City Builds Asheville Fire Department Community Responder Program & Refines Homelessness Services Information Page

Asheville -- July 26, 2024: Press Release: City of Asheville:  As a part of its Fiscal Year 2025 budget,

the Asheville City Council included 8 permanent positions for the Community Responder Team, in alignment with Homelessness Strategies and Reimagining Public Safety priorities. Homelessness Services Page

With the understanding that homelessness is a crisis, not a crime, Asheville Fire Department (AFD) Community Responders will be the lead and first on-the-scene operational response agency to support people in crisis and mitigate the communitywide effects of homelessness. Community Responders are actively reimagining public safety by helping to make connections to resources and providing services when no law is being broken. Comprising the 8 positions will be five certified firefighters and three civilians which includes two peer support specialists with lived experience.

Happening Now

The City recently hired a Community Responder Manager to oversee program development, data tracking and supervise two peer support specialists.  Peer support position development continues and will be hired in the fall of 2024.  The Community Responder team continues to work seven days a week, from approximately 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.,  covering all areas within Asheville City limits and serving as the primary response to encampments. This dashboard provides Community Responder interactions and services data.  

Community Responder Program Background

The AFD created the Community Responder pilot program in May of 2023 as a part of the Downtown Safety Initiative. Five firefighters volunteered for reassignment to support the initiative. This team focused on proactive efforts to assist persons unsheltered and/or experiencing behavioral health issues in the downtown area.  Additionally, the team interacted with local businesses and residential areas through education and proactively addressing concerns and quality of life issues before they escalated.

Following the initiative’s success, the pilot program was expanded beyond downtown. A budget request for fiscal year 2025 proposed to fully fund the program, using opioid settlement funds to offset some of the costs. 

New and improved :  Homelessness Services Page

The recently enhanced Homelessness Services Page is designed to support community members with easily accessible information on issues related to homelessness services including:

Seeking assistance for yourself or someone else without housing
Learning more about homelessness 
Joining the collaborative response through the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care (CoC)
Requesting encampment response due to safety concerns.