The Asheville Housing Authority began construction of its first development Lee Walker Heights in 1950, named after late Professor W.S. Lee of Stephens-Lee High School and Dr. J.W. Walker, deceased tuberculosis specialist. Opening day kept seven secretaries busy taking applications before a numbering system had to be implemented to handle the 350 applicants for the 96 modern apartments. After, the second, Pisgah View Apartments, in 1952 and the third, Hillcrest Apartments, in 1959 opened their doors, another more formidable task, face the city of Asheville.

Even with affordable housing efforts brought by the Housing Authority, large area of substandard housing and poverty still plagued Asheville. To address the task of eliminating slums and blight and restoring Asheville’s neighborhoods, the Redevelopment Commission was formed in 1958. City redevelopment was becoming a major movement in Asheville in 1967, an effort with which the Authority had always been closely associated. In 1971, the Housing Authority and the Redevelopment Commission were merged under the directorship of Ray Wheeling.