Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care Receives $5 Million to Prevent Homelessness

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care secured at least $5 million through Right at Home, a national initiative, placing the region among just 10 pilot communities selected nationwide to build a homelessness prevention system from the ground up.

The announcement came Feb. 26 at the CoC's monthly membership meeting, which coincided with the two-year anniversary of the coalition's founding. Over three years, the program aims to serve more than 1,000 local households on the brink of losing their housing, providing rapid, flexible financial assistance alongside case management.

Ben Williamson, chair of the CoC's Homelessness Prevention Work Group and executive director of Asheville Poverty Initiative, pushed back on any notion that the funding is narrowly defined. "So, it's not just rent payments," he said at the Feb. 26 meeting. "This can be back payments. This can be childcare. It can be car repair. It can be other situations that can help with basic needs. These things all overlap, and they're all critical. And they all contribute to someone staying in their home or not."

The stakes of getting people help before they lose housing are high, according to Ray Bramson, chief operating officer at Destination: Home. "Once you're outside and you're forced to endure the conditions that homeless people face on a daily basis for a long period of time, it takes a very expensive intervention to get people back into permanent housing," Bramson said.

Williamson framed early intervention as both a fiscal and public health argument. "Anything we can do to prevent folks from moving down that road before it gets to that point is not just financially smart, but it promotes a healthier community and healthier individuals," he said.

The urgency is grounded in local data. Last year's point-in-time count found 755 people experiencing homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County, with 328 of them unsheltered. CoC data also shows the number of people identified as chronically homeless rose from 230 to 262 between 2024 and 2025, while cases involving serious mental illness jumped from 55 to 97 and substance use disorder from 38 to 70. The CoC noted that homelessness has increased in the year since Hurricane Helene.

The CoC itself is a relatively young institution. City and county leaders announced its formation in late 2023 following recommendations from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, replacing a predecessor body called the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee. Emily Ball, manager of the City of Asheville's Homeless Strategy Division, reported at the Feb. 26 meeting that CoC membership grew from 228 to 608 over the past two years.

Asheville-Buncombe was selected through a competitive process. Other communities chosen for Right at Home include Atlanta, Miami-Dade County, Denver and Adams County, and the state of Alaska.

Locally, the CoC's Homelessness Prevention Work Group is developing an implementation plan to present to the CoC Board for approval in late spring, with services expected to begin in fall 2026. The next CoC Board meeting is scheduled for June 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Harrah's Cherokee Center Banquet Hall, followed by a general membership meeting June 18 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the same location.