Sometimes a church can do a better job of solving the problem of post-disaster emergency housing than either a city government or a federal agency.
That was the situation in Asheville when Grace Covenant Presbyterian stepped in to solve the problem for the hundreds of people who lost their homes–apartments, trailers, or houses –thanks to the overwhelming devastation of Hurricane Helene here in the region around Asheville, NC.
Western North Carolina was irreversibly changed Sept 27 when the gentle Swannanoa rose fifteen feet, causing untold millions in property damage, killing at least 50 people, and leaving piles of debris everywhere. The French Broad, which the Swannanoa River empties into, rose as much as 30 feet in Asheville’s River Arts District, forcing artists out of their live-work studios, possibly forever.
A mostly Latino trailer park in Swannanoa was completely wiped out, and that community accounted for many of the 50+ deaths in the county. A local Mexican restaurant along with a mutual aid network funded by Just Economics, our community’s strong living wage group, has helped to stabilize the lives of the most vulnerable in Swannanoa. For the next step, Beloved Asheville, which has successfully piloted a 12 tiny home project of extremely affordable housing on a couple of acres given by a church, now has plans for a nine-acre community in devastated Swannanoa. And in Asheville, Grace Covenant led a relief effort that scaled to $4 million disbursed to solve the problem for those suddenly unhoused after September 27th. Read more about Grace Covenant’s work.
The church did its job so well that the city of Asheville gave it $475,000 of the emergency housing money that it was allocated.
Other faith communities have jumped in with new initiatives, responding to the problem of FEMA housing vouchers running out and hotels wanting to get back to hosting tourists who pay more than the government pays.
At Neighborhood Economics in Asheville, April 1-2, we will be exploring what enables some faith communities to rise to the moment in a way that exceeds the ability of the public sector or big philanthropy. Sessions are being organized that will look at ways churches can continue to create replicable and scalable solutions to solve big problems in communities.
The Church’s work post-disaster in Western North Carolina dovetails with the work of the extremely strong and well-targeted mutual aid networks that solved the logistical problems of food, water, and sanitation and coordination for the various volunteer and philanthropic efforts. Those networks have been far more focused and rapidly responsive than those of our local government.
At a deeper level, at Neighborhood Economics we will be asking what it is that creates resilience? What makes economies work across every neighborhood, even those with low status that are often ignored by funders focused on the usual suspects?
From being immersed in these relief efforts and reporting on them, I believe a major piece of the answer is that resilience in a community comes from a realization that we are all in it together.
We will be highlighting those initiatives that are working to create a local economy based on the assumption of abundance, of neighborliness, using the protocols of reciprocity that emerged in the weeks following Hurricane Helene. We will be asking local practitioners for their observations and ideas about resilience in their community and how we can help support the vision behind what they are building.
Post disaster, it has become clear that the Church plays a vital role that is quite different from the roles of local government, institutional, and philanthropic funders. It is a role that is essential. Sometimes the city may even need to hand the solution to a crucial problem to a faith community during an emergency, recognizing that, on the ground, they understand better what needs to be done.