Housing & Houselessness

Spend time with organizations that work to create a strong safety net for people experiencing houselessness, develop sustainable solutions to the challenges of houselessness, and fight for decent affordable housing.

A Home On Campus

The opportunities for engaging in the Housing & Houselessness Issue Area begins here on our very own campus, where you’ll partner with our Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church to host Room in the Inn. Room in the Inn is a mobile shelter for women experiencing houselessness, and you’ll connect and spend time with the women who find their home for a week on our campus.

A Home Away From Home

Your engagement in housing and houselessness issues extends off-campus as well. Your off-campus opportunities might include experiences like:

  • AHOPE: Support the work of AHOPE day shelter by assisting with weekly tasks
  • Habitat for Humanity: Participate over break with a sports team engaging in a regional build or work with a work crew for a one day local build
  • Beloved Community: Engage with a local intentional community working to build resources for people experiencing poverty and houselessness

While you make your home at Warren Wilson, you will actively seek ways to help others find theirs.

Gimme Shelter 

Creative writing alumnus and staff writer for local newspaper Mountain Xpress, Max Hunt ’11 brings attention to the housing crisis in Asheville. At Wilson, Max participated in a Housing Insecurity service project and workshop, where he worked closely with several local agencies and the houseless population.

beds
Work Day

Community Partner: Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound is a nonprofit agency working that ends houselessness by moving people into permanent housing and providing the support that they need to stay there. Homeward Bound began in 1988 as Hospitality House. In 2006, Hospitality House became Homeward Bound of WNC, and shifted its focus from managing houselessness with shelter to ending houselessness with permanent housing, utilizing the best practice model of Housing First.

Food plate

Taking Initiative

Students in SWK 2010 collaborated with Asheville Poverty Initiative to facilitate a Realities of Poverty event. The event stimulated conversations about local poverty with the Buncombe County and Warren Wilson College communities, and highlighted the realities of poverty to help eradicate the stigmas of living in poverty. The event was followed by a free, shared meal and collective reflection about next steps for action.