Asheville taxpayers have made themselves somewhat of an official lender for Mountain Housing Opportunities. The reasons could be that the Housing Trust Fund is not well-advertised, developers tend to be capitalists who insist on earning profits rather than taking booty from taxpayers, or MHO has mastered the grant application process.

Year after year, city staff reports show funds going from the HTF to MHO with little competition. Due to public sentiment that MHO was getting the lion’s share of HTF resources, city staff, in the not-too-distant past, prepared a report on the subject. As I recall, the monopoly was not as bad as it seemed, but I would like to see an update.

By the way, that “official lender” business is hogwash. The HTF provides ridiculously low interest rates and other perks that makes the city a much more appealing lender than financial institutions that have to make a profit to survive.