This was originally published in the Asheville Citizen Times in January 2024.

Everyone in Asheville deserves to be safe. True safety identifies community needs and utilizes the correct tools. As unchecked tourism displaces our workers and vulnerable neighbors and extracts our taxes and natural resources, we’ve lost the plot: if we improve quality of life for the people who live and work in Asheville, this will also be a great place to visit.

A narrow lens of public safety means the City of Asheville often isn’t sending the right person with the right tools and training to address homelessness, opioid poisoning, behavioral health, intimate partner violence and gun violence. Our APD vacancy rate presents both an obligation and opportunity to add alternative responses, but the crises we’re facing worsen when we create new problems by criminalizing poverty. We deserve better.

Buncombe’s Community Paramedicine and Durham’s HEART Program

Sending the right person with the right tools and training during emergencies isn’t a far off vision — it’s beginning here in Buncombe County and at a larger scale in Durham.

In the past three years, Buncombe County has grown its Community Paramedicine response, employing a peer support specialist and clinicians uniquely positioned to connect people with behavioral health care and substance use treatment. During their last report to City Council, community paramedics presented results from over 30,000 calls for service, including service downtown and West Asheville.

Durham’s HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams) launched in 2022 under their Community Safety Department, a system to “connect people experiencing non-violent mental health crises or quality of life concerns with the right care by sending new responses that better match residents’ needs.” Durham’s transparency dashboard shows over 11,000 calls for service.

Asheville is currently opting for a separate Community Responder program, deploying firefighters who offer resources, build relationships and collect data, but when their tools are exhausted they have limited options, because we haven’t yet invested in a holistic system of response.

A path towards community safety

Like core services of sanitation and water, investing in community safety must be a priority. Here are some steps the City of Asheville can take to move towards community safety:

1. Bring the HEART program to Asheville: Follow Durham in setting up an Office of Community Safety with a director that reports to the city manager and manages a HEART program for Asheville; ensure accurate 911 dispatch with follow-up to ensure crises are addressed; and link co-responders with behavioral health clinicians.
2. Partner to expand community paramedicine: Contract with Buncombe for expansion, requesting a dedicated 24-7 unit starting with downtown. Partnering under the leadership of Buncombe County instead of duplicating services is both logistically and fiscally responsible as the county holds the role of Health & Human Services.
3. Reduce homelessness: Maintain momentum towards the 112 strategies identified in the National Alliance to End Homelessness report to reduce homelessness in Asheville by 50%.
4. Activate Violence Interrupter Programming: Engage the Community Health Workers organizing diversion/reentry programming and to prevent gun violence and intimate partner violence, facilitating healing for residents, families and their communities.
5. Triple the Strategic Partnership Funds: Instead of the $242,000 available, allocate $1 million to the Strategic Partnership Funds for youth advocacy groups because our kids matter to us and we’re invested in a hopeful future.
6. Bolster climate and neighborhood resiliency: Implement adopted neighborhood plans and align Neighborhood Grants to implement our Climate Justice Initiative, including tree canopy restoration, proven to reduce crime.
7. Regain our Living Wage Certification: Community safety means first responders live in the communities they serve. Prioritize living wages for retention and recruitment so staff can afford housing and provide quality, equitable service outcomes.

What happens if we don’t

A narrow definition of public safety limits results and creates new problems and it’s really expensive. Just three of APD’s recent “special operations” cost taxpayers $79,482.18 to date and resulted in 90 charges for non-violent crimes of panhandling and trespassing. These operations displace people from resources, deepen poverty, contribute to staff burnout, and make our entire community more vulnerable to crime as poverty deepens, impacting quality of life for all of us.

The choice is ours! Your role in advocating for community safety and HEART

I believe our caring community can meet this moment, but meaningful action will only occur if the community demands it. I invite friends and neighbors to reach out to the City Council through this year’s budget cycle as well as candidates in this election cycle to express support for adding a Community Safety Department with a HEART program for Asheville.