Asheville – Homelessness and crime in Asheville have been in the news a lot lately, especially since the Washington, DC-based National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) made its $73,000 recommendations to the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee (HIAC), Asheville City Council, and Buncombe County Commissioners on January 25th.
The plan, called Within Reach, for all of its cost, seems to be just more of the same. Being from DC, the NAEH suggests using the HUD Housing First plan to reduce homelessness in Asheville. This plan is too much like the Looking Homeward: Asheville-Buncombe’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness which was put in place from 2005 to 2015. If you go anywhere in downtown Asheville, you will see that it not only did not end homelessness; homelessness has increased exponentially, and with it, crime has risen as well.
Making the News—Not in a Good Way
Local residents and business owners have appeared on WLOS, in local newspapers, and even on Fox National News. All of these people are saying basically the same thing: Asheville has become very dangerous, and many locals are afraid to go downtown or go to work downtown. Business is down because no one wants to step over a homeless person in a doorway or see excrement on the sidewalks, and they are afraid that our main form of income will be adversely affected if the tourists don’t come to Asheville due to these problems. All of these people also had one more thing in common: they don’t feel heard by city and county politicians.
Citizens are taking matters into their own hands. The Asheville Coalition for Public Safety (ACPS) presented a comprehensive plan to solve the problem, and Doug Brown, who ran for city council, has been corresponding with Commissioner Chairman Newman, Mayor Manheimer, and Emily Ball, Homeless Strategy Division Manager.
Both the ACPS and Mr. Brown shared their plans and reports with The Tribune Papers. The plan presented by the ACPS can be seen on tribpapers.com.
Programs That Work
As Doug Brown was running for city council, he wanted to know the most pressing issues people faced. “When I would talk to people and ask what was the biggest issue, it was always the homeless.” Brown wanted to know more about it, so he went on a quest for information. “I went to ABCCM, and I went to Western Carolina Rescue Mission and [the] Salvation Army, said Brown. “I found out that ABCCM has been in business for over 30 years, and the director travels around the United States and consults with people. They have an extremely successful program where people come in, they’re stabilized, given a supportive community where they feel safe, ABCCM takes care of their addictions, and then they start the job training.” Brown explained, “At first it’s any job, then it’s a better job, then it’s a career job, and within six months to a year, 80% of their people are out working, paying market rate rents, and are done. They’ve been helped because they’ve been in a program.”
Brown then went over to see Rev. Michael Woods, president and CEO of the Wetern Carolina Rescue Mission. “I found out that he has gotten national awards for what he’s doing, and again he has got a program where they [homeless] come in, and they’re expected to do chores. They’ve got a half hour of some sort of inspirational study that they watch on YouTube, or someone comes in and talks to them. They have this community again, where they’re stabilized and their addictions are treated, and they get job training. They get out and work,” Brown exlained. “At Salvation Army. It’s the same thing.”
Then Brown looked at the Housing First program. “I started hearing about housing first and Homeward Bound and there’s federal money that’s coming in. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, the Western Carolina Rescue Mission is working 100% on private donations and being successful. ABCCM, except for the last year when they got $1 million from COVID relief money, is pretty much independent of all this other stuff.’” Brown continued, “They didn’t qualify for the HUD money because they didn’t follow the HUD rules of just taking anybody in and sticking them in the homeless house. There’s no conditions to them getting treatment, job training, or rehabilitation.”
Programs That Haven’t Worked
Citing the reasons above, a lack of requiring any responsibility on the part of the person seeking help, Brown went on to talk about why Housing First, the plan recommended to the city by the consultants, hasn’t been successful in many cities. He shared an excerpt from United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: “Expanding the Toolbox.” This report states, “The housing first approach has produced concerning results. Advocates for housing first argue that increasing the number of subsidized vouchers and permanent supportive housing units decreased unsheltered homelessness. Yet unsheltered homelessness increased 20.5% while subsidized housing vouchers increased by 42.7%…Since federal funding increases for homelessness assistance programs have failed to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, policy makers must look to other factors that cause individuals and families to experience homelessness.”
Brown said, “Housing First says ‘let them [homeless] decide. They’ll come to it on their own, and they’re more likely to do it. That’s nonsense. How can you tell someone who can’t control their life and make good decisions, to go ahead and figure it out yourself. To me that’s like throwing a basketball onto a court and saying go figure it out guys, when you really want it I’ll come to coach you.” He added, “Do you think it’s compassionate to just let someone just continue to destroy themselves out on the street and just give them a safe place to sleep at night, so they can continue their habits?”
One of the reports that Brown shared is from October 2022: “NEW RESEARCH UNDERSCORES FAILURES OF ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL HOUSING FIRST APPROACH.” In this report are comments by Michele Steebe, who served on the Board of California’s Prison Industry Authority. Steebe was over a “robust, comprehensive, 18-month program supporting homeless women and children in their battle to overcome the very root of the ongoing cycle of poverty. She worked tirelessly to incorporate, not just a roof over their heads, but mental health services, educational assistance, and extensive hands-on employment training in an effort to bring about real and lasting change.” The program’s success is nationally known.
Steebe stated in this report that, “‘Housing First’ Is Not Working…The Time has come for Real Reform. Homelessness should be addressed primarily as a mental and behavioral health issue, rather than simply a housing issue.”
It’s Time to Work Together
Both Brown and the Asheville Coalition for Public Safety are asking the same thing, Why is the city ignoring the successful programs in Asheville; ABCCM, WCRM, Salvation Army? Where are their reports to the City Council and County Commissioners? Both are advocating for all of the people and groups to work together; the only way dealing with the homeless issue has been successful.
Once a year HUD requires a Point in Time (PIT) count of all the homeless: sheltered, unsheltered. Brown closed out one of his letters to Emily Ball asking, “The 2022 PIT count shows over 20% increase in homelessness. Two hotels got converted into Housing First rooms to the tune of millions, and yet the PIT report states 28% of transition beds are vacant. The city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness has come and gone in 2015. Asheville has adapted the Housing First model in spite of a US Interagency report, successful shelter examples, and research by veterans in the fight. Should this fixation on the Housing First “channel” be the only source used to write our playbook for dealing with the Asheville homeless?
What do all of the people of Asheville want? They want to help those in need, not enable them, and to have a safe city where people are not afraid to go downtown. That is going to require open minds and hearts, not just business as usual.