ASHEVILLE – Southside Community Farm staff were told that they would not be allowed on the property “after the end of 2024” during an early-May meeting with Monique Pierre, president and CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville, meaning this could be the last for the farm that has served Asheville’s historically Black Southside neighborhood for the past decade.

Pierre had introduced Resolution No. 2024-11 during a March 27 HACA Board meeting that would convert the community farm into a playground at the cost of $200,000. Surprised and shocked farm members said they hadn’t been contacted about removing the urban farm until after the resolution’s proposal.

Farm staff and Pierre met after the HACA president verbally committed to such during an April 24 meeting. Southside Community Farm manager Chloe Moore attended a May 22 HACA meeting, telling the board and public that Pierre told farm staff they “cannot be on the farm or in the space after the end of 2024.”

Farm staff, comprised of volunteers and a five member team, are asking for more time.

“The very minimum of what we need is more time,” Moore said during the public comment period of the May 22 HACA Board meeting. “Because that will be deeply harmful to what we have done and what we have built over the past 10 years.”

Pierre said the housing authority would not “dismantle the farm suddenly or abruptly” but did suggest moving it to an “area behind the Grant Center” less than a mile down Livingston Street..

Southside Community Farm, located behind the Arthur R. Edington Center in the Southside Neighborhood, is on HACA property, and the move would mean the new farm location would fall under the city’s jurisdiction.

However, Moore told the Citizen Times that the move is “not an actual viable option for us,” as space is extremely limited behind the Grant Center.

“We’re doing our research as well and we’ve been told there is extremely limited space,” Moore said of conversations about the Grant Center location, noting that most of the space behind the Grant Center already had planned uses. The current farm occupies less than a acre at the Arthur R. Edington Center.

The Black-led urban farm has occupied less than an acre at the Edington Center since 2014. It serves fresh fruit and vegetables to the historically Black Southside neighborhood, which does not have a grocery store. The farm also offers a monthly EBT-accessible farmers market.

Moore requested to meet with more board members, who will ultimately determine whether the farm is removed from its 133 Livingston St. location. Moore said only one board member —Reginald Robinson — had met with members of the community farm before recent meetings.

Even if the farm moved, Moore said the change would take a “lot of energy and money on our part,” along with significant losses, like the 10-year-old apple trees on the property.

Board member Kidada Wynn suggested that the land the garden is on could be deeded so that community members “don’t feel like it’s going to be destroyed” when it feels like ownership of the farm belongs to the community, despite residing on HACA land.

“We can go through the end of this growing season,” Pierre said, committing to more meetings with farm staff.

Rapid change causes communication confusion

During recent changes in housing authority programming, Pierre frequently referred to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines and stated that she believed HACA did not comply with federal regulations until she arrived in May 2023.

Recent changes include putting property that hosts HACA’s Head Start programs, managed by Communication Action Opportunities, back out to bid for new programming.

Pierre cited HUD rules regarding contracts, which she says indicate HACA was out of compliance for not re-bidding the properties every five years and stated she believed there were “underutilized classrooms and space” where the Head Start program resided.

Several community members spoke against the decision on May 22.

As co-executive director of the Asheville-based literacy nonprofit Read 2 Succeed, Ashley Allen asked the board to consider the importance of childcare development programs like Head Start when deciding which proposals to select. Research indicates that programs like Head Start can lead to positive lifetime outcomes, Allen said.

“Regardless of the decision, we just want to make sure that early childhood is given all the weight it deserves — all of the importance — when we consider these proposals,” Allen continued.

Pierre’s efforts have come after community members expressed a lack of communication from HACA’s board, executive and staff, with community members attending recent meetings to express frustration with recent HACA decisions.

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Pierre told the Citizen Times that she believes the communication errors have been happening because institutional HACA bodies, like resident council groups, have not been as active as they should have been in recent years.

“Our resident services department is bringing interest meetings together so that we can get more residents aware of what their voice is and to make sure there’s an avenue to communicate,” Pierre told the Citizen Times.

Pierre said the conflict between HACA and the community farm comes from old “handshake opportunities” and told the Citizen Times that “no one was ever given the real rules.”

Southside Community Farm hosts the Southside BIPOC Farmers Market on the first Sunday of each month from May to October from noon-3 p.m. in the Arthur R. Edington parking lot at 133 Livingston St.

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Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville housing authority CEO tells urban farm to leave after 2024