Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care

About

Homelessness is a community-wide issue that requires a community-wide response, with nonprofits, governments, healthcare systems, funders, advocates, volunteers, and people with lived expertise working together in a unified approach. The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care (CoC) is a community-based membership body organized to share in decision-making, responsibility, and accountability for developing and overseeing a comprehensive and well-coordinated system of effective services designed to prevent and quickly resolve occurrences of homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County.

The CoC was established February 29, 2024 and has four main components:

A Membership body of individuals and organizations with an interest in understanding homelessness and taking action together to address it. Membership is open to any individual or organization, and all members who have completed orientation are eligible to vote, as well as serve on the Board, Committees, and Work Groups. To become a member, complete the CoC Membership Form.
A Board elected from the Membership, by the Membership, to lead strategy and priorities and to make decisions for the CoC. Board members are community leaders of key sectors and partner systems of care who can align decisions within their authority with CoC objectives to coordinate a full community response.
Committees and Work Groups of members, appointed by the Board, and given clear scopes of work, duties, deliverables, and time frames. Committees and Work Groups include issue experts and volunteers with time and wide-ranging skills to complete the substantive work of the CoC under Board direction.
A Lead Agency designated by the CoC to provide strategic and administrative support. The Asheville-Buncombe CoC has designated the City of Asheville as its Lead Agency for neutral backbone support, and the City’s Homeless Strategy Division fulfills that role.

The CoC does not provide direct services to people in housing crises, but is a structured way to facilitate collaboration of service providers and other partners to coordinate those services into a shared system with shared goals and increasing effectiveness. The CoC was established by the Membership on February 29, 2024 by formal adoption of the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care Governance Charter. The charter outlines roles, responsibilities, and operations and establishes Shared Values and Guiding Principles for the CoC’s work:

Value the voice of people with lived experience
Be bold
Create accountable and transparent governance structures
Build trust through unity, collaboration, and performance
Focus on housing solutions
Make decisions using data and evidence
Focus on our future
Promote a person-centered system to ensure individualized needs are met
Ensure that politics do not drive policies

Events and Opportunities

The CoC’s core documents, plans, policies, and meeting materials are available in the CoC Information Center, along with current Events and Opportunities.

Funding Opportunities

Update: FY2026 Continuum of Care Program Competition Funding

Continuum of Care Program Competition Update – September 30, 2026:

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the FY26 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on June 1, 2026, with applications originally due August 26, 2026. On Friday, August 7, 2026 the court issued a summary judgment halting the FY2026 Continuum of Care Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The Board was scheduled to finalize recommendations for this funding at a called Board meeting scheduled for August 10, 2026 in order to comply with HUD deadlines, but because of this court decision, those deadlines were vacated. On September 18, 2026, following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decision to grant HUD an emergency stay pending appeal of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island’s ruling to vacate HUD’s FY 2026 Continuum of Care Competition and Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program Grants NOFO, HUD announced that the FY2026 CoC Program Competition NOFO was reopened with an updated due date of September 30, 2026. They also announced a technical correction to the NOFO to reduce the 15-day notification requirement for project applicants to 7 days.

Per CoC process, applications were reviewed, scored, and ranked by the Funding Committee who made recommendations to the CoC Board that were approved by vote on September 23, 2026. All applicants were notified on September 23, 2026, immediately following the Board meeting, that their projects had been approved, reduced, or rejected and approved applicants received additional submission instructions.

Lead Agency staff have submitted the Board-approved application, including the Priority Listing and CoC Application, by the September 30, 2026 deadline. HUD will make final award decisions and contract directly with funded agencies. HUD’s award decisions will be shared with the CoC Membership and the public once announced.

The Continuum of Care Board-approved Consolidated Application is available for review and includes the: