Room in the Inn

By Sarah Williams –

Room in the Inn is Homeward Bound’s most community-driven program.

Homeward Bound was founded in 1998 as Hospitality House, and its hospitality to the homeless has become a national model.

The Room in the Inn program has attracted over 2,000 volunteers from 53 faith communities that provide shelter for up to a dozen women at a time. Each week a different congregation opens its doors to welcome the women as guests, providing a warm, safe place for the women to live as they move forward to permanent housing.

The primary goal is to keep women without homes from sleeping on the street and risking their safety. The long-term, greater goal is to build caring, supportive relationships with them one week at a time.

Though other communities have copied and adapted the Asheville model, the local program has tailored its services to serve the ladies in a way that satisfies the Asheville staff, volunteers, and faith communities. The present-day program was started in 2001 by a few women with a vision. For years it was volunteer-run with an active steering committee, but in 2010 the committee decided to take it to the next level, asking Homeward Bound to manage it. Their goal was to move Room in the Inn away from being a shelter to a program that provides solutions for the women it serves. It focuses on case management and working with them to move to permanent housing

The twelve women who are housed by the faith communities are emotionally stable, not currently affected by drugs or alcohol, and willing to abide by the rules of the program. The rules prohibit drinking, smoking in the building, weapons, drugs, fighting and foul language or abuse. Because the rules are obeyed, a safe environment is assured for the women and the faith community volunteers.

At 6 p.m. each evening, faith community volunteers pick up the women at Homeward Bound and transport them to their host congregation, where they have dinner provided and prepared by volunteers. The women sleep in the congregation’s building on mattresses owned by Homeward Bound. Two volunteers stay with the women overnight, and in the morning, the host congregation provides a simple breakfast and a snack lunch for the women to take with them.

At 7 a.m., the host congregation takes the women back to Homeward Bound where they spend the day going to appointments, connecting with other community agencies, seeking employment, and receiving case management services from the Room in the Inn director.

Beth Russo is Homeward Bound’s Director of Communication and Annual Campaign. She has been with the organization since 2013. Her role is to communicate to the public the work that is being done by Homeward Bound to end homelessness, as well as to raise funds for the organization. She loves working with Homeward Bound because they meet people where they are and give them practical means to get off the streets and out of shelters and into a permanent home. Safe and decent housing is an area of interest for her. She has also worked for Habitat for Humanity.

Beth says, “Every day I hear stories from people just like you and me, except they happen to be living without a home. Homelessness affects children and families, people with illnesses, and veterans. We can end homelessness for them by simply providing a house and support.

Sharon Blythe, Room in the Inn Director, does her job out of passion. She began as a faith community coordinator, though she had no experience with homelessness. But after her first experience hosting the women, she was hooked. In December 2004 she was invited to become the Room in the Inn Advisory Board chair, and in October 2009, after leaving a 22-year career as a paralegal, she began her job with Homeward Bound as director and case manager for Room in the Inn.

Sharon said, “I am passionate about Homeward Bound and Room in the Inn, because we all believe that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and that housing is an absolute right. No one should be sleeping under a bridge, under a porch, or behind a building. As the director and case manager for the phenomenal women who pass through Room in the Inn, it is my hope that I can provide at least one part of the support system that they need to move from being homeless to permanently housed. We can end homelessness in our community one person at a time.”