ASHEVILLE - The Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, which for 16 years has worked to address homelessness in Asheville, voted July 25 to recommend dissolution of its board in an effort to consolidate work with the newly restructured Continuum of Care.
The decision, though expected, seemed somewhat emotional for some members. There was a brief bout of applause after the vote, a few muttered "wow's," and expressions of gratitude for work that has stretched more than a decade.
It's what Chair David Nash, former CEO of the Housing Authority of Asheville, and on HIAC's original board, called a "happy and sad" moment. He's been a member on-and-off since it was established.
While he is part of the new CoC membership, already 330 members strong, it's the end of an era for HIAC.
"I'm very proud of the work that we've done," Nash told the Citizen Times July 25. "It's not perfect, but we really focused and decided we were going to make some changes, and we made them. So I'm happy to hand that momentum off to the new board."
The dissolution of HIAC — and passing the baton to the new CoC board — is the culmination of the No. 1 priority recommendation from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which presented its plan for ending unsheltered homelessness to the city and county in January 2023: Improve system governance.
A CoC is a federal framework that establishes a local planning body responsible for coordinating a system of housing and services for people experiencing homelessness. It is also responsible for overseeing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for homelessness and the point time count, an annual census of the area's unhoused population.
The Alliance called for the board to be moved out from under city and county government, and to formalize its membership base. This, Alliance CEO Ann Oliva told those gathered at the January 2023 meeting, was likely essential to ending unsheltered homelessness in Asheville.
What is HIAC?
HIAC was established by a November 2008 Asheville City Council resolution. It created an advisory board with 16 members appointed by council and Buncombe County Commissioners. It was an answer to the city's 2005 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which recommended the city create such a committee. Its original purpose, according to HIAC's bylaws, was to implement that plan.
It also served as the governance board for the CoC until it was restructured earlier this year. The new CoC, a collaborative, community-driven planning body, adopted its charter in February and officially took over that role with the election of its board in April.
"HIAC has had an important role in our community since 2008," said Emily Ball, manager of the city's homeless strategy division.
"I've appreciated the investments of time and effort that HIAC members have made, particularly David Nash in his many years as Chair. HIAC's responsiveness to the National Alliance to End Homelessness recommendations has directly resulted in the development of the new Continuum of Care, and I'm pleased to see such strong CoC participation from HIAC members as that collaborative work carries forward."
What's been done?
Before the unanimous vote to recommend dissolution — which will move forward to the city's Boards and Commission Committee for a recommendation and then onto City Council for the final vote, Ball said — HIAC approved a "report out" of recent work to be sent forward to the new CoC governing board.
In it, HIAC details priority goals, objectives and work accomplished over the last year and a half, like key priorities addressed from the Alliance's report.
Among these efforts was restructuring the CoC, strategizing and developing policy guidelines to be considered around encampments and "laying the groundwork" for new low-barrier shelter beds, with a request for proposals issued by the CoC in July.
"This group wasn't able to see through all the goals that we wanted to take on from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, but the fact that we were able to ... create a much stronger Continuum of Care that has more resources, more members, I think the other goals, we'll have a better chance at taking those on and succeeding at those," said HIAC member David Bartholomew, with Pisgah Legal Services.
The next CoC board meeting is 4:30 p.m., Aug. 15 in the Harrah's Cherokee Center banquet hall.
More: Ending homelessness begins with restructuring the Asheville, Buncombe system, says report
More: A year after homelessness report: Buncombe, Asheville look back on what's been done
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 X, formerly Twitter, at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times .
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville's Homelessness board will likely dissolve as work of new CoC begins
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