Asheville and Buncombe Release 2025 Point-in-Time Homeless Count Results

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count recorded 755 people meeting HUD’s definition of literal homelessness in Buncombe County, a slight rise from 739 in 2024, with 427 in shelters and 328 unsheltered. The CoC’s slide presentation separates an additional 1,548 people housed in FEMA Temporary Shelter Assistance hotels, yielding a combined figure of 2,303 when those placements are included.

City and county materials list the operational dates and staffing for the count as January 28-29, 2025 - specifically Jan. 28, 4–7 p.m., and Jan. 29, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. - and say 135 volunteers participated, including 60 CoC members. City of Asheville materials note Continuums of Care must complete a PIT Count within HUD’s last 10 days of January; the city and county say the CoC obtained HUD approval to manage scheduling complications and ran the one-night snapshot with street counts, expanded service locations and encampment outreach.

The 2025 subtotal shows a sharp shift from sheltered to unsheltered living: sheltered persons fell from 520 in 2024 to 427 in 2025, a decline of 93, while the unsheltered count rose from 219 to 328. County slides attribute part of that change to a loss of transitional housing capacity - transitional housing beds fell from 250 in 2024 to 157 in 2025 (-93) - and identify flood damage at the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Veterans Restoration Quarters (VRQ) as a notable example of facility impacts that reduced available beds.

Tropical Storm Helene is flagged repeatedly in the CoC data as a driver of displacement. Buncombe County slides show 116 people, or 35% of a surveyed subset, reported becoming unsheltered because of Helene, and Emily Ball, manager of the City of Asheville homeless strategy division, told CoC members that “It is possible that without Helene, the 2025 count would have been lower than the 2024 count. Helene has had a significant impact on homelessness in our community and the CoC.”

Subpopulation tables on the county slides document other changes between 2024 and 2025: individual adults made up 98.0 percent of households in 2025 (694 individuals), families 1.8 percent (13), and child-only households 0.1 percent (1). Veterans fell from 191 to 161; people identified as chronically homeless rose from 230 to 262; serious mental illness increased from 55 to 97; and self-reported substance use disorder rose from 38 to 70.

The CoC presented these results to membership on March 26, 2025, and the Continuum of Care board was slated to finalize its first strategic plan in spring 2025. Lacy Hoyle, Homelessness Program Manager in Buncombe County’s Community Development Division, presented a Continuum of Care update to the Board of Commissioners on June 3, 2025. City staff also emphasized the PIT’s limits as a one-night, voluntary, confidential snapshot that does not count people who are doubled up or couch surfing; Debbie Alford, City of Asheville homeless strategy project specialist, said the count is “one of the only times where people experiencing homelessness have the opportunity to share what they want to see for their community, what services they want, to tell the Continuum of Care about their experience of homelessness.”