{"id":1985166,"date":"2023-07-28T14:25:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T18:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-carolina-city-to-crack-down-on-homelessness-to-save-tourism\/"},"modified":"2023-07-28T14:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T18:29:26","slug":"north-carolina-city-to-crack-down-on-homelessness-to-save-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-carolina-city-to-crack-down-on-homelessness-to-save-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina city to tackle homelessness for tourism preservation."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnorth-carolina-city-to-crack-down-on-homelessness-to-save-tourism%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1985166&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Asheville, North Carolina Takes Action to Address\u200b Homelessness and \u2062Panhandling<\/h2>\n<p>Asheville, North Carolina \u200dis determined to tackle its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-not-a-housing-problem\/\" title=\"It\u2019s Not a Housing Problem\">unsheltered homeless population<\/a> and crack down on panhandling, \u2062especially \u2063in light of \u200ca decline in tourism. The city&#8217;s Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee (HIAC) recently made unanimous \u2062recommendations to allocate $1.75 \u2064million \u2062towards expanding homeless shelter beds, as the number of unsheltered individuals has\u2064 been on \u200cthe rise.<\/p>\n<p>The HIAC, a joint\u2062 committee of\u200d the Asheville City Council and Buncombe County\u200d Commission, is responsible\u2063 for researching, creating, and recommending policies to combat the homelessness crisis in the area. They also oversee the \u2062allocation of federal resources for this purpose.<\/p>\n<p>While there has been a\u200d 10% \u200ddecrease in overall homelessness compared to \u20622022, the number still remains 5% higher than \u200dpre-coronavirus levels. The homeless population outside of shelters has dropped \u200cby 26%\u200c from 2022, but\u200b it\u200c is still at 163% of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/australia-expects-unemployment-rate-to-rise-as-global-economy-slows\/\" title=\"Australia anticipates higher unemployment rates due to the global economic slowdown.\">pre-pandemic\u2064 levels<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The recommendations put forth by the \u200dHIAC are in \u200bresponse to a report from the National Alliance to End \u2062Homelessness, which called for a reduction of\u2064 the area&#8217;s\u200c homeless population by half. The report also suggested restructuring the joint commission \u2062responsible for the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of \u2063Care, a federal framework aimed at addressing homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed plans include the addition of 95\u2063 new beds \u200bin the area. These beds\u200b would consist of\u200c 60 single-adult beds for low-barrier shelters, 25 beds for \u2063shelters with on-site\u200b mental health and substance abuse professionals, and 10 beds for families with children. The HIAC&#8217;s recommendation would cover 61% of this proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Potential sites for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-carolina-city-to-crack-down-on-homelessness-to-save-tourism\/\" title=\"North Carolina city to tackle homelessness for tourism preservation.\">increased beds \u200dinclude\u2063 church \u2064collaboratives<\/a>, the Salvation Army, \u200cand other local shelter\u200b models. Emily Ball, Asheville&#8217;s\u2064 homeless strategy division manager, referred to the vote\u200c as the &#8220;first wave&#8221; of efforts by the\u2062 HIAC, \u2062while Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara described\u200c it as &#8220;a very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-carolina-enacts-heartbeat-bill-after-contentious-floor-debate\/\" title=\"South Carolina Enacts Heartbeat Bill After Contentious Floor Debate\">big step forward<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Beach-Ferrara\u2063 emphasized the \u2062importance of the low-barrier shelter\u2063 model in reducing homelessness, stating that rushing into \u200dcreating shelters without careful consideration could lead to missed opportunities and ineffective solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously,\u200b the Asheville City \u200cCouncil is also addressing the issue of panhandling, which some believe is an attempt to protect the \u200ccity&#8217;s\u200d tourism industry. Tourism plays a vital role in\u200c Asheville&#8217;s local economy, generating billions of \u200bdollars in spending \u2062and sustaining thousands of jobs.\u2062 However, recent \u200cmonths have seen an 11% decline in tourism revenue.<\/p>\n<p>City officials are \u2064now seeking to update local panhandling laws that\u200d have remained unchanged for two\u2062 decades. Councilwoman \u2063Maggie\u200d Ullman emphasized the\u2063 need for community discussion \u200bon the topic, acknowledging\u2064 that opinions on panhandling vary. Proposals include implementing a 10-foot minimum barrier \u2062for panhandlers and prohibiting drivers from giving\u2064 money to them, \u2064similar\u2062 to measures \u2062taken\u200b in Charleston, South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>The city council is set to consider these proposals \u2062in\u2064 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asheville, NC aims to reduce unsheltered homeless and panhandling due to decreased tourism. The Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee proposed allocating $1.75 million to expand shelter beds, as unsheltered homelessness rises. Inflation dropped to 3% in recent reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1985167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1985166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1985167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1985166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1985166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}