Hurricane Helene Response
Support Hurricane Helene Long-Term Recovery
The road to recovery is long. We will need all your hearts, hands, and gifts in the months and years to come. Follow the link below to see how you can play a pivotal role in helping Asheville Habitat and our community recover and rebuild.
Disaster Home Repair
Are you a low-income homeowner in Buncombe or Madison County with storm-damage and in need of disaster repairs? If you are in need of home repairs due to Hurricane Helene damage, and unable to afford them, follow the link below to see if Habitat or another ARCHR (Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair) partner organization can help.
About ARCHR
The Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair (ARCHR) is a collaborative of organizations that provide home repairs and modifications to Buncombe and Madison County residents. The Coalition seeks to increase communication and collaboration among organizations to decrease burden on clients and service seekers.
The Coalition maintains an online database that allows for communication regarding cases as well as facilitates referrals among the various partners. Employing a unified assessment process, our goal is to provide comprehensive and efficient repairs to Buncombe and Madison County residents in need.
2026
$1 million combined goal
ARCHR launches $1M fundraising campaign with lead gift from Deerfield
ARCHR set a five-week public goal of $500,000, paired with a $500,000 Deerfield leadership gift. Residents raised $100,000 and the Deerfield Charitable Foundation provided a four-to-one match.
16 teams · 6,500 estimated hours
Volunteers from across the country flock to Asheville to build homes
Since 2005, Thrivent, a holistic financial services organization, and its clients have contributed more than $282 million and nearly 6.4 million volunteer hours to Habitat around the world. Here in Asheville, Thrivent volunteers are estimated to contribute 6,500 hours in 2026.
$300,000 · about 10 jobs
Asheville Christian Academy donates $300,000 to ARCHR
The gift supports disaster home repair for low-income families in Swannanoa and is expected to fund approximately ten jobs. Seven project contracts were already signed and in various stages of completion.
2025
189 ARCHR repair jobs
ARCHR completes 189 disaster repair jobs in 2025
Coalition capacity grew through partnership development and specialized subcontractors. Asheville Habitat completed 116 disaster repairs, and 73 additional repair projects were completed region-wide by partners through the Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair.
216 families served
Asheville Habitat serves 216 local families in 2025
Across homeownership and repair programs, Asheville Habitat served 216 local families. Nineteen families purchased homes, creating stable places for 30 children to grow.
92 jobs complete
One year later
One year on from Hurricane Helene, Asheville Habitat and ARCHR are addressing the critical home repair needs of underinsured and uninsured residents of Buncombe and Madison County affected by storm damage. We are so grateful to all the donors, volunteer, and advocates that have enabled us to meet the moment.
ARCHR Progress
- Applications received: 678
- Applications approved: 591
- Assessments complete: 267
- Jobs complete: 92
Cisco Crisis Response team builds and funds recovery
Noting “a renewed sense of faith in humanity” and feeling “grateful for the experience,” the Cisco Crisis Response Team (CCR) reflected on the experience of building homes with Asheville Habitat for a week. Cisco is also a lead sponsor of ARCHR, funding disaster home repair work in Buncombe and Madison Counties
Traditional Home Repair resumes
After pausing its traditional program to focus on storm-damaged homes, Habitat restarted non-storm-related repairs while ARCHR disaster repairs continued.
Six-month update video: (Re)Building Our Community
Asheville Habitat reflects on six months of recovery and rebuilding after Hurricane Helene.
Gratitude for our sister affiliates
We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of our sister affiliates who have supported us as we work to recover from the impacts of Hurricane Helene. We’re particularly grateful for the support and wisdom from other affiliates who have rebuilt their own communities following disasters.
Support from Habitat affiliates around the country has taken many shapes and come in various forms: merchandise donations for our ReStores, staff to help us reopen, a loaned box truck, cash donations solicited from their own constituents, and proceed checks from Register Round Ups. And we’ll be hosting some of their volunteer teams, too!
Asheville ReStore reopens
We are excited to announce that the Asheville ReStore has reopened! Our organization’s resiliency and the community’s outpouring of support has brought us to where we are today. The AVL ReStore team is thrilled to be reuniting after working at MANNA, at the Weaverville store, or remotely for many months. Stop by the store at 31 Meadow Rd. Tuesday – Saturday from 9 am – 6 pm.
2024
4 homes · 4 families
Four homes completed and closed after the storm
We have completed and closed four homes since September 27, welcoming four families home while construction continues at our Glenn Bridge neighborhood.
Administrative staff return to Meadow Road
With a temporary certificate of occupancy, administrative staff returned to the second story of our Administrative Office at 33 Meadow Road. The Home Repair team is operating out of a space shared by Poder Emma.
Disaster repair applications open
We began accepting applications for no-cost repairs from homeowners with Hurricane Helene damage. Our focus is to help homeowners who don’t have insurance or who are under-insured.
Qualifications for repairs
- Make less than 70% AMI (area median income based on household size)
- Damage must be storm-related
- Must live in Buncombe or Madison Counties
Habitat and MANNA partner
Special partnership forms in the wake of Helene
Read the full update
Asheville Habitat and MANNA FoodBank have been beacons of hope for thousands and thousands of families for more than forty years. Both organizations were hit hard by Hurricane Helene in late September with MANNA’s warehouse and office destroyed completely, and Habitat’s Asheville ReStore and Administrative Office severely damaged. Nonetheless, these two non-profits that the community relies on acted quickly to support the community in its greatest time of need.
Since Helene ravaged the region, some Asheville Habitat staff members served with MANNA in an informal capacity. MANNA also offered some office space in their new Mills River facility to Habitat’s administrative staff currently displaced from their Meadow Rd. property near Biltmore Village. In mid-October, the two agencies signed an agreement that has a number of ReStore staff working at MANNA’s new warehouse through mid-January 2025.
With Habitat’s Asheville ReStore closed indefinitely due to storm damage, CEO Andy Barnett worried there wouldn’t be enough work for all ReStore staff. At the same time, MANNA’s team was stretched thin trying to meet an increased need for food assistance. Barnett and MANNA’s CEO Claire Neal found a great match between Habitat’s ReStore workforce and the food distribution agency’s staffing needs. “MANNA was excited to welcome Habitat’s skilled, mission-aligned team members to help out, and I was thrilled to keep our team intact while we figure out our next steps,” shared Barnett.
A win-win for both agencies, this expanded partnership between two mainstay non-profits benefits not only the agencies, but the community at large. “By adding their multi-skilled staff to our Operations, Volunteer Center, and Community Markets teams, we have been able to expand our collective relief efforts. Together, we stand united in the goal of helping our communities heal and thrive once again,” remarked Neal.
ARCHR and Disaster Home Repair are fast-tracked
Plans for the Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair (ARCHR) were accelerated after Helene. Habitat officially joined forces with other nonprofit repair agencies and launched a Disaster Home Repair program for uninsured and underinsured households.
Hurricane Helene disrupts Habitat operations
Flooding severely damaged the Asheville ReStore, truck fleet, and Administrative Office near Biltmore Village. The Weaverville ReStore remained intact, and there was no widespread damage to Habitat neighborhoods. Some individual homes sustained some damage, but the communities at-large were okay.
