Our Impact: 2022 – 2023
Homeward Bound was founded in 1988 with a focus on ending homelessness in Buncombe County. Since adopting the Housing First model in 2006, we’ve moved over 2,600 individuals into housing.
Housing First
We know that getting and keeping people housed is the first step to ending homelessness and that sometimes, providing prevention services including temporarily paying rent to avoid eviction (or other expenses) is critical to keep from increasing the homelessness numbers.
From 2022 – 2023, we provided homes for:
80 veterans
210 chronically homeless
We prevented homelessness for:
690 individuals
509 veterans
Our Landlord Partnership Program provides stable housing to those in our community. From 2022 – 2023, the program resulted in:
149 leases
90+ landlord partnerships

AHOPE: A much-needed respite
Our AHOPE Day Center delivers critical client services 5 days a week, providing a place for hundreds of our homeless 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. From 2022-2023:
1,439+
individuals served
76
diversions
398
vulnerability studies conducted
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.
265 served by our Outreach 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
key to our successful retention rate is providing household supplies and gently-used furnishings to make a house a home for those transitioning out of homelessness. In 2022:
172
homes were made
$195,861
in household items/furnishings donated
“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.
Get Involved

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

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

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.

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