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 500 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 happens 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.

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 who have completed orientation 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.

Funding Opportunities

FY2025 CoC Program Competition Notice of Funding Opportunity

HUD has withdrawn the FY2025 CoC Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The following information has been published on the CoC Competition webpage:

Today, the Department withdrew a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) with respect to the Continuum of Care (CoC) grant program. This withdrawal will allow the Department to make appropriate revisions to the NOFO, and the Department intends to do so. In the previous FY 24-25 NOFO, the Department reserved the right to make changes to the NOFO instead of processing renewals for a variety of reasons, including to accommodate a new CoC or Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) priority or new funding source. The Department still intends to exercise this discretion and make changes to the previously issued CoC NOFO to account for new priorities. HUD anticipates reissuing a modified NOFO well in advance of the deadline for obligation of available Fiscal Year 2025 funds.

Lead Agency staff will share additional information as it becomes available from HUD. When the NOFO is reissued staff will republish it with the updated local process and timeline. All questions should be directed to homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov .

Request for Proposals

The Asheville-Buncombe CoC Board is seeking the services of a qualified firm to remain on retainer and available to provide legal services to the CoC as needed.

Qualified firms should click here to read the full RFP. Proposals should be submitted no later than January 30, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. CoC Board Officers will review all proposals and develop a recommendation to the full CoC Board.

All questions should be directed to homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov.

Code Purple and Winter Shelter

Code Purple and Winter Shelter provide emergency overflow shelter beds with fewer requirements than in typical programming. Winter Shelter is available nightly during the winter season, and Code Purple shelter is activated in response to extreme weather or emergency situations.

The Code Purple and Winter Shelter season begins November 1, 2025. Winter Shelter is available through March 31, 2026, and Code Purple will continue to be available when called through April 30, 2026.

View specific details and access the Code Purple and Winter Shelter manual by clicking here.

El Manual de Código Morado y Refugio de Invierno está disponible en Español.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming CoC Meetings

In-Person Joint Board and Membership Holiday Gathering | December 11, 2025 | 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

The CoC will gather for the final Membership meeting of 2025 on Thursday, December 11th at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Banquet Hall. The Board will meet from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. followed by a Membership meeting from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. The Board will consider several Committee and Work Group appointments and provide direction for upcoming CoC funding processes. The Membership will vote in a Board election for the Business Representative seat and hear an exciting announcement about the Compensation Plan for People with Lived and Living Experience of Homelessness. There will be festive treats and a chance to look back on 2025 together, too. This meeting is one you won’t want to miss!

REMINDER: Items for the 2026 Point-in-Time Count will be collected on Thursday!

This year, the Board and Membership will celebrate the holidays by working together to prepare for the 2026 Point-in-Time Count! CoC Members are invited to bring items to be distributed during the Count and volunteer opportunities will be announced at the meeting.

Reusable shopping bags – We heard your feedback! These will be used by volunteers to carry items to be handed out during the count.

Socks, hats, and gloves – Adult sizes only, please! New socks and new or gently used hats and gloves are welcome.

Hand/Foot warmers – Please be sure these are not expired.

Powdered drink mix packets – Individual serving sizes, please! Examples: electrolyte packets, powdered lemonade, powdered iced tea.

Soft snacks – Individually wrapped and pre-packaged, please! Examples: Pop-tarts, fig-newtons, nurtigrain bars, chewy granola bars.

Flashlights, headlamps, and/or batteries – If possible, please put batteries in flashlights and headlamps.

Board and Membership Meetings in 2026

All in-person meetings will take place at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Banquet Hall unless otherwise noted. Materials will be available three (3) days ahead of the meeting date.

CoC meetings have been scheduled until June 2026! Click here to view the meeting schedule.

Parking + Transportation for CoC Meetings

Parking for CoC meetings and events can be validated. 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. Transportation assistance is available in the form of transit tickets only, please reach out to homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call (828) 747-8168 to coordinate accessing these tickets. If you have questions or need additional assistance, please email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call (828) 747-8168.

Attend New Member Orientation

Next orientation: Wednesday, December 10th at 12:00 p.m.

All new CoC members are required to attend a one-hour orientation in order to be eligible to vote during meetings of the full membership and serve on the Board, Committees, or Work Groups. Please click here to view upcoming orientation dates and register, or you can email homelessstrategy@ashevillenc.gov or call (828) 747-8168.

Save the Date: 2026 Point-in-Time Count

January 27 and 28, 2026

Mark your calendar for the 2026 Point-in-Time Count. The CoC will need volunteers to participate in administering surveys and preparing for the event. More information will be available in the coming weeks, but if you missed the Lunch + Learn, click here to watch the recording!

Take Action

Are you interested in serving on the CoC Board or a Committee?

*The Advocacy Committee cannot begin their important work until members are appointed – apply today!

Both Board and Committee applications are open on a rolling basis. Interested and qualified CoC Members can click the buttons below to view each application and learn more about available Board seats and Committee opportunities.

Open CoC Board Seats:

Business Community Representative
Community Member Representative
Local Non-Governmental Funder

CoC Committees:

Advocacy (new)
Community Relations
Funding
Nominating and Membership
System Performance
System Planning and Implementation

As a reminder: all CoC Members must complete a New Member Orientation in order to be eligible to serve on the CoC Board, Committees, or Work Groups.

Click here to complete the Board application.

Click here to complete the Committee application.

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.

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 housing solutions
Make decisions using data and evidence
Focus on our future
Promote a person-centered system to ensure individualized needs are met
Ensure that politics do not drive policies

What does homelessness look like in the CoC?

Each year the CoC conducts the Point-in-Time Count during the last 10 days of January. This year, the count took place on January 28th and 29th to get a “snapshot” of homelessness data in our community. The CoC saw 135 volunteers participate in survey administration over the two-day period, 60 of whom were CoC members. Teams canvassed 27 geographic areas across Buncombe County in addition to being stationed at various service locations to support survey collection. Local service providers also provided data for the night of the 28th to ensure as many people could be counted as possible.

Participation in the Point-in-Time Count is voluntary and the dataset is imperfect, but it can show trends over time that help inform the community’s overall strategy and collective response to homelessness. The 2025 count identified 755 people experiencing homelessness, including 116 who reported that their homelessness was a result of Tropical Storm Helene. Full results from the 2025 Point-in-Time Count were shared during the March 26, 2025 CoC Membership Meeting, and can be viewed here.

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	Captain Jonathan Brown	Asheville Police Department
Community Member	Marcia Mount Shoop	Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
Supportive Provider Network	David Bartholomew	Pisgah Legal Services
Faith Community	Mary Brown	Church Street Collaborative/Central United Methodist Church
Appointed Seat	Appointee	Role
Asheville Housing Authority	Ella Santos (interim appointee)	Chief Operating Officer
Buncombe County Staff	Lacy Hoyle	Homelessness Program Manager
City of Asheville Staff	Jade Dundas (interim appointee)	Assistant City Manager
Veterans Administration	Jerry Kivett-Kimbro	HUD-VASH Supervisor
Non-Voting Liaisons
Buncombe County Commissioner		Jennifer Horton
Asheville City Council Member		Mayor Esther Manheimer