Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care (CoC) is the collaborative planning body responsible 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 has four components:

A membership body of individuals and organizations with an interest in understanding homelessness and taking action together to address it. There are currently over 300 members of the Asheville-Buncombe CoC.
A board elected by the membership body, from the membership body, to set strategy, priorities, and performance metrics. The CoC board brings together leaders of partner systems of care with fiscal and program authority. The first board of the CoC was elected on April 25, 2024 at a meeting of the full membership.
Committees and work groups of members, appointed by the board, and given clear scopes of work, duties, deliverables, and time frames. Much of the substantive work of the CoC will happen in committees.
A Lead Agency designated by the membership body to provide strategic and administrative support to the CoC. The City of Asheville’s Homeless Strategy Division serves as the CoC Lead Agency. The CoC is not an initiative of the City of Asheville, but is community-based work with staff support from the Homeless Strategy Division.

Upcoming Events

Volunteer for the 2025 Point-in-Time Count!

The annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count happens across the country during the last 10 days of January each year and the data collected is considered a one-night “snapshot” of homelessness. This data, while an incomplete picture, can serve as a valuable tool to hear from community members experiencing a housing crisis and helps direct federal funding, inform local strategy, and identify resources that are missing within the homeless service system.

This year’s count will take place during the evening of Tuesday, January 28 and the day of Wednesday, January 29, 2025. Volunteers are a critical component of this data collection effort, canvassing Buncombe County and administering surveys. Survey teams will consist of two (2) people – one person who has experience engaging with people experiencing homelessness and one person with less or no experience. Click here to register to volunteer!

Looking for other ways to participate in the PIT Count? The CoC is collecting items to be handed out during the count to people who are surveyed as a way to thank them for their participation. CoC members who are able may bring some of the following items to the next CoC Board and Membership Meetings on January 15, 2025 to be donated:

Clean, unused socks in adult sizes
Clean, unused winter hats and gloves
Individually wrapped, non-perishable snack food items (i.e. chewy granola bars, crackers, fruit snacks, etc.)

The CoC is also looking for volunteers willing to serve as on-call translators for both the evening and day-time PIT Counts. Anyone with professional translation skills should email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call 828-747-8168.

Board + Membership Meeting

When: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 4:00 – 5:30 Board | 6:00 – 7:00 Membership

Where: Harrah’s Cherokee Center of Asheville – Banquet Hall (87 Haywood Street)

Meeting materials are now available for both meetings. CoC Members – please plan to attend! The Membership meeting will focus on a work session to prepare for Board strategic planning and your voice is essential!

Board Meeting Materials | Membership Meeting Materials

Parking + Transportation for CoC Meetings

Parking for CoC meetings can be validated and transportation assistance is available. Please plan to park at any of the city-owned parking garages and request a validation form when you arrive at the meeting. You will need to have a paper ticket from the garage or the ability to pay with a credit card. If you have questions or need additional assistance, please email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call 828-747-8168.

Board Strategic Planning

The Board will participate in a two-day strategic planning session on February 17 + 18, 2025. They will use feedback from the Membership survey and January 15th Membership meeting to shape the three-year strategic plan and develop annual action plans. These sessions will be open to the membership and will be facilitated by Amanda Wander, the HUD Technical Assistance provider for the Asheville-Buncombe CoC. Click here to take the Board Strategic Planning Survey!

Take Action

Committee Application Now Open

Do you love data? Are you a systems thinker? Does community engagement and education excite you? The Nominating and Membership Committee is seeking applicants for the remaining three standing committees of the CoC and your skills could be the right fit! The remaining committees are:

System Planning and Implementation
System Performance
Community Relations

CoC Members should complete the CoC Committee Application by Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. to be considered for committee service. Anyone interested in more than one committee should complete a separate application for each.

Hard copy applications will be available at the CoC Board and Membership meeting on Wednesday, January 15th. If you are unable to attend the meeting and would like a hard copy application or need assistance to complete the application, please email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call 828-747-8168.

Compensation for People with Lived and Living Experience of Homelessness Work Group Interest Form Submission Deadline Extended

At their meeting on December 19, 2024, the CoC Board voted to approve the Compensation for People with Lived and Living Experience of Homelessness Work Group charter, including appointments. The Board also extended the interest form submission period as recommended by a CoC member during the Public Comment period to ensure broad representation in this work group.

This opportunity is open to all CoC members. Due to conflict of interest, those CoC members with lived experience of homelessness who already serve on the Board, a committee, or work group, may not serve on this work group, but will be consulted during community listening sessions to ensure all feedback is heard. If you’re sharing this information, please be sure to invite anyone who is not already a CoC member to join!

The Nominating and Membership Committee will review all interest forms and may conduct interviews with candidates. A slate of recommended candidates to be added to the work group will be presented to the Board for approval at their February Board meeting.

Click here to access the Compensation for People with Lived and Living Experience of Homelessness Work Group Interest Form.

Please submit interest forms no later than Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

Become a Member of the CoC

Anyone with an interest in understanding homelessness and taking action to address it can become a member of the CoC! Members can be individuals or organizations and staff of member organizations are encouraged to become individual members. CoC members are eligible to serve on the board, committees, and work groups.

Click here to complete the membership form.

You will receive an email confirming receipt of your membership form. Please email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call 828-747-8168 if you would like a paper copy of these forms to be mailed to you.

Attend New Member Orientation

All new CoC members are required to attend a one-hour orientation in order to be eligible to vote as part of the full membership body. Orientations happen on an ongoing basis and dates are announced as orientations become available. Please fill out the orientation registration form to see available dates and sign up.

Stay Engaged

The Continuum of Care takes all of us! Your active participation helps the CoC grow and change in ways that will better serve our neighbors experiencing housing insecurity and the community as a whole. Use the Member Engagement Form or call the Member Engagement Voicemail at 828-271-6161 to share reflections, ask questions, make suggestions, and indicate your interest in getting more involved with the work of the CoC. All information collected through this form and voicemail box will be channeled through the CoC Board. Lead Agency staff may also respond when appropriate.

Funding Update

Continuum of Care Program Competition

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs published the FY2024 – FY2025 Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity on July 31, 2024 with submissions due October 30, 2024. Due to Tropical Storm Helene, the Asheville-Buncombe CoC was granted an extension until December 11, 2024.

Per CoC process, applications were reviewed by the Funding Committee who made recommendations to the CoC Board that were approved November 12, 2024. Lead Agency staff will submit the Board-approved application by the December 11, 2024 deadline. HUD will make final award decisions and contract directly with funded agencies. Lead Agency staff expect HUD will announce awards in early 2024, and those results will be shared with the CoC Membership.

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

Projects recommended for funding in the Priority Listing are:

Continuum of Care Recommended Funding
Rank	Applicant	Project	Amount
1	City of Asheville	NC-501 HMIS	$63,744
2	Helpmate	Housing Supports for Domestic Violence Survivors New 2024	$86,883
3	Helpmate	Housing Supports for Domestic Violence Survivors Renewal 2024	$297,809
4	Homeward Bound	Shelter Plus Care Asheville/Buncombe	$511,132
5	Homeward Bound	Permanent Supportive Housing 2	$99,617
6	Homeward Bound	Bridge to Recovery	$495,645
7	Homeward Bound	Permanent Supportive Housing 1	$330,242
8	Homeward Bound	Permanent Supportive Housing 5	$242,413
9	City of Asheville	NC-501 Coordinated Entry	$244,904
N/A		Planning Grant	$102,043
Total CoC Request			$2,474,432

Information about the CoC Program Funding Competition can also be found on the Funding Opportunities page of the City of Asheville’s website.

Background

What is a Continuum of Care?

The CoC is a formally structured planning body, not an incorporated organization like a standalone nonprofit or business, that allows our community to share responsibility, accountability and make decisions together. It is voluntary, participatory, and self-governing, and consolidates the efforts of nonprofits, governments, housing providers, landlords, funders, advocates, and experts to build a coordinated approach to addressing homelessness.

The CoC does not provide direct services (like rental assistance or shelter) to people in crisis, nor does it provide direct funding to service providers. Instead it is a way of convening people and organizations already taking action in those areas to facilitate collaboration, collect and review data that measures the service system’s effectiveness, and provide evidence-based recommendations to adjust the system when necessary. It is a federal framework to guide local communities in effective and collaborative homelessness response.

The CoC is solutions-oriented with a common goal to resolve the crisis of each person experiencing homelessness. Trust and transparency are critical to develop a collaborative and unified approach to respond to these crises efficiently and effectively.

In Asheville and Buncombe County, the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee (HIAC) has traditionally served as the CoC Board. Based on recommendations from the National Alliance to End Homelessness about how to improve unsheltered homelessness in our community, HIAC initiated a process to create a new community-based membership body and elect a new CoC Board for more widespread participation and improved results.

The restructured CoC has recently been established and is governed by a charter adopted by its membership body on February 29, 2024. The charter outlines roles and responsibilities of the CoC membership, board, committees, and Lead Agency. It also details the spirit of the CoC’s collaborative work through agreed-upon Shared Values and Guiding Principles:

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 our future
Promote equity to advance change
Politics will not drive policies

Timeline

Date	Action
January 25, 2023	National Alliance to End Homelessness presented recommendations emphasizing the need to build an effective CoC
February 9, 2023	Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee formed a Governance Work Group to lead CoC restructure and development
October 12, 2023	Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee endorses draft of new CoC charter and transitions Governance Work Group into Nominating and Membership Committee of the new CoC
December 4, 2023	CoC Membership drive begins. CoC Members invited to provide feedback on draft charter
February 8, 2024	Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee endorses draft charter with revisions based on CoC Member feedback
February 29, 2024	CoC Membership holds first meeting and votes to adopt its new Governance Charter. Board application process begins.
April 25, 2024	CoC Membership holds second meeting and elects new CoC Board
May 23, 2024	First Board Meeting

CoC Board and Membership

Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care Board

Elected April 25, 2024

CoC Board Officers
	Representative Seat	Candidate	Affiliation
Chair	Healthcare System	Melina Arrowood	Mission Hospital
Vice-Chair	Victim Service Provider	April Burgess-Johnson	Helpmate
Secretary	Shelter and Transitional Housing Provider	Christian Chambers	Safe Shelter

CoC Board
Representative Seat	Candidate	Affiliation
Subject Matter Expert with Lived Experience of Homelessness	Josh Morrow	Sunrise Community
Subject Matter Expert with Lived Experience of Homelessness	Karen Hayes-Roberts	Umoja
Behavioral Healthcare System	Celeste Ordiway	Vaya Health
Unsheltered Service Provider	Scott Rogers	ABCCM
Permanent Housing Provider	Jenny Moffatt	Homeward Bound
Public Safety	Mike Lamb	Asheville Police Department
Community Member	Rick Freeman	Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods
Supportive Provider Network	David Bartholomew	Pisgah Legal Services
Appointed Seat	Appointee	Role
Asheville Housing Authority
Buncombe County Staff	Lacy Hoyle	Homelessness Program Manager
City of Asheville Staff	Debra Campbell	City Manager
Veterans Administration	Katie Miller	Grant and Per Diem Liaison
Non-Voting Liaisons
Buncombe County Commissioner		Jennifer Horton
Asheville City Council Member		Mayor Esther Manheimer