Asheville's Ramada Inn shelter closes to homeless; 25 residents left without housing

ASHEVILLE - Come 10 a.m. March 31, it's check-out time for shelter residents at Ramada Inn in River Ridge.

"Everyone's known it was coming," said one resident, Eric Hall, the day before the deadline. "We were looking at the hourglass all year long."

For most, it's been a year seeking refuge in the shelter, which was opened in April 2021 as a "crisis response" by the city, according to Emily Ball, homeless services system performance lead for the city.

While about a third of the hotel's residents secured permanent housing over the course of their stay, including reconnecting with friends and family, Ball said the morning of March 30, about 25 people will be left without housing options.

Related: 'Nowhere to go,' says Asheville's Ramada Inn shelter director of struggle to rehouse residents

While she hopes all of them will not end up back on the street, it's likely that many will.

Among those are Atea Hopper and Chad Hannon, who said they have been residents at the Ramada for about 10 months.

Hannon has been struggling to escape homelessness for two and a half years, he said, after the death of his mother, whom he left his job to care for, sent him spiraling into depression, without housing or support.

After check-out at the Ramada, Hannon said he will be "forced back to the streets" without a way forward or somewhere to lay his head.

More: Asheville considers 11 bids for homelessness consultant, HIAC forms Code Purple work group

“I feel like I’m worse off than when I got here,” Hannon said. He came to the Ramada because he was promised housing, a chance for stability, and "now I’m out here looking for the next spot to camp at."

Atea Hopper, his fiancé, has also been homeless since 2018, and said she's been in and out of shelters, "trying to get back on my feet."

“Every time it seems like there might be a little light at the end of the tunnel, I get knocked back two more steps,” she said.

City staff anticipate a rise in the numbers of unsheltered individuals in January's Point in Time count, data that will be released in late April.

The 2021 Point in Time count identified 527 people experiencing homelessness in Asheville, 116 of which were unsheltered.

Related: Asheville Homeless Services: Increase in city unsheltered population expected after count

Transitioning the Ramada to permanent supportive housing

Initially intending to pursue a permanent high-access emergency shelter at the Ramada, Asheville City Council abandoned those plans in December, approving the transfer of the hotel's purchase rights for the property on Dec. 14.

Following the reversal, new plans for the property emerged and Asheville leadership announced an alternative to turn the hotel into "permanent supportive housing" using partnerships with two California-based companies — nonprofit Step Up on Second Street Inc., and for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries.

Eighty people were housed at the property at the time of the announcement.

Salary database: Asheville has highest turnover in 5 years. Why did city staff leave, what do they make?

Nikki Reid, director of community and economic development, said Shangri-La's acquisition will be finalized in the coming weeks.

“That’s one of the bright spots that we have," Reid said. "It’s not just that the shelter is closing, but we were able to transfer the property to (Shangri-La) to be transitioned to permanent supportive housing."

She said the city is working to acknowledge the complexity of the hotel's closure, while also focusing on the positive outcomes for many of its residents and the impending 115 units of supportive housing coming to the Ramada.

Though the timeline is flexible, she said once Shangri-La closes on the property and has permits in hand, construction can commence. It will take about 12 months for the units to come online.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, council also authorized the city to enter in a funding agreement with Step Up in the amount of $1.5 million.

This would fund three years of supportive housing at Ramada, at $500,000 annually, to provide onsite case management and services.

'This is Chapter 1'

A complicated housing situation left Hall homeless in August 2020. It was something he never expected — spending days at Pritchard Park, waking up in a sleeping bag covered in 8 inches of snow, or camping in Riverbend Park, a patch of greenspace behind the East Asheville Walmart off of I-240.

City: Homeless camps at Riverbend Park and near Isaac Dickson must go

It's there that he was taken to the Ramada by the city — as were Hopper and Hannon who said they were camping behind the Walmart when they were offered a place to stay.

Initially intended as temporary shelter, Ball said the shelter at the Ramada was a direct response to growing encampments in the city during the pandemic that were on the verge of being cleared.

She said 100% of the people who were offered a room accepted.

Hall said the residents at the Ramada, while not without hardships, became close. He spearheaded the formation of the Ramada Resident Council and called his room the "Zen lounge," somewhere people could come to air their troubles, problem solve or talk.

“It’s lonely, that’s why we became a family,” he said.

Hall has been offered a position by Shangri-La to stay onsite as security and help coordinate site visits, and Reid said this was one example of the organization working to be a good community partner.

“It’s not a 'homeless guy got thrown a bone' story," Hall said. "I’ve been and am a professional.”

Asheville council retreat: affordable housing, homelessness among top priorities

Sitting at a picnic table outside of the Ramada the day before the shelter's closure, he said the city and Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, the nonprofit charged with overseeing the Ramada and its residents, have been incredibly supportive and are not at fault for the shelter's closure.

He asked that people look beyond the stereotype of homelessness, and said solutions will take more involvement and understanding from the community "outside the fence," which he called the world beyond the Ramada.

"It's nothing that's going to be changed or fixed in a minute. It's going to take coming together," Hall said.

"It’s not over by any means. This is the beginning of a very large book. This is Chapter 1.”

What's next?

Though Ball said she shared the frustrations of those residents left without housing, she acknowledged that positive things have come out of Ramada's year as an emergency shelter option.

For many residents, that means positive exits, reconnecting with family, getting their name on a housing waitlist or securing IDs, birth certificates or work.

The issue, Ball said, is the community's capacity to provide housing options. Either Asheville does not have an intervention that is needed, or it does and that intervention does not have the capacity.

Asheville Mayor: Homelessness 'crisis' signals need for outside consultant, RFPs now open

“The work of ending homelessness is both systematic and very, very individualized," she said.

Ultimately, the shelter allowed the city to provide shelter at a "large scale" for a "long time" she said, and gave the city a foundation moving forward, and knowledge of what interventions are most necessary.

Ashley Lung, with Sunrise, was the shelter coordinator for 10 months. Though she left that position to become Sunrise's Justice Peer Supervisor, she returned for the shelter's final days.

“I started this with them, so I kind of wanted to see it out," Lung said.

On its final day, residents without housing were being equipped with tents, sleeping bags and a bus pass for the month of April. Lung said Sunrise workers were encouraging them to "stay on the path" and connected with their Homeward Bound caseworkers.

One solution, she said, is true emergency shelter in Asheville, a vision the city wants to see happen, according to Lung.

Currently, the city is working to hire a consultant who will conduct a comprehensive analysis of unsheltered homelessness and develop recommendations. High-access shelter could be among those recommendations.

In the meantime, Hopper and Hannon said they don't know where to go.

“As soon as Thursday gets here, they’re going to treat us like we’re trespassing,” Hannon said. “If we have to go back outside, than so be it ... (I) just didn’t like the fact that you could help some, but not help everyone.”

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: East Asheville's Ramada Inn homeless shelter operation ends March 31