ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina will run 90 cold-weather emergency beds in Asheville this winter, up from 20 last season, as the city braces for the loss of 65 year-round shelter beds on Sunday.
The nonprofit will move its Code Purple shelter out of the AHOPE Day Center and into the Salvation Army Center of Hope. The Salvation Army is suspending its regular residential shelter on Nov. 1 because it lacks money. City homelessness officials have said the Center of Hope leaned on temporary pandemic and Helene-era funding and has not found the roughly $1.2 million a year it needs to keep going.
The added space will serve single men, couples and people with pets, groups that often struggle to find a bed. Over the six-month season the nonprofit projects roughly 7,200 nights of shelter spread among 150-plus people.
Code Purple is not a year-round shelter. The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care turns it on when temperatures or wind chills are expected to hit 32 degrees or lower, or when it is 33 to 40 degrees with rain or snow. Buncombe County officials project the community will have more than 100 fewer regular and winter beds this season.
Asheville and Buncombe County each set aside $100,000 for Code Purple this season, twice what they gave last year. On Tuesday, City Council let the city manager accept and manage the county share. The deal leaves open how much of that money Homeward Bound will see.
Other beds are planned as well. ABCCM will offer 35 beds for women and women with children, and Safe Shelter plans 40 overflow beds if the main sites fill. The winter shelter season runs from Nov. 1 through April 30, 2027.
Section: More Asheville NC crime news
Filed under: Asheville NC Public Safety News
