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Look at Homeward Bound's Days Inn reno: How will it serve Asheville's homeless population?

Asheville Citizen Times

Jim Lowder, capital campaign manager for Homeward Bound's Home is Key initiative, opens the door to one of the hotel rooms that will house members of Asheville's chronically homeless population.

ASHEVILLE - Jim Lowder, capital campaign manager with Homeward Bound, walked the perimeter of a gutted room at the Days Inn hotel on Tunnel Road on Aug. 17, laying his vision of its future across the bare cement floor and beige-papered walls.

A private bathroom. A single bed. A kitchenette and living room.

It's best to start small, said Eleanor Ashton, Homeward Bound's resource development director, standing with her back to the window overlooking the courtyard. A gray August sky dumped rain over the graveled-in swimming pool at the heart of the open 'U' formed by the three-building facility.

Many of the hotel's future residents will have been homeless for decades, she said, and a contained space offers a sense of safety and a manageable living quarters.

The Days Inn is reflected in a window as Eleanor Ashton stands inside one of the motel's 85 rooms which will be transformed into efficiency apartments for the chronically homeless.

A year after its $6.5-million acquisition, Homeward Bound's renovations of the 2.95-acre property at 201 Tunnel Road are underway, the first project of its kind in Western North Carolina — transforming the 1960s motel into 85 units of permanent supportive housing.

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The city, Buncombe County and Dogwood Health Trust each donated $2 million for the property's purchase, with a private donor pitching in the other $500,000.

A larger capital campaign is ongoing to fund the project's $16.5 million price tag.

The project could reduce the number of chronically homeless individuals in Asheville by 40%, according to Lowder.

Permanent supportive housing differs from other "housing first" interventions by combining affordable housing with on-site support services, such as case management, job training, medical care and more.

Construction and demolition for the project began in March, and roof replacement kicked off in early August. Plumbing and electricity work are also ongoing.

The capital campaign went public in July, and the nonprofit has raised more than $15 million for the project. A recent discovery of electrical issues and mold added almost $1 million to the project's price tag.

Lowder, strategic gifts officer and capital campaign manager for the Home is Key initiative, said the facility will house members of Asheville's chronically homeless population, those who have been homeless a year or longer and are living with at least one disabling condition, which could be physical, mental or a substance use disorder.

Jim Lowder, capital campaign manager for Homeward Bound's Home is Key initiative, in one of the hotel rooms at the former Days Inn on Tunnel Road, which will house members of Asheville's chronically homeless population.

It's a high need population, he said, one that is on the rise, according to the city's latest point-in-time count, which is conducted every January.

"These are the highest needs people on our list, on anybody’s list really," Lowder said. When placed in units with private landlords or in public housing, "those folks were falling out of housing about as fast as we could get them in."

The point-in-time count found a 37% increase in people experiencing chronic homelessness in Asheville over the year before — with 154 people logged in 2021 and 211 in 2022.

"If Homeward Bound were a hospital, this facility would be the intensive care unit," Lowder said.

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Cindy McMahon, interim executive director of Homeward Bound, said this project answers a need in the community, offering stability and a home for those who have been living on the street for years, if not decades.

“It’s folks who have been not just been outdoors but have been outdoors for a very, very long time, and we can provide all these supportive services in one place to keep them housed," McMahon said. "It’s game-changing for Asheville and Buncombe County.”

McMahon has served as interim executive director for more than a year. In August, Homeward Bound announced its new executive director, Simon Dwight, who Ashton said will likely begin in January.

'A sense of welcome and hospitality'

The 127-room hotel was an unexpected find after more than three years of searching. Succumbing to pandemic strains, the hotel went on the market in 2020 and Homeward Bound finalized acquisition in August 2021.

Homeward Bound's rendering of its renovation of a Days Inn hotel on Tunnel Road into 85 units of permanent supportive housing.

The location was better than they imagined, in close proximity to public transportation and other amenities, along a walkable strip, just off I-240. The sprawling 53,000-square-foot building has space not only for 85 resident rooms, but administrative offices, a medical clinic and support areas.

“I think it exudes a sense of welcome and hospitality. There’s something warm about it," Lowder said of the complex. "That’s really important because you’re talking (about) folks who have experienced huge amounts of trauma in their life."

In the vast communal dining room, stacks of mattresses pile toward the ceiling and snaking rows of nightstands line the walls. Nearby, frames of generic black and white hotel décor lean by the dozen.

Homeward Bound has been raising money to renovate the former Days Inn on Tunnel Road into 85 efficiency apartments for Asheville's chronically homeless.

With a kitchen for resident and volunteer use, a computer lab and library, Lowder imagines space for activities and meals, where a coffee pot is always brewing.

“We don’t want folks to live an isolated life, we want them to become integrated back into the community,” Lowder said.

“They will be neighbors just like everybody else is neighbors."

Though most of the rooms will be singles, four to five will be outfitted for couples, and pets will be welcome, Ashton said.

"We are not going to have barriers that many of the other shelters and transitional housing have," she said.

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Five case managers will be on-site, one for every 17 residents, along with maintenance and security staff, various volunteers and nonprofit partners and much of Homeward Bound's administrative team.

Lowder said they anticipate the facility will be ready for move-in between March and May 2023.

Housing first

It is not Homeward Bound's first foray into permanent supportive housing. The nonprofit began housing chronically homeless individuals at the Woodfin Apartments in 2016 through a similar program and found that 90% of its residents did not return to homelessness.

The Woodfin program only has the space for 18 people, Lowder said, and it has long been a goal to expand that capacity. Those residents will be moved into the Days Inn facility when renovations are complete.

The city is also pursuing a similar model at East Asheville's Ramada Inn after Asheville City Council abandoned plans to pursue a high-access emergency homeless shelter at the hotel in December 2021.

Jim Lowder, capital campaign manager for Homeward Bound's Home is Key initiative, in one of the hotel rooms which will house members of Asheville's chronically homeless population, those who have been homeless a year or longer and are living with at least one disabling condition, which could be physical, mental or a substance use disorder.

Now slated for about 100 units of permanent supportive housing, the city partnered with two California-based companies — nonprofit Step Up on Second Street Inc., and for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries.

More affordable housing projects:

Shangri-La's acquisition of the property was delayed in April.

The city's homeless services systems performance lead, Emily Ball, said Aug. 19 that they expect Shangri-La to close on the property soon.

McMahon noted that hotel conversions are a growing trend, aided by the closure of facilities during the height of the pandemic and a "growing acceptance" of permanent supportive housing and the "housing first" model of addressing homelessness.

"The solution to ending homelessness is housing," Ashton said.

There will be no ticking clock for residents housed at the Days Inn, she said. Rather than transitional housing, Homeward Bound wants to remove the anxiety of impermanence.

"They can live here for the rest of their lives if they want to,” she said.

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.