ASHEVILLE – On Thanksgiving eve, Noah Laycock, 3, runs around the south Asheville former Gold’s Gym location with a blissful ease. His long blond hair swallows up his face as he sits with Jean “Mama J” Gibbs, who watches as little Noah’s brothers and sister run around a yoga studio full of cots, pillows, food and clothes.
Two months after Tropical Storm Helene displaced them from where they were staying at the Tunnel Road Super 8, the Laycock family home could be found in the back of the defunct Gold’s Gym location off of Hendersonville Road. A former yoga studio in the back of the gym has been converted into a room full of cots, pillows and a has a small TV for Levine’s children.
Noah Laycock, 3, exits his family’s room at the Gold’s Gym shelter for those displaced by Tropical Storm Helene.
Operated by nonprofit Western North Carolina Rescue Ministries, shelter services are expected to end on Dec. 31. It was one of the first shelter’s opened in response to the storm, and its residents are still figuring out where to go next.
In total, 48 people remain checked in at the 150-bed shelter at the former Gold’s Gym, shelter director Stacy Hayden said. Many are still searching for where they’ll go next. As shelter residents search for what’s next, they’ve also formed community.
Gibbs and Shana Levine did not know each other before entering the storm shelter. Now, Levine’s seven children — Nicholas, Malachi, Izick, Kyra, Levi, Shawn and Noah — are so familiar with her that their children hug her neck, sit on her wheelchair and watch on as she plays games on her phone. When the family leaves, they plan on “staying together” with her.
Jean “Mama J” Gibbs in her wheelchair as Nicholas, Shawn, Malachi, Noah and Levi Laycock surround her in their temporary home in a former Gold’s Gym yoga studio.
While the family has obtained temporary housing — a camper donated to the family — the camper is located in Waynesville and pulls her children away from their friends in Buncombe County, where they’ve settled into schools. In a way, the move is so big that the yoga studio still feels like the “safe” home, she said.
“It’s almost safer to stay here. We have showers. We have food.” Levine said. The family’s vehicle is “unreliable,” so driving out even 45 minutes may require some big changes, she said.
Shana Levine stands with her kids, Levi, Izick, Kyra and Shawn Laycock in their temporary home in the Gold’s Gym shelter off of Hendersonville Road.
Though she expects the family to be out of the shelter by Christmas, Thanksgiving will likely look like spending time with the “family” that they’ve made at the shelter, she said. The shelter plans on providing a full Thanksgiving meal, Hayden said.
Because her kids haven’t traditionally enjoyed some food at the shelter, she might also ask others to help provide a Thanksgiving meal.
“I thought about putting it on Facebook if anyone had leftovers,” Levine said of her Thanksgiving plans.
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An escape from floodwaters, and now an uncertain future
A pattern of similar stories emerges from those who’ve bonded at the Gold’s Gym. Like the Laycock family, Gibbs and her partner, Becca “Mama B” Clark, Helene took everything from them.
Camping near the French Broad River just below Hillcrest Apartments, the couple had lost everything when the river rose into a nearly 25-foot-high torrent on Sept. 27. When the pair escaped the rapids, they were taken to the Western North Carolina Agricultural center, one of the first shelters available in the days after the storm. Around two weeks ago, that shelter closed and the couple moved to the Gold’s Gym site.
Becca “Mama B” Clark presents a piece of art she made during her stay at the Gold’s Gym shelter.
“The water kept rising, and they had to whitewater rescue us,” Clark said. Within a few days, the couple went from “two people and a dog” to having enough to sustain the both of them. They met the Laycock family and the kids “just fell in love” with the couple, Gibbs. Their street “Mama J” and “Mama B” street names come from trying to talk to everyone they meet with respect and love, she said.
“I mean, sometimes people need that — What do you call it? That love. That love that parent can give you,” Gibbs said, taking a beat.
“Unconditional love,” she continued.
Their problem, however, remains figuring out where they’ll live next. The hope is that a camper or RV becomes available so that she can go visit her children in Louisiana, Clark said.
The alternative is camping — something both Clark and Gibbs are “terrified” to go back to.
A cot lays empty at the Gold’s Gym shelter off of Hendersonville Road in Asheville. The shelter is the last for those displaced by Tropical Storm Helene and will close on Dec. 31.
WNC Rescue Ministries director: ‘We know that this ends’
Western North Carolina Rescue Ministries Director Micheal Woods said that the status of those remaining in the shelter is primarily one that is challenged by the lack of housing, a problem exacerbated by the storm.
As such, Woods said his staff, along with partners at Buncombe County and the city of Asheville, are “laser focused” on figuring out individual solutions for those remaining at the shelter. To find the housing, it’s a race against time.
“We know that this ends the 31st of December,” Woods said. Current goals prioritize finding shelter residents “safe housing, safe shelter and a safe location” to go to after the end of the year, he said. Given limited space, many can’t bring their belongings to one of the area homeless shelters.
For families, the problem is a lack of housing units.
“For a family of that size, you just don’t have your large units come available that quickly, so you’re limited on those type of things,” Woods said of the Laycock family.
Scott Cicchetti poses with a piece of art he made during his stay at the Gold’s Gym shelter off of Hendersonville Road.
Artist at work in Asheville shelter
Scott Cicchetti, an Asheville-area artist, lost his room at the Tunnel Road motel. He called the experience “traumatizing” and resulted in the prints he planned to sell being destroyed.
But since losing his art and art supplies, some have taken note of his intricate, detailed charcoal and color pencil drawings. Some will come by, without him noticing, and watch as he sketches in a spiral notebook that was gifted to him. Clark also started making art during her time at the shelter, but commented that Cicchetti was “better.”
His plans are to live with a friend after the shelter closes. He plans on spending Thanksgiving with the friends he’s made at the shelter.
“I’m going to take this to the end,” Cicchetti said of staying at the Gold’s Gym. “And when I have to leave, a friend of mine is getting his house back together and has invited me to stay with him.”
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Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Consider supporting this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Helene recovery: Asheville Gold’s Gym shelter residents face deadline
