Our Impact: 2025

Homeward Bound was founded in 1987 with a focus on ending homelessness in Buncombe County. Since adopting the Housing First model in 2006, we’ve moved 2,780+ individuals into safe, stable housing.

Housing First

Homeward Bound’s work is anchored in the Housing First model, a national best practice offering permanent housing and supportive services without preconditions. It’s based on overwhelming evidence that people experiencing homelessness can achieve stability and thrive through flexible, individualized support, client choice, and autonomy. The result: higher housing retention rates, reduced reliance on costly crisis services and institutions, and improved health and social outcomes for our neighbors across Buncombe County.

96.5%

In 2024 alone, our Permanent Supportive Housing programs had a 96.5% retention rate of individuals not returning to homelessness and taking steps to rebuild their lives as neighbors in our community. 

In 2025, we ended homelessness for:

102 unique individuals, including

50 veterans

We prevented homelessness for:

49  individuals, representing 30 households

77 individuals, representing 42 Veteran households

Our Landlord Partnership Program provides stable housing to those in our community. In 2025, the program resulted in:

88  leases

89   landlord partnerships

Norma, housed in 2023

AHOPE: A much-needed respite

Our AHOPE Day Center delivers critical client services Monday-Friday, providing a place for hundreds of our unhoused neighbors to pick up mail, store their possessions, take a shower, and more. As the front door to our housing services, we connect people who are homeless to housing and also help divert people from homelessness by finding relatives or friends who can house them or referring them to needed resources. In 2025:

1,660

unique individuals served

Thousands

of showers, cups of coffee and pairs of socks provided

Outreach

At Homeward Bound, we go where the need is – people living on the streets, in cars, under bridges, and in campsites – and connect them to the medical, mental health, substance-use disorder services, permanent housing resources, emergency shelters and basic needs services.

130 served by our Outreach team

154 served by our Library In-Reach team

Compass Point Village

Compass Point Village, the largest program of its kind in WNC, provides 85 permanent supportive housing apartments and on-site behavioral health services, case management, and job training for individuals who’ve experienced chronic homelessness in our community. Hear from our Permanent Supportive Housing Director, Jenny Moffatt at the One Year Anniversary of Compass Point Village!

Welcome Home Donation Center

Our donation center provides household supplies and gently-used furnishings to make a house a home for those transitioning out of homelessness. In 2025:

122
homes were made

$143,656
in household items/furnishings donated

Learn about donating items to Homeward Bound

“It puts a ‘little bean of hope’ in their day“

Chayse is one of the most resilient people I’ve met, and her journey is a powerful testament to determination and self-growth. Her story takes us through her experiences crisscrossing the country aboard trains, finding shelter wherever she could—including rooftops and under bridges during record snow-falls and heat waves—to earning her GED, pursuing a degree in human services at AB-Tech, and working toward a career as a case manager to support people she personally knows who are still homeless today. Read her full story here.

Read more client stories.

Get Involved

Volunteer

A variety of opportunities provide volunteers a meaningful experience in support of our mission to end homelessness.

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Donate Items

The items you donate help both our neighbors currently living on the streets as well as those transitioning into a home.

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Donate

No matter how much you give, every dollar works hard to provide the services necessary to fulfill the mission of ending homelessness in our community.

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Be a Business Sponsor

Partnering with Homeward Bound as a business sponsor is a win/win for our clients and your organization.

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