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Assistant city manager outlines homelessness response: more beds, new co-responder program and $6M prevention pilot
Summary
Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas and community partners told council the city needs more shelter capacity (staff estimated ~90 additional beds), described new co-responder and outreach work and said the COC will receive $6 million for a homelessness-prevention pilot serving about 1,000 households over three years.
Jade Dundas, assistant city manager, briefed the Policy, Finance & Infrastructure committee on city and partner responses to homelessness, describing a mix of community complaints (open drug use, trespass, litter, aggressive behavior) and ongoing strategies to address them. Dundas said no single entity can solve the issue and described a networked response: a co-responder program launched last week, redeployment of APD community resource officers, transit contractor requirements to provide a crisis counselor at the transit station, downtown ambassadors for cleanup and outreach, and the AFD Resource Engagement Support Team (RIST).
Dundas cited recent RIST dashboard figures showing roughly 1,500 total engagement events in 2025 that produced about 497 shelter referrals, and said year-to-date numbers (about 1,200 events and 442 referrals) indicate sustained activity. She also referenced a recent point-in-time measure that found at least 60% of unsheltered people counted were local, though councilors questioned place-of-origin data and one councilor said about 40% lacked a local address in his checks. Dundas and others warned the shelter gap is acute: she estimated an immediate need of “at least 90 additional beds,” and councilors noted the pending closure of Salvation Army operations (Oct. 1) will increase that shortfall.
On prevention, Dundas said the Asheville Buncombe Continuum of Care will be part of the national Right at Home pilot and will receive $6,000,000 to serve about 1,000 households over the next three years, funding rental assistance, case management and other creative solutions. Applications for providers are open now with selection planned for September and services expected to begin by December. Dundas said staff will follow up with requested details (for example, ARPA funding amounts for specific engagement programs) and provide additional data on shelter capacity and program timelines.
