Organizations scrambling to relocate 80 from Asheville’s Ramada Inn before March

By Jennifer Emert

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WALA) — Nowhere to go.

The scramble is on as organizations work to relocate 80 homeless individuals in Asheville’s Emergency Shelter before a March deadline when the shelter will end and the property will be sold for development of new affordable permanent housing units.

News 13 learned more than a quarter of those in the shelter have qualified for housing vouchers, but finding permanent housing is proving difficult.

For the last eight months, the Ramada Inn has been home for 80 individuals living here. In three months, that could change, and for some it may happen sooner.

“Me and my wife both have had some challenges in our lives,” said Tony Edwards, a Ramada Inn resident, minister and construction worker. “We have been through some things that I’m not proud to speak of.”

Despite those challenges, both Tony and Lisa Edwards prayed for a change after four years on Ashville’s streets. The Ramada gave them that.

“It was a blessing, oh my God, that was a blessing from heaven,” said Tony.

“They wash our clothes, a lot of times they give us food, we get a place to sleep at night, we get a place to take showers,” said Lisa.

Ashley Lung, Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness shelter director, has been tracking the program’s impact and progress. She says 90% of residents at the Asheville emergency shelter now have a birth certificate, social security card or ID. Not having those credentials is often a barrier for accessing other shelters in the city.

“We have about 12 folks who’ve gotten on Medicaid’s assisted treatment, for substance disorders,” said Lung.

Four have been placed into transitional housing like ABCCM’s Transformation Village while another four have found permanent housing and 22 qualified for housing vouchers.

“They’ve been given a voucher, they’ve been connected with services with a case manager maybe Homeward Bound for this voucher but we don’t have affordable housing to put them in,” said Lung.

All many can do is wait, worried time is running out.

“It’s been great to watch these folks grow, they would have never probably sought any of this without the foundation they’re standing on right now and just to think at the end of March that foundation is gone,” said Lung.

In Asheville’s difficult affordable housing market, time’s not on their side.

“It can take some folks 18 months to 24 months to get into a permanent housing unit,” she added.

Tony and Lisa Edwards qualified shortly after entering the Ramada’s emergency shelter.

“I’m thinking in my mind things are going to happen overnight, real quick, so there were times that we got a little bit impatient,” said Edwards.

They were hoping they could find housing before the couple got married Oct. 16, but that wouldn’t be the case. Just this month they learned they’ve been approved for an apartment. Approval of their dog is the final key to a new place and a fresh start in the new year.

“It’s been a few years since she’s house kept as well so it’s going to be a blessing,” said Tony.

Lung says the shelter gets on average eight to 10 requests a day for assistance or requests from individuals looking for a place to warm up. They have to point those individuals to the Code Purple shelters because they don’t have the space.

“There has to be something at the bottom,” Lung said. “You have permanent supportive housing, you have the rapid rehousing, but you have to have the shelters.”

She said the shelter is a good first step to begin the process of rehousing and without the Ramada many of those currently seeking and being enrolled in resources wouldn’t know the process to take.

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