Report: How will Asheville end homelessness? See the recommendations from a $73K study
Sarah Honosky
ASHEVILLE - A new 54-page report lays the framework for reducing unsheltered homelessness in Asheville by 50%, and includes 30 multi-prong recommendations, which encompass priorities such as implementing an encampment resolution policy, restructuring the city and county's Continuum of Care and expanding street outreach.
It even puts a tangible number on the number of new shelter beds needed in Asheville: 95 — offering an answer to a question people have been asking for years, though the study notes it is working off limited data. This represents a 30% increase in the number of temporary shelter or interim housing beds.
In addition, it names a need for 250 new rapid-rehousing slots, which provide rental assistance for up to 24 months and services designed to quickly rehouse and stabilize individuals and families.
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“I think that is an achievable goal for our community, and I think that it takes all of us. It will take all of us," said Emily Ball, homeless strategy division manager, of the 50% reduction "north star."
"The recommendations are really comprehensive and widespread … there’s no magic bullet, and all of these component pieces, things like encampment response and street outreach and emergency shelter and permanent housing, they all work together.”
The report, titled 'Within Reach: Ending Unsheltered Homelessness in the Asheville-Buncombe CoC,' is the result of months of work, and a nearly $72,974 contract, with the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national leader in the field.
A public presentation and report of findings will be given at a joint meeting of Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Commission on Jan. 25 from 1-4 p.m. at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in downtown. Members from Dogwood Health Trust, which funded the contract, and the city's Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee will attend.
The alliance made its first visit to Asheville in June and met with homeless service providers and other stakeholders, ultimately getting feedback from 30-plus organizations and more than 300 people with lived experience of homelessness and housing instability.
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Asheville is more expensive than 98% of other N.C. cities
The report paints a picture of a city entrenched in an affordable housing crisis, with supply and affordability of rental units an increasing challenge. This crisis, compounded by the impacts of the pandemic, have contributed to significant increases in chronic and unsheltered homelessness nationwide, a trend reflected in Asheville.
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The number of people experiencing homelessness is up 21% since 2021 to 637, with twice as many people who are unsheltered than the year before.
The city's 2023 point-in-time count, which offers a single night snapshot of homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County, will take place Jan. 31.
After comparing Fair Market Rents, the Alliance's study found that Asheville is more expensive than 98% of other North Carolina cities. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, rents have risen 41.7%, and as of October 2022, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Asheville was $1,319.3.
Asheville is the most expensive place to rent in North Carolina, says the study, where it is estimated one would need to make at least $26.50 per hour to make rent for a two-bedroom unit while paying no more than 30% of their income toward housing.
However, the median hourly wage in the City of Asheville in 2022 is $15.87.
Contained within the report are five broad strategies for the way forward, each of which contains a number of priorities and short-, medium- and long-term action steps that could be taken to see them through.
The strategies are:
- Create a strong foundation.
- Implement evidence-based and inclusive policy.
- Improve system performance through program design.
- Improve data quality and reporting.
- Invest in the future.
The executive summary also pulls out eight key recommendations that the Alliance believes the Asheville-Buncombe CoC should prioritize:
- Improve system governance.
- Implement an encampment resolution policy.
- Build the capacity of street outreach.
- Increase crisis response capacity.
- Begin the implementation of system improvements to the coordinated entry system.
- Create a high-utilizer targeted initiative.
- Promote a housing surge for unsheltered people.
- Implement Moving On Strategies.
More details on each of these recommendations and many more can be found in the report. Following are more on three of these.
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Improve system governance
Ball named this recommendation as one of her biggest takeaways.
“I think I’m most excited about a clear framework about how we can work together as a community to advance the strategies," she said.
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The first identified priority is to improve the system governance by creating and implementing a new Continuum of Care structure to guide community-wide planning to reduce and end homelessness.
The Continuum of Care is is a federal framework that establishes a local planning body responsible for coordinating a system of housing and services for people experiencing homelessness, according to a Jan. 20 city news release.
Its ultimate goal is to collectively achieve the goal of reducing homelessness within a defined geographic area.
The CoC has three components: a leadership board that makes system-level decisions and sets strategies, policies and funding priorities; a membership body of stakeholders actively working to implement strategies as a unified system of care; and a collaborative applicant designated to provide infrastructure and administrative support, including facilitating access to federal funding for homeless and housing programs.
In this case the system lead is the city, and its leadership body is currently the city's Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee. The membership component has not been formalized, Ball said, but is informally the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Coalition.
The study calls for Asheville and Buncombe County to identify new CoC board members and restructure its board, updating the charter accordingly. Notably, this would ensure the board is not situated under the city or county.
Implement an encampment resolution policy
Currently, much of the treatment of homeless encampments in Asheville is dictated by the Asheville Police Department’s homelessness policy, which it updated in February for the first time since 2014.
In that update, APD did away with its seven-day notice before clearing camps. In its place is a 24-hour notification.
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According to the procedure, APD called outreach its most "critical step." However, in the revised policy, there is no mention of the "resource cards" outlining outreach assistance options that the previous policy required officers to hand out.
It does require the responding officer to report the encampment to the APD's community engagement division and supervisor. The community unit will then "conduct any follow-up necessary through City of Asheville Homelessness Services to facilitate outreach workers’ referral to the campsite."
Community members have voiced frustrations about this policy, namely that when people are cleared, there is nowhere else for them to go.
A priority in the Alliance’s study recommends Asheville implement an encampment resolution policy and strategy that reduces negative impacts of enforcement on people experiencing homelessness and increases engagement to services.
Ball said the recommendation encourages the CoC to create a pathway to emergency shelter for people currently at encampments, but it is not clear if this would result in less involvement by APD.
“It is not prescriptive about the specifics of that policy, but it is more prescriptive about developing that policy,” Ball said.
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According to the Alliance, the policy must be based on best practices that ensure increased coordination, role clarity, definition of an encampment, realistic timeframes and resource allocation to support successful resolution practices.
“I think we’ve been stuck as a community. It is untenable for people to live outside and we have had such a drastic increase during the pandemic and so few options, and so what I think this particular priority does is map out a process to get us unstuck,” Ball said.
“And it clearly identifies who needs to be part of that process, and that process and all of their recommendation really highlight the importance of including people with lived experience in all of the planning and decision-making work.”
Increase shelter capacity
In December 2021, the city made a quick pivot away from the purchase of East Asheville's Ramada Inn, which it intended to transform into a high-access homeless shelter, and instead authorized the assignment of its contract to for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries, to convert into 113 units of permanent supportive housing.
Though that project broke ground in December 2022, the question lingered: If not there, then where would the city provide emergency shelter? And how much is even needed?
More:Asheville's Ramada Inn breaks ground on 113 units of permanent supportive housing
The Alliance recommends that not only should Asheville and Buncombe County increase their capacity for shelter, but it should meet 30% of the immediate shelter needs.
They also suggested the CoC identify non-congregate sites, which would improve the number of people accepting shelter placement, where many factors can be a barrier.
“The Alliance recommends that the CoC prioritize development of a plan to significantly increase its temporary housing options for non-veteran single adults and families with children,” said the study.
Though it reiterated that they lacked sufficient data to fully understand the range of nightly, monthly and annual costs across various shelter options, a recent report suggested costs related to non-congregate shelter conversion sit at about $25,000 per bed.
With the data available, it recommended 60 new beds for single adults in immediate and low-barrier shelter; 25 new beds of enhanced shelter with mental health and substance use specialists onsite; and 10 beds serving families with children.
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.