City staff, nonprofits and state press FEMA for shelter extensions as hundreds risk losing vouchers

City staff, nonprofit partners and councilors described on Jan. 14 an ongoing effort to prevent immediate homelessness among people using FEMA Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) hotel vouchers after the storm.

Emily Ball, the city's homeless strategy division manager, updated council on TSA. She said FEMA's initial TSA authorization runs through March 27, 2025, and that FEMA conducts eligibility reviews every two weeks. After an initial review beginning Jan. 3, FEMA identified cohorts of households who would be ineligible on Jan. 11 because they had missed inspections, had not made contact, or FEMA had assessed their homes as safe to occupy. The city and state requested extensions for specific cohorts; Ball said the state asked FEMA to extend TSA and that FEMA provided short extensions in response to weather and outreach needs.

Ball said Buncombe County-level data showed 318 households who were slated to exit TSA for reasons tied to missed contact were extended through Jan. 25; that extension created time for the state's disaster case managers to reach households and for local partners to find shelter options. The city and state coordinated with community nonprofit EBlen and others to fund immediate short-term shelter where needed. "That extension allows time for the state's disaster case management team to make contact with those folks and assess what needs they have," Ball told council.

Ball and other staff emphasized the importance of contacting FEMA directly and visiting the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) for people worried about losing vouchers or eligibility. Ball said the local DRC is located at Asheville Mall and is open weekdays beginning at 8 a.m. and some Saturday hours; she repeated FEMA's phone number and the DRC as the fastest ways to resolve individual eligibility questions.

Council and staff also described a separate, difficult eligibility category: people FEMA identified as pre-disaster homeless (people who were homeless prior to the storm). Ball said FEMA's eligibility rules exclude people who were pre-disaster homeless from TSA, though local advocates said they had seen people who were pre-disaster homeless temporarily included early in the response and later flagged as ineligible during FEMA's eligibility reviews. The city and nonprofits are working to identify shelter beds, and EBlen stepped in to fund immediate two-night extensions for people at imminent risk of losing vouchers while case managers work through placements.

Public comment during the meeting reinforced the urgency: multiple speakers, including people who had been using TSA vouchers and community organizers, said they or people they assist had been told vouchers would end imminently, and several described being forced to leave hotels with winter weather approaching. City and advocacy groups asked the council and staff to keep pressing state and federal partners for extensions and for local funds and nonprofit support to bridge gaps when FEMA eligibility ends.

Why it matters: TSA can provide immediate temporary shelter for storm-affected households while longer-term assistance is arranged; when eligibility reviews remove households from TSA, local shelter providers and case managers must find alternatives quickly to avoid homelessness during winter weather.

What happens next: City staff said they will continue coordinating with state disaster case management, FEMA and nonprofit partners; they urged affected households to contact FEMA at the FEMA phone number or to visit the local DRC at Asheville Mall for in-person assistance.

Quotations in this article are verbatim from the Jan. 14 council presentation and public comment.