On the right path: Pathways celebrates a decade of service to the community
Haywood Pathways Center is located in what used to be a minimum-security state prison. Cory Vaillancourt photo
What started off as a clever idea to address recidivism has grown into something more — a community-driven response to concerning and costly social ills like homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse disorder.
Today, exactly a decade after Haywood Pathways Center was established, thousands of lives have been changed for the better. Although the journey hasn’t always been a smooth one for the Waynesville-based nonprofit, time, transparency and telltale statistics show Pathways to be on the right path towards another decade of service.
Like most clever ideas, Haywood Pathways Center didn’t just materialize overnight. It took a lot of teamwork, a little bit of luck, some celebrity star power and one visionary leader to push the whole thing across the finish line.
A simple, oft-repeated story by that visionary, then-Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher, establishes the motivation for the project.
One day back in 2014, as Christopher was leaving work, he noticed two men sitting outside the sheriff’s office after just regaining their freedom. He asked them what they were up to, and they told him that they had nowhere to go — a recipe for recidivism.
“They have no hope,” Christopher told The Smoky Mountain News in December 2017. “So many of these people that are in our facility [the Haywood County Detention Center] right now, they’re completely away from their family for whatever reason, and have nobody else to reach out to. A lot of times … we’ll find that when they leave here, they will actually go out and commit a crime just to come back for another meal and another bed.”
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Staring over his shoulder at a disused minimum-security state prison closed since 2011, Christopher, a man of deep religious faith, came up with the idea of what would later that year become Pathways.
Teaming up with Next Step Ministries, Open Door and the Haywood Christian Emergency Shelter, Christopher began a community-wide effort to raise funds to renovate the old prison, turning it into something more useful — a Christ-centered “halfway house” of sorts that provides shelter, sustenance and supportive services to Haywood County residents who need a hand up, not a handout.
Near the end of the fundraising process, organizers entered the project into a nationwide contest sponsored by home loan company Guaranteed Rate, along with 321 other projects.
According to reporting from SMN at the time, Pathways’ votes dwarfed the other projects, winning for Christopher’s vision a $50,000 check and an appearance by celebrity carpenter and television personality Ty Pennington, who would help Haywood County “flip this prison.”
“What’s really great about what happened with the prison project is, the sheriff just realized there was such a need,” Pennington told SMN this past July. “He kept seeing the same characters coming back to the jail. That just shows you that it usually takes somebody that’s very familiar with what’s happening in the community and also has a heart and cares about making a difference. I just think it’s outstanding what took place there. You’re talking about taking an abandoned space that really was being underused in so many ways and converting it into something that can really change people’s lives.”
Ty Pennington. HGTV photo
An Atlanta native, Pennington considers himself more of an artist than a tradesman, but his big breakthrough came in 2001 as a carpenter on The Learning Channel’s hit show “Trading Spaces.” In 2003, he was selected as head of an eight-person design team on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” A slew of endorsements and spinoffs ensued, making Pennington one of the most recognizable faces in the country. By the time he ended up in Haywood County, he’d helped renovate or rebuild more than 200 homes — but never a prison.
“The main thing about it was, it was so different,” Pennington said. “I don’t know if anything can compare to that, because it did make such a difference. I mean, people don’t realize how homelessness is really affecting so many people in this country unless they wake up and see it every day outside their door. They just sort of think of it as just numbers and stats.”
Over the course of three days, volunteers from the community put the finishing touches on the shelter, alongside Pennington, who was given the key to the town of Waynesville by then-Mayor Gavin Brown as former Hazelwood Mayor Mary Ann Enloe and then-Rep. Joe Sam Queen looked on with big smiles.
“I love being involved in projects like that, where you’re dealing with the heart of the community,” said Pennington.
Turning the former prison into a residential facility did present its challenges, but in the end, volunteers completed the renovations and Pathways welcomed its first guests on Nov. 15, 2014, just before the cold mountain winter began in earnest.
“Look, the walls might have seen some horrible things in their day,” Pennington said. “But I think everything can be cleansed. Everything can go through a change.”
For about a decade now, Pathways has been known for two things — compassion, and common-sense cost-effectiveness.
Pathways can house up to 32 men and 28 women in segregated dorms, and since 2019, up to 10 small family units with children in another two-story, 5,700 square-foot modular building on campus, known as the family dorm. The expansion pushed Pathways’ capacity to 96 people.
Generally, those seeking admission must be residents of Haywood County or have a substantial connection to the community, like holding down a job in the county. They’ll be drug tested upon entry and cannot be under the influence of intoxicants at that time.
Throughout their stay, guests can expect random drug tests as well as meetings with caseworkers who try to get them the help they need to rejoin productive society. That could be by facilitating substance abuse counseling, mental health treatment, job placement services, transportation, housing, even health care coverage. Guests must follow rules, pitch in with chores and demonstrate a willingness to address the issues that led them to become guests in the first place.
Campus is always open, providing wi-fi, snacks and a place to get out of the weather, but dorms close at 8:30 a.m. and don’t reopen until 4:30 p.m., which encourages residents to remain productive in pursuing their goals. Curfew is at 5:30 p.m., meaning anyone out after that without permission stays out, for good.
Historically, Pathways has served upwards of 275 different individuals each year.
Upwards of 50% are employed — 79% of them full-time — and 72% have a stable income. About 75% of families end up moving into their own housing, while more than 60% of single individuals do the same (see MOYNIHAN).
Aside from the Hurlburt Johnson Friendship House in Murphy — and a few small, scattered residential programs as well as several underfunded domestic violence shelters — Pathways is the only place west of Asheville servicing this particular population on such a scale.
“Over the last 10 years, we provided over 150,000 nights of shelter and over 400,000 meals,” said Mandy Haithcox, executive director of Pathways since 2017. “If you take just the shelter piece, it averages out to about $57 a night per person.”
The $57 figure is far lower than the cost of a night in jail, which is right around $90-100 and is funded solely by taxpayers.
That means that over the past decade, Pathways has provided nearly $8.5 million in shelter services at nearly no cost to taxpayers. Waynesville town government had in the past made small grants to nonprofits like Pathways but has since scaled back the practice, so it’s been years since Pathways took a nickel from the public purse.
The meal service is more difficult to put a price on; through MANNA FoodBank in Asheville, Pathways picks up an astonishing 500 to 800 pounds of donated food each day at Publix, although about 5% of donated food does come from individuals like when a local farmer and his son recently dropped off hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of fresh, locally-grown potatoes.
Well organized and well stocked, the pantry at Haywood Pathways Center plays a pivotal role in keeping residents healthy, happy and on the right path. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Most of it gets stored in the kitchen’s walk-in freezer and refrigerator, as well as in the dry goods pantry. From there, it’s used for breakfasts, snacks and nightly dinners that are usually prepared by volunteer cook teams of 5-15 people. Separate, family-style portions are reserved for the family dorm and there’s always a small number of plates saved for those who won’t return from work until after dinnertime, but a certain number of to-go meals are also reserved, when available, for pickup by people who aren’t residents of Pathways.
There’s almost always a surplus of food at Pathways, giving rise to its aptly named pay-what-you-can “Holy Cow Food Truck,” which meets needy folks where they are, all across Haywood County, with hot meals and cold drinks.
Even more of the surplus ends up being redistributed to other local food pantries, like Waynesville’s Grace Church in the Mountains, making Pathways a vital part of the local ecosystem of nonprofits serving people who are experiencing food insecurity.
But that ecosystem has occasionally come under attack by those who spread misinformation because they don’t understand what Pathways is, or what it does.
In 2019, some claimed without evidence that Pathways drew unsheltered people to the county or that websites touted Waynesville as a great place to be homeless — if such a place can exist at all.
Others believed that every unsheltered person they saw was somehow affiliated with Pathways.
Still others alleged that law enforcement agencies from other jurisdictions were bussing people into Haywood County in convoys and dropping them off at Pathways.
None of those claims have been proven, and in most cases, stats have completely undercut the allegations. At the conclusion of a 2019 story debunking these claims, and more, SMN offered a $100 reward in the form of a nonprofit donation to the first person who could provide irrefutable evidence of a website directing homeless people to Haywood County or evidence of a Pathways “convoy.”
To date, no one has come forward to claim the reward.
Pathways annual $1 million budget is supported exclusively by donors, particularly from Haywood County’s faith community. A recent downturn in collections, however, had Pathways eyeing its contingency plans last month. According to givingusa.org, charitable contributions in the United States grew 1.9% in 2023, but in reality declined 2.4% due to inflation. Donations were also down in 2022, all of which adds up to a budget crunch for nonprofits across the country.
The first step of the contingency plan was to suspend food truck operations.
The second step of the contingency plan affects some of the county’s most vulnerable residents — single parents (especially but not exclusively women) with children in the family dorm.
The family dorm is the only place like it around, and prevents children from having to be separated from the unhoused adults caring for them.
When Haithcox put out an urgent call for donations, the community responded in typical fashion, and Pathways didn’t have to enact its contingency plan or suspend any services.
“In the last three weeks since that [Aug. 21] press release went out, the community has given over $155,000,” Haithcox said. “It’s been extremely overwhelming and humbling to see that response.”
Mandy Haithcox. File photo
Of particular import in that fundraising drive was the 29 new monthly donors who set up recurring contributions in varying amounts totaling $11,180 each month — dependable revenue that gives some semblance of predictability to cash flow.
Haithcox said that the recent influx of donations has Pathways on solid footing through Thanksgiving, however the long-term viability of the institution, which subsists on a fickle funding stream, may soon prompt an exploration of other revenue sources.
By the end of its second decade, Pathways will have likely provided around $20 million in free services to county residents.
Pennington said Pathways’ impact on the community — specifically, on families — will likely be its legacy.
“With a project like that, you forget that it’s not just one family you’re helping. There are so many individuals with so many different stories that come in, and if they can get their life back on track, the relationship they’re going to have with their sons or daughters, the relationship they’re going to have with their family that had been shattered and lost before will be reconnected,” he said. “The joy, the happiness that spreads, it affects an entire family, and that can affect an entire community.”
You can help
For more than a decade, Haywood Pathways Center has provided essential services for some of Haywood County’s most vulnerable citizens — all without using taxpayer money. Although Pathways had received a few very small grants from municipalities in the past, that funding hasn’t been available for some time, meaning Pathways continues to subsist entirely on the goodwill of churches, corporate partners and individual donors. You can help Pathways continue its mission by volunteering, by making a tax-deductible contribution or by gifting some of the common items listed on their “ needs list,” like backpacks, laundry detergent and razors. Visit haywoodpathwayscenter.org/how-can-i-help to learn more.
