Safe Shelter builds tiny-home housing project on Pisgah View Road

Fresh construction on Pisgah View Road in West Asheville is turning out to be ATHENA, a new Safe Shelter project built around tiny homes, resident screening and a broader push to add housing options for people who need a path into stability. The nonprofit is developing the work on private property, and many of the units are not intended to remain there permanently.

ATHENA stands for Affordable Tiny Home Educational Network of Asheville. Counterflow says the project combines education, workforce development and community-based construction to create affordable tiny homes for people who have experienced homelessness or housing barriers. Safe Shelter has said it will thoroughly vet future residents to make sure they are a good fit and ready to contribute to a safe, thriving community, signaling that the project is meant to pair housing access with neighborhood standards and shared responsibility.

The model also reaches beyond one parcel on Pisgah View Road. According to the project description, the tiny homes are expected to be moved to other locations after the initial setup, making ATHENA less like a conventional apartment development and more like a flexible housing network. That approach comes as Buncombe County continues to face severe housing pressure. The Asheville-Buncombe County Continuum of Care’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count found 2,303 people experiencing homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County as of January 2025, including 755 people living in shelters, transitional housing or on the streets. Homeward Bound of WNC says more than half of Buncombe County renter households are housing cost-burdened.

Safe Shelter also sits inside the county’s existing response system. Buncombe County lists the organization as a provider of shelter, food, housing support and other services for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. The project’s early-stage status, and its reliance on volunteers and donations, suggest ATHENA is being built as one piece of a larger local effort rather than a finished cure for the county’s housing shortage.

The location carries its own history. Pisgah View Apartments, at 1 Granada Street, are part of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville’s public housing system and offer one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. HACA says the complex opened in 1952, after an earlier housing opening drew 350 applicants for 96 apartments. Historical reporting has also noted that Minnie Jones was the first African American to live there after the property integrated.

That history makes the new project especially visible in West Asheville, where housing scarcity has long been felt around Pisgah View Road. Asheville has been pushing affordable housing policy and funding through community open houses on Jan. 27, 2024, and public feedback sessions on March 27, 2024, while its Housing Trust Fund approved millions for affordable housing projects in 2024. ATHENA now joins that wider effort, with a small footprint and a large local question attached to it: how to add shelter capacity without losing neighborhood trust.