2025 PIT count shows increase in unsheltered homelessness

According to the 2025 Point-In-Time Count (PIT), unsheltered homelessness increased by 50% in Buncombe County year-over-year.

The latest data also reveals increases in people who are chronically homeless (meaning they have lived without a fixed address for over 12 months) and people who self-identified as having a severe mental health condition or substance use disorder. 

However, Buncombe County’s overall increase in homelessness was relatively small — only 2% — from 739 people last year to 755 this year. 

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care (CoC) announced the PIT count results March 26 during a meeting at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville. Around 50 people attended, including about a dozen PIT count volunteers. 

Helene’s impact 

CoC programs are federally required to conduct a PIT count at least every two years during the last 10 days in January. Volunteers traverse each county to gather data from unhoused people living in emergency shelters and in transitional housing (such as in a hotel or motel paid by an agency) as well as those who are unsheltered. The PIT count data is shared with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and publicly released several months later. 

Buncombe County’s PIT count was conducted differently in 2024 and 2025 from previous years, explained Asheville’s homeless strategy division manager, Emily Ball. Before 2024, the counts were held on only one evening. But in order to capture more accurate data, the county added a second day of counting. 

Helene had a big impact on this year’s findings: The count would have totaled 2,303 people if people receiving shelter assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were included. FEMA provided the CoC with data that 1,548 individuals were being housed on Jan. 28 in its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program in Buncombe County, Ball explained. A FEMA housing program, TSA pays for hotel rooms for individuals or families until their residence is deemed habitable. Buncombe County needs that data because HUD, which administers CoC programs, requires people staying in hotels paid for by federal agencies to be included in a PIT count. 

However, the CoC volunteers didn’t conduct the full PIT count survey with those disaster-impacted individuals in the TSA program, Ball noted. The CoC recognizes such residents are in unique circumstances; often they are waiting to return to housing that is being repaired or rebuilt. Therefore, the TSA participants don’t accurately represent Buncombe County’s homeless community. It is “outlier data,” Ball said. “We will report all of that [to HUD] as required but are really separating here for clarity and to better compare our 2024 data.” 

Still, Ball continued, Helene did clearly impact homelessness in Buncombe County, as 35% of the unsheltered homeless in the 2025 PIT count said they were without housing because of the storm. She also noted the number of people in transitional housing dropped from 250 in 2024 to 157 in 2025, suggesting the decrease could have been due to Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s (ABCCM) Veterans Restoration Quarters, which was temporarily closed after flooding from Helene. 

Additional data points 

Some people opted to provide additional demographic data during the 2025 PIT count to give a better picture of who is experiencing homelessness in the community. Two-thirds are men, nearly 70% are white, and the largest group comprises ages 35-44 followed by ages 55-64. The vast majority of Buncombe County’s homeless numbers are single individuals; only 13 families were counted. The number of homeless veterans decreased from 191 last year to 161 this year; again, Ball pointed out that this could be due to the temporary closure at ABCCM Veterans Restoration Quarters. 

This year’s PIT count indicated more homeless people experiencing health challenges. In 2024, 55 adults self-reported having serious mental illness; that number climbed 76% to 97 people in 2025. CoC Chair Melina Arrowood noted the increase could be due to individuals being more comfortable reporting this type of information. (Arrowood is chief operating officer of Behavioral Health Services at Mission Hospital.) More adults also identified themselves as having a substance use disorder. That number grew 84% — from 38 people in 2024 to 70 people in 2025. 

The CoC recognizes Buncombe County’s entire homeless population might  not be represented in the annual PIT count, although efforts were made to traverse a wide swath of the community. On Jan. 28, street teams went out to conduct the count both on the street and at a dinner at Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. The following day, street teams went out again, visiting campsites and service locations such as at AHOPE Day Center and ABCCM. 

Despite these efforts, Arrowood noted at the March 26 meeting that the PIT count might not accurately capture youths who are sleeping at friends’ places or “couch surfing,” people who are hospitalized or in emergency rooms and people who were impacted by Helene who are sleeping in tents or RVs on private property.

Rick Freeman, president of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods, also noted that unhoused people who were incarcerated during the PIT count weren’t counted. 

The next CoC board meeting will be held Wednesday, April 9, 4-5:30 p.m. at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville.  

Editor’s note: This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing