Safe Shelter is a small emergency shelter designed to fill the gaps in WNC shelters. We specialize in keeping families facing homelessness together and providing a safe space for People of Color and LGBTQ+.

Most shelters operate as men’s and women’s dormitories, so a husband and wife and children must split up in order to receive shelter. This is also typically the case for a single mother and son if her son is over 13 years of age. There are also few options for single fathers.

Safe Shelter allows families to shelter together and give space to those who have had challenges in larger shelters. Much of our motivation comes from the past success of the 2023-2023 Winter Safe Shelter, Trinity United Methodist Church’s (UMC) emergency shelter during the 2021-2022 winter season and the Room at the Inn program that ran for many years prior to the covid pandemic.

Safe Shelter is located at Home: West Asheville Community Hub, 27 Balm Grove Ave, Asheville, NC 28806.

We share a campus with Trinity United Methodist Church, Deep Time and Umoja’s HOPE 4 the Future Program.

We share our building, Home: West Asheville Community Hub, with Mutual Aid Wellness Collective, Home Base Barbershop, Good Vibes Consignment, Hawk Hill Learning Community, Little Field School and Lichen Practice.

Folks can enter the shelter by referral or come to our drop-in hours Monday through Friday from 11am - 2pm.

We use a Community Health Worker and Peer Support model to connect with our guests. Our primary goal is to connect our guests with permanent housing. Additionally, we help them achieve their goals in areas including employment, education, childcare, transportation and mental health.

We welcome volunteers and meal donations.

We are grateful for the wealth of experience in our community from those who have been serving our unhoused neighbors for years. We partner and work closely with 12 Baskets; ABCCM; BeLoved; Elida Homes; Equal Plates; Homeward Bound; Haywood Street Respite, Helpmate; the Rescue Mission, Salvation Army; Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective; the Veteran’s Administration, and other community providers.

Our trained Peer Support staff, Community Health Workers or Core Team members are on-site at all times the shelter is open.

We work with Community Paramedics to address health needs.

We welcome volunteers from all walks.

Counterflow LLC is supporting this initiative with participatory program design, leadership meeting facilitation, operations management and policy development, volunteer coordination and appreciation support, recruiting, training, and hiring staff, and empowerment evaluation/reporting.

Those in need of shelter who face barriers to traditional shelters may visit us in-person at 27 Balm Grove Ave, between 11am-2pm Monday through Friday. You may also use the “referral” button on our webpage to make a referral.