So many of us in Asheville are struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living rises while unchecked tourism and for-profit development strain our natural resources, burden our infrastructure, and displace our most vulnerable neighbors.

I’m committed to advancing: Affordability, Public Safety, and Open Meetings Policy, which means:

• Affordability: Investing in creative and cooperative solutions for deeply-affordable housing and keeping neighbors from becoming unhoused; coordinating with the County for a fare-free Buncombe-Asheville Transit System at the intersection of equitable access, economic mobility, and environmental sustainability; securing our food and water systems; and ensuring we lead not lag on living wages as the City of Asheville. This is what Neighborhood Resiliency means and why I brought it forward as a strategic priority of Council in 2022.

• Public Safety: Ensuring a public safety response that works to keep everyone safe; deploying responders with the right tools and training to calls for service around the opioid/overdose crisis, homelessness response, intimate partner violence, and mental health through partnerships including the Buncombe Community Paramedicine program; budgeting for wages to recruit and retain first responders; developing and acting on a plan for neighbors experiencing unsheltered homelessness to get us moving from the crisis we’re in towards solutions designed for housing as a human right; following through with our commitments to Reparations; and responding appropriately to our stated Climate Emergency.

• Open Meetings Policy: The difficult conversations we need to have as a community should happen in the sunshine, not behind closed doors. This means increasing accessibility of public documents and engagement opportunities; removing barriers to civic participation as outlined in the openmeetingspolicy.com petition; supporting advisory boards; and amplifying community calls for an organizational equity audit.

My work with and for Asheville so far:

• Demanding action on climate emergency: leading on Neighborhood Resiliency and an Urban Forester; adding Climate Justice to COVID-relief funding; and voting against the Open Space Amendment.
• Accountability for the tourism industry: Saving the Grey Eagle and part of the Southside from the Hotel Overlay Map; leveraging for more lodging taxes for equity and infrastructure.
• Prioritizing people & planet over profits: Pressing to lead not lag on living wages; identifying funding for Talbert lot for expanded transit, deeply-affordable housing, and $1.2-million in Reparations funding. 
• Boldly advocating for human rights: As Asheville’s first-known openly queer member of City Council, I shared the work locally and statewide to advance LGBTQ+ inclusive Non-Discrimination Ordinances; as liaison to the Human Relations Commission, I support their recommendation to protect against Source of Income/Funds discrimination that creates barriers to housing access; and I drafted the proclamation to protect access to reproductive healthcare.
• Leading courageously to diversify our public safety response which means deploying first responders with the right tools and training for the task at hand; demanding living wage policy to recruit and retain staff; convening with community members on a plan a for a humane response to the homelessness crisis; and asking hard questions about our budget, plans, and policy so we can ensure quality, equitable service outcomes.
• Advancing an Open Meetings Policy at the Governance Committee; demanding accountability; and voting against the violation of open meetings law.

Our greatest resource is each other, let’s work together to #BeBoutitBeingBetter.

Kim Roney walks, bikes, and rides the bus, and she currently serves on City Council in Asheville, the ancestral land of the Cherokee/Anigiduwagi. A queer, abolitionist, community organizer, small business owner, music educator, and community radio producer, she was a founding member of Friends of Community Radio where she served as Station Manager/ED of 103.3 AshevilleFM from 2012-2015. On Council, Kim serves on the Equity & Engagement, Boards & Commissions, and Policy, Finance, & Human Resources Committees, and liaisons advisory boards including the French Broad River MPO, Alcohol Beverage Control Board; Urban Forestry Commission, Transit Committee, Homelessness Initiative Advisory Committee, Neighborhood Advisory Committee, and Human Relations Commission. She enjoys music, a good story, and the process of growing, cooking, and sharing food with friends & neighbors.