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Data shows 21% increase in homelessness in Asheville as city contracts consultant


MAY 11, 2022 - Homeless person sleeps on the streets of Asheville. Data shows the city saw a 21% increase in homelessness since 2021. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)
MAY 11, 2022 - Homeless person sleeps on the streets of Asheville. Data shows the city saw a 21% increase in homelessness since 2021. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)
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The City of Asheville reports a 21% increase in homelessness since 2021. The new point-in-time data was released during Tuesday night's city council meeting, where council also approved a contract with a homeless services consultant to address the issue.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness is the selected consultant tasked with creating strategies to address unsheltered homelessness and develop a plan for crisis response and long-term solutions.

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Dogwood Health Trust will fund the $72,974 contract.

"One of the first things that we do is to evaluate the homeless system data to get a sense of what the situation is and what's working well in terms of the approach to unsheltered homelessness," said Nan Roman, National Alliance to End Homelessness CEO.

Roman says the group will look at the shelter and housing resources currently available in Asheville before creating strategies tailored to Asheville's needs.

"A lot of that has to do with the shelter system, and whether people want to go into the shelter system. It has to do with the ability to find housing and services for people," she said.

The results of Asheville's annual point-in-time count were released Tuesday night. The data looks at the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night.

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"Data are really useful because they help us understand the problem, and that helps us identify what the solutions can be," said Emily Ball, homeless services systems performance lead with the city of Asheville's Community Development team.

According to the data, homelessness in Asheville has increased 21% since 2021. The 2022 count found 637 people experiencing homelessness, 405 were sheltered, and 232 were unsheltered. In 2021, 527 people were experiencing homelessness, 411 were sheltered, and 116 were unsheltered.

"Our job as a community is to figure out what is the intervention that will work for every person who is experiencing unsheltered homelessness," Ball said.

Ball said the work to decrease those numbers would be a collaborative process with the local groups and non-profits already working to address homelessness.

"We've got a lot of stakeholders, with a lot of investment in this issue, but we have a lot of folks pulling in different directions, and my hope with this consultancy is that it will create the opportunity to really join together and do this as one community," she said.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness consultant work will begin in June.

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