tip of the iceberg and maybe with the Alpine Woods situation the community will come out and say, 'What else is out there that have these same living conditions?'"
Alpine Woods owner Warren Newell will never make the list of top landlords but at some level he is providing what no one else will.
"It goes back to affordable housing in this community," Jacklin said. "Here is a landlord who is offering housing at an affordable rate. However, it does not meet any housing standards."
Should he be dealt with harshly for housing code violations? Yes. Will the effort to sanction him expose the weakness of our housing code enforcement? Yes, again.
Alpine Woods could not exist if we had adequate affordable housing in Henderson County and across our region. The Bowen housing study showed there's essentially none available here or in Asheville. There are signs that our community might get more affordable housing. Three developers have proposed projects financed through tax credits that would offer affordable apartments.
If the revelations about the Alpine Woods Resort prove anything, they prove that we're already beyond the level of last resort when it comes to housing for struggling families in Hendersonville and Henderson County. "It's anything but a resort," said City Manager John Connet, who has done as much as anyone to fix it.
Alpine Woods needs fixing badly. And once that's done, the larger challenge lies ahead.