The Refuge

Homelessness has always been a rising problem in Asheville, North Carolina, but in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, it has only increased. This natural disaster has also caused the local homeless demographics to shift, a change that is expected to continue as different relief efforts exit the area. This growing homeless population is primarily comprised of individuals who were, before the storm, living paycheck to paycheck, fighting to keep their home, already had limits to transportation, and were working in low-income positions. This has also caused an increase of families to enter the homeless population, making is not simply a priority for Western Carolina Rescue Ministries to step in, but a requirement.

On a national level, data shared by the CityGate Network and collected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimate states, “On a single night in January 2024, more than 770,000 individuals were experiencing homelessness, marking an 18% increase from the previous year. This follows an 11% rise in 2023, signaling a steady and devastating trend.” 

Over the next 5 years, Western Carolina Rescue Ministries has constructed a model that will dramatically lower the number of homeless individuals within Western North Carolina. On November 10th, 2024, the Rescue Ministry assumed control of the last disaster relief shelter in Buncombe County, with a total of 105 residents needing shelter placement by the time of the shelter’s closing date on December 31st, 2024. The Rescue Ministry implemented a model originally designed to help incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society and reduce rated of recidivism. The model was successful with placing all 105 of the residents before the end of the shelter’s closing date, and positive feedback from collaborative partners, the City of Asheville, and Buncombe County representatives have expressed their commitment for the Rescue Ministry to continue this model with the homeless populations in the region.

This program will be known as The Refuge, and will be made effective through collective collaboration of individuals from Law Enforcement, Medical and Behavioral Healthcare, Judicial, Education, and the Faith Community. Representatives of these communities will come together to be led by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) to work individually with clients experiencing homelessness and unemployment over a 90-day period. 

Clients of the Rescue Ministry come from all over Western North Carolina and are addicted, homeless, impoverished, and underserved individuals in the community who lack resources to move forward in their lives. Of these clients, approximately 51% are male and 49% are female. Regarding ethnicity, 18% identify as Black/African - American, 60% identify as white, 5% Native American or Native Alaskan, 1% as Asian or Islander, and 16% chose not to identify their race. Individuals served are primarily adults, with the average age for individuals served being 38 years old. According to data from the UCLA California Policy Lab, 75% of individuals that suffer from homelessness also struggle with substance abuse, a mental health disorder, or a combination of both. The trends the Rescue Ministry has have observed in the local population is conducive to this study, as the shift in the mental well-being has dramatically increased. There has also been an increase in more elderly females and families in the homeless population.

The Rescue Ministry has served Asheville and the surrounding Western North Carolina Region for over 43 years and is one of the only nonprofits that remained open throughout the entire duration of Hurricane Helene. Many of the Staff members have experienced a form of poverty, homelessness, or substance addiction, and actively pursue solutions based off their lived experiences as well as the experience of the clients they serve. All Staff positions are in-person and all forms of work are conducted on the Rescue Ministry’s main campus, which allows roles like Administration and Finance to easily see the impacts of their jobs on the those they work tirelessly to serve. The overall organization culture is also one which utilizes its diverse background by encouraging ideas for different challenges and welcoming them from every Staff role. For example, Finance and Administration Staff worked with Operations Staff in solving the various challenges that arose from losing water after Hurricane Helene. Similarly, the Chief Development Officer and Men’s Recovery Program Director led their teams to pioneer a solution to distribute supplies to hurricane victims in the most need.

The Red Cross, which had been providing shelter to victims of Hurricane Helene, was unable to continue these temporary shelters, and announced their pulling out of this service beginning effect on November 10th, 2024. Seeing that no other nonprofits were stepping in to take control of the shelter, the Rescue Ministry assumed control of operations from the Red Cross, who assisted in providing funding for the shelter to stay open for the remainder of the 2024 year. When the Rescue Ministry assumed control of the shelter, also known as The Refuge, there were 105 residents in need of shelter solutions. The Rescue Ministry was able to partner with representatives from the City of Asheville and Buncombe County, along with Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs), other nonprofit partners, and more to effectively place every individual in safe housing, ensure care for their medical and mental health needs, provide them with clothing, and even give their children Christmas gifts. Following the close of The Refuge shelter, the City and County have offered to work with the Rescue Ministry to pursue sustainable restorative care to the region’s homeless population because of the immense success of the protocols used to place shelter residents. 

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Western Carolina Rescue Ministries is approaching homelessness not as a housing problem, but as a trauma-based problem. As Executive Director of the Rescue Ministry, Micheal Woods, often states, “No child dreams of being homeless when they grow up.” Other similar local, regional, and even national organizations operate their efforts to end homelessness by providing access to affordable housing, then pronouncing the problem as solved once an individual is housed, while not addressing the entirety of the supportive services the individual might also need. The Rescue Ministry begins the rehabilitation process differently by asking clients about how they became homeless and inquires more about their past. The core belief of this approach is that by understanding each individual’s story that led them to homelessness, the Rescue Ministry can begin reestablishment by addressing the trauma in the client’s life, build a pathway towards healing, and offer supportive services as this pathway is executed. The Rescue Ministry accomplishes this method through 4 residential on-site programs for men, women, and children, and was able to provide an expedited version of this process for victims of Hurricane Helene. After seeing this process executed over a shorter period of time, local collaborators are more willing than ever to work with the Rescue Ministry to decrease general homelessness numbers with the intention of getting ahead of the rate to which people enter homelessness, especially with the anticipated rise in the population post-hurricane.

Short-Term Goals (1-6 months into operation):

• Within the first month of operation, the Rescue Ministry will secure a minimum of 5 core partner organizations from the medical, behavioral health, judicial, housing, and local government fields and form 30 teams of individuals from these fields that will be led by Rescue Ministry Staff and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs).
• Within the first 1-2 months of operation, 30 individuals experiencing homelessness will enter the shelter and begin working with their team of care providers to find employment, long-term housing, and any supportive services such as transportation, access to healthcare, and legal services.
• By the end of the third month of operation, the first 30 participants in The Refuge shelter placement will have succeeded in finding housing, employment, and supportive services. Upon these placements, shelter spaced will be cleaned, sanitized, and another 30 participants will begin the process over the next 3 months

Long-Term Goals (1-5 years into operation):

• Within the first year of operation, 120 participants in The Refuge will have been successfully placed in shelter, obtained employments, and are receiving supportive services. The Refuge Staff will also offer routine check-ins with clients to help them maintain their success and encourage their formation of authentic community.
• Within the second year of operation, The Refuge Staff will assess the progress and success maintenance of the first year’s participants. It is expected that a minimum of 75% of participants will still have secured, safe housing and a fulfilling career.
• At the end of the fifth year of operation, a minimum of 600 individuals will have moved from homelessness into stable housing and employment. As The Refuge measures progress, a minimum of 2 partnerships with other similarly focused nonprofits will be formed to teach this methodology to help other regions rapidly address homelessness rates.

Full-Time Staff: 17

Part-Time Staff: 5

Contractors/Other: 2

The Rescue Ministry has been pursuing the most efficient methods to address homelessness in Western North Carolina since its inception in 1981, totaling 43 years of experience in the field.

The staff of the Rescue Ministry are 47% Black/African American, and 53% white. Currently 74% of staff are women and 26% are men. The Executive Director is also a BIOPC individual, and actively works to pursue racial reconciliation both within and outside of the workplace. Every person served by the Rescue Ministry is underserved, impoverished, and marginalized in some way, and it is the posture of the Rescue Ministry to serve this vulnerable population by fostering a workplace culture that welcomes multiple perspectives and honors the background of each individual. By the definitions stated within the description of the question, the Rescue Ministry upholds a diverse Staff by consulting the current employees when new hires need to be made, encouraging open discussions about the levels of diversity and the ways it is helpful in serving the target population. Equity is pursued through pursuing dialogue between managers and leaders about potential barriers for accomplishing work and how these barriers can be addressed. Inclusion is promoted by Staff of different departments actively engaging with each other to form various ideas that will solve challenges, and being able to determine the best solution with grace and respect. Inclusion was one of the biggest keys to successfully continuing to run the Rescue Ministry after Hurricane Helene when so many other nonprofits closed, along with the success of the initial Refuge shelter.

The Refuge will be a program of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries, which is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Therefore, there will be no revenue generated from the services provided to clients. Beneficiaries will be provided with the opportunity to access a number of services in which they might have need of, chief among them is employment and housing. These services will be provided through collaborators specializing in social work and community networking to provide beneficiaries with a safe and comfortable environment that takes them off the streets of Western North Carolina.

The Rescue Ministry has seen a steady increase in budget every year due to increased capacity, new programs, and new partnerships with both individuals and organizations that are constantly being sought out. The Rescue Ministry has leveraged funding from private donors, local, and corporate partnerships, and private foundations for the entire duration of the organization’s existence. The overall budget for the 2024 year increased by 15% compared to the 2023 budget and 30% compared to the 2022 budget. Specific forms of leveraging funds include annual fundraising events (a summer 5k and a Christmas Gala), monthly appeals, monthly newsletters, formation of partnerships through phone calls, in-person meetings, and emails, facility tours, and grant-seeking. Grant funding for the Hope Housing Program has come through foundations such as the Cannon Foundation, WNC Bridge Foundation, and Asheville Chamber of Commerce, along with multiple foundations and donors that have requested to remain anonymous. The Rescue Ministry is primarily funded through private donors, therefore only a small portion of the overall operations budget comes from grant funding. Because of these community partnerships and relationships the Rescue Ministry has built with donors over the past 43 years it has been in operation, the long-term sustainability of the organization is not based upon a singular grant or funding source.

The Refuge shelter project hosted by Western Carolina Rescue Ministries could benefit greatly through the in-kind resources offered by the Inspire Awards challenge, especially in the context of monthly check-ins, plans for scaling, and pitch consultations. Receiving a comprehensive needs assessment and facilitating monthly meetings will greatly help the Grant Writer, Development Department, and Program Staff keep consistent data on actual progress on individuals and the program as a whole.

As the program is designed to grow and the Executive Director wants to make the model accessible to other nonprofits of different regions, the Truist Foundation and MIT Solve’s council and teaching on how to plan for scaling will be paramount to this endeavor. The pitch consultations will also be useful for this step. While the funding opportunity will greatly further The Refuge and the services it will provide, the project will benefit from the knowledge and insight the Truist Foundation and MIT Solve has to offer.