Asheville restores housing priority for residents experiencing homelessness

People experiencing homelessness in Asheville regained priority for some public housing openings after the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville and the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care reached an agreement that restored the preference on May 6, 2026.

The change matters because it reorders who gets first access when a HACA opening runs through the public housing waitlist. Under U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidance, housing authorities can build a homelessness preference into their admissions plan, and the waitlist is the tool that puts that preference into practice. In Asheville, that means residents who are homeless, including people living unsheltered or in other unstable situations, can move ahead of applicants without that designation when a unit becomes available.

HACA’s website says its public housing waitlist is open, but the authority also says it is not an immediate housing provider. People who need temporary housing right away are directed to United Way 2-1-1, a reminder that the restored preference affects the line for limited openings, not emergency shelter on demand. The policy shift could help some applicants move from crisis into stable housing faster, but it also changes access for everyone else on the list because limited vacancies can go only so far.

The agreement lands in a county still under heavy housing strain. The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care completed its 2025 Point-in-Time Count on Jan. 28, 2025, with 135 volunteers, including 60 CoC members. It counted 755 people experiencing homelessness in Buncombe County, up from 739 in 2024. The number of people who were unsheltered rose to 328, a 50 percent jump from the year before. Of those, 116 people, or 35 percent, said Tropical Storm Helene was the reason they were homeless.

The scale is larger still when federal counting rules are applied. The CoC says FEMA Transitional Sheltering Assistance hotel residents must be included in the HUD count, adding 1,548 people to the total number without housing because of Helene. That backdrop helps explain why the restored preference is more than a technical rule change: it is a local response to a sharper housing emergency.

The Continuum of Care was established in 2024 as a shared planning body for Asheville and Buncombe County, bringing together more than 300 stakeholders. It elected its first leadership board on April 25, 2024, and HACA’s appointed seat is held by Monique Pierre. With that structure now in place, the restored preference gives the county another tool for steering scarce housing openings toward residents who are most exposed to sleeping outside.