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Buncombe County accelerates 'Just Home' planning after MacArthur selection; community input sought for possible $5 million capital award
Summary
Buncombe County staff described a compressed community engagement effort for the MacArthur Foundation's Just Home program, aiming to deliver a December report that could unlock up to $5,000,000 for capital projects to expand supportive housing for people who are or were justice‑involved.
Max Tainter, project manager for strategy and innovation at Buncombe County, told the Justice Resource and Accountability Council that Buncombe County has been selected by the MacArthur Foundation for its Just Home initiative and must deliver a planning report in December.
The report will describe how the county would use any capital award to expand safe, affordable and supportive housing intended to reduce recidivism driven by housing instability among people who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated. "We may unlock up to $5,000,000 for this initiative," Tainter said, adding the award is not guaranteed and the county's submission must show needs and a realistic use of capital funds.
County officials said the timeline is compressed: what is normally a year‑and‑a‑half process will be carried out in roughly three months. The county formed a community advisory council and hired two contractors for outreach: Change Matters (which has worked with MacArthur on similar grants) and Thrive Asheville (a local nonprofit). Tainter said the outreach plan includes targeted meetings, interviews with people who are incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, and four different public surveys (people with lived experience, the general public, service providers, and loved ones of formerly incarcerated people).
Tainter said the county will draw on multiple local data sources to build a baseline for MacArthur, including the county's Apricot case management data, point‑in‑time counts, homelessness data for the city of Asheville, and the county's SIMS (service and touchpoint) data. "You can't make a change in our community if you can't prove that you've made a change in your community," he said.
Regina, department head for justice services, described the MacArthur work as timely and aligned with priorities identified in the county's behavioral‑health mapping work: "We want to listen to those most impacted associated with housing instabilities from former incarceration," she said, adding that the county intends a community‑driven plan rather than a top‑down design.
Workshop participants asked whether the potential MacArthur capital award would fund vouchers or ongoing operating subsidies. Tainter said the MacArthur award would be capital focused — construction and physical units — not vouchers. Asked how the county will collect feedback, Tainter said draft surveys are nearly complete and the county will share a landing page that directs respondents to the appropriate survey.
County staff emphasized that even if the MacArthur capital award is not obtained, the data gathered during this compressed engagement will inform future local affordable housing and reentry planning.
Next steps: staff will finish outreach and surveys in October and November, and present the final advisory‑committee report to MacArthur in December. The county asked council members and stakeholders to spread surveys through their networks to increase response rates and representation.
