Asheville area to get 36-bed emergency homeless shelter; What other housing is in works?

ASHEVILLE - ABCCM will break ground July 16 on a new 36-bed emergency homeless shelter on its Transformation Village campus, serving single women, women with children and up to two intact families, it announced in a July news release.

The 24/7 shelter is one planned expansion among several for the faith-based nonprofit, Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry, which runs three area shelters: Transformation Village, the Veterans Restoration Quarters and Costello House.

Transformation Village, a sprawling facility off I-26 in Buncombe County, just outside of the city limits, provides 100 beds of transitional housing to women and children, most coming directly from the streets. It also has 25 beds for Code Purple shelter, emergency shelter that triggers when temperatures drop below freezing.

The new facility, dubbed Safe Haven, will operate year round. It's planned for an area at the edge of the village's existing parking lot and is projected to open Oct. 1.

ABCCM does not require ID for entry at any of its emergency shelter or Code Purple beds, the release said. Drug or alcohol use will be prohibited on the campus. Arrangements will be made for pets with area pet shelters, veterinarians or humane services.

"Through this Safe Haven, (women and children) will have opportunities to heal, to have good nutrition, access to training, access to health and mental health services," the release said. "They will be offered rapid rehousing, with access to education and job training that leads to sustainable, living wage income that helps them find an affordable home."

Another planned expansion of Transformation Village will bring 128 new transitional housing beds in a new 64-unit building, the Citizen Times reported in April, plus a 38-unit permanent supportive housing apartment building, the first of four they hope to build on the property. PSH is a housing intervention that provides longer-term rental assistance and intensive supportive services to people who were chronically homeless.

Transitional housing is considered a crisis response by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which defines it as a "temporary housing intervention partnered with supportive services to assist the transition to permanent housing." Stays are no longer than 24 months.

Ninety-six more units of PSH are in the works for the Veterans Restoration Quarters, an East Asheville campus with 200 transitional housing beds and 50 units of PSH dedicated for veterans.

If you go

• What: Groundbreaking ceremony for ABCCM Transformation Village's Safe Haven.
• When: 3 p.m., July 16.
• Where: 30 Olin Haven Way, Asheville.

More shelter coming to Asheville?

Growing the city's shelter inventory was a priority named in a January 2023 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, as the city grapples with its homeless population that, like other localities nationwide, has seen burgeoning numbers since the onset of the pandemic.

The city's latest point in time count, typically a single-night census of its unhoused population, found 739 total people experiencing homelessness — 520 in shelter and transitional housing, 219 unsheltered.

The city and Buncombe County's restructured Continuum of Care, a collaborative planning body that works to oversee a coordinated response to area homelessness, recently established a shelter planning work group.

During a July 11 update to the Housing and Community Development Committee, Homeless Strategy Division Manager Emily Ball said the work group anticipates issuing a request for partnership this month to the Continuum of Care to "identify partners who might be able to add shelter capacity."

The work group will then review proposals received, confirm partners and develop an overall plan to meet unmet shelter needs. After approval by the CoC board, it would submit the plan to Buncombe County for American Rescue Plan Act funding consideration.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.