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Asheville staff outline three-part COC response ahead of point-in-time count; volunteers sought
Summary
City staff and the Continuum of Care briefed council on the Jan. point‑in‑time count and a three‑part response to increased unsheltered homelessness in West Asheville: nightly winter shelter (50 added beds), expanded street outreach using $222,000 in city ARPA funds, and stepped‑up needle response and sharps containers.
City staff on Thursday described preparations for the Asheville–Buncombe Continuum of Care’s (COC) annual point‑in‑time (PIT) count and a three‑part local response to rising unsheltered homelessness in West Asheville.
Emily Ball told the council the PIT is a federally required single‑night census for the COC geography that takes place during the last 10 days of January and combines HMIS program data with volunteer surveys for unsheltered counts. "Point in time count is happening in a couple weeks," Ball said, describing volunteer signups that now let people pick specific geographies and teams and stressing that survey responses are voluntary and de‑identified for reporting to the COC and HUD.
Ball and staff outlined three COC board strategies that have already been deployed to respond to the West Asheville increase. First, the board directed CDBG DDRF disaster recovery funds to add nightly winter shelter capacity; Ball said that deployment created 50 additional beds operated by Safe Shelter that have been open nightly since November and have been operating at high utilization. "They have had one single night so far this winter where they did not reach capacity," Ball said.
Second, the COC issued an RFP for collaborative street outreach to increase evening and weekend coverage; Ball said $222,000 in city ARPA funding is available to expand outreach capacity, and proposals were under consideration at the COC’s meeting the day of the briefing. Ball described outreach as direct engagement to address immediate safety needs, provide transportation to shelters and connect people to case management, diversion or other resources.
Third, the COC working group recommended steps to improve needle response in West Asheville, including coordinated cleanups, distribution of sharps containers and partnerships with Buncombe County Public Health and local syringe‑service providers to empty containers and handle disposal.
Council members pressed staff for operational details: how sharps containers are emptied and where collected sharps go, how outreach teams will measure success, and how new shelter capacity will be sustained beyond winter funding. Ball said HMIS participation will be required for city‑funded efforts so outcomes and exits (for example, enrollment into shelter) can be tracked and reported. She also said the PIT survey includes updated questions about whether respondents attribute their homelessness to Tropical Storm Helene; Ball said a prior unsheltered survey found 35% of respondents reported Helene as a cause.
Ball described related housing efforts: the Ramada property is "slated to become affordable housing, half of which will be dedicated to veterans in the HUD‑VASH program through the VA," she said, but she added staff did not provide a specific completion timeline in the briefing.
Staff asked council members to encourage volunteer signups and donations (for care packets) that support the unsheltered survey. The COC will report local PIT results to the COC this spring and HUD later in the year; staff said the PIT provides a snapshot for planning and federal reporting but is not a perfect dataset.
