Current AHN Projects

Interested in helping with any projects?

Have a project idea? Get in touch with us through our Contact's page.

AHN Meetings, every Thursday at 2 pm
May include "support group meeting" as requested

Advocacy, including help with SSI/SSDI Applications

Camping Equipment: Got an extra tent or sleeping bag? Donate it to AHN! We'll find someone who needs it.

Still In The Works

We need your help to implement these items:

Adopt A Homeless Person: a project that connects a homeless person with a local faith or secular group that provides resources and services toward helping the individual with their needs and meet their goals.

Tent City: Seattle has one; Indianapolis has one. Both are set up on unused City property. We will be approaching the City of Asheville and Buncombe County Commissioners about this project. We also have, in the past year, had property owners willing to let us set up tents on their property in exchange for helping them clear it, build structures and/or landscape the property. Information has already been presented to Robin Cape and Brian Freeborn, new City Council members; we hope to move on this during the Summer of 2006.

Tickets for Tenters: The police in Asheville and the sheriff's office in Buncombe County have been pretty rude to us. In the past, they could destroy our campsites; we have pointed out to them that this is felony destruction of property, and to the best of our current knowledge, they have stopped doing this. (Let us know if you are aware of incidents of this kind.)

What we propose is to print up stick-on labels, about 1/4 page in size, that the police would put on our tents/property, stating that we are camped illegally and have 24 or 48 hours to vacate the premises. Have them treat us like the real citizens we are, not just throwaway people.

We have met with the new Police Commissioner, and are assured that he is changing the attitudes of the entire department. We look forward to working with the Asheville Police in the future -- attitudes on both sides of this issue need changing.

Homeless Handcart: The City no longer sells street vendor licenses -- except for the Handcart Vendor License. This license is for vendors such as hot dog salesmen, but is not limited to food sales. After discussion with Charlotte Kaplan of the City's Community Development office, AHN learned that the fee for this license will be dropping on January 31, 2006, from $125 per year to $75 per year. Asheville Homeless Network has budgeted to purchase one of these licenses, and will rent, buy, or build a proper handcart. We will then be selling the handcrafts of our individual members from this cart, keeping only enough from the sale to keep the license, handcart repairs as needed, and supplies as needed; the rest of the proceeds will go to the artisan.

Job Bank: Does Labor Ready or Labor Finders take too much of what you've earned? We'd like to start our own Job Bank, with AHN keeping a much smaller percentage of your earnings. This one will take a lot of work, so we need a lot of workers; please contact AHN to help.