Aug. 29, 2025
BY JOHN BAILEY
How do 449 and 6,292 and 120,000 relate?
For Catawba County, these are numbers that reflect housing instability in some way.
The Catawba County United Way (CCUW) recently received a $120,000 grant from the United Way of North Carolina.
These funds will be sub-granted back out to three local non-profits who will use the money to help families struggling with housing stability, according to CCUW Executive Director Mark Bumgarner. These agencies include Ashure Ministry in Newton, Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry and The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory.
"Maintaining housing stability is an epidemic for us, so being able to bring these funds to the community and support these agencies is something we're proud to be involved in," Bumgarner said.
According to a recent North Carolina Housing Coalition report, more than 6,292 renters and 7,410 homeowners in Catawba County struggle to afford where they live.
Ashure Ministry Executive Director Kristal Manning said help with rent is the greatest crisis her agency is seeing right now, and this money will provide another resource to address that need.
"Our clients are very humble. They hold off and they think something is going to come through and they're going to get that money to be able to pay that bill, but it doesn’t happen,” Manning said. “Then the next month's bill comes in and they're behind two months at that point.”
The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory runs the only emergency shelter in Catawba County and has seen more families seeking help lately, according to Andrea Beatty, Development Director at The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory. They currently have five families with a total of nine children at The Shelter of Hope.
More than 11,600 individuals were homeless last year in North Carolina, according to data from the 2024 HUD Continuum of Care Homeless count. In Catawba County that number was 449, including 32 families with children, according to the NC Point in Time count data.
"These funds are going to be instrumental in giving them a start with first month rent and deposit to be able to secure a new home and get back on their feet," Beatty said.
Amanda Sowards, interim Executive Director at Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry pointed out that anyone can be at risk of facing a crisis that could lead to housing instability.
In the last three months, NC 211 – United Way of North Carolina’s community resource help line – recorded 31,924 requests for help with housing or shelter with rental assistance being the greatest need with 13,256 requests - https://nc.211counts.org/. Locally, 368 calls were made from Catawba County and again rent led the way with 143 requests.
"It's not necessarily just the homeless who need to get housing," Sowards said. "It's having affordable housing for people going through circumstances that were unforeseen, especially mothers with children who are going through a hard time, who've lost their job and just need a little assistance with a hand up."
In 2024, all three local agencies had a significant impact on helping individuals in crisis.
Ashure Ministry served 5,226 households.
GHCCM provided 64 households with rent help and 68 households help with deposits.
The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory helped 775 individuals with crisis assistance.
To learn more about the Catawba County United Way’s outreach at the link below or call 828-327-6851.
In the photo - from left: CCUW Executive Director Mark Bumgarner, Greater Hickory CCM Interim Executive Director Amanda Sowards, Development Director at The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory Andrea Beatty and Ashure Ministry Executive Director Kristal Manning. Catawba County United Way Photo