Belonging
People who know them.
The same faces at breakfast. Somebody who notices when a day is going badly, because they were there for the last one.
Licensed family care home · Buncombe County, NC
A place to live. A place to belong.
Living Waters runs five licensed family care homes in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Up to six people live in each one — which means familiar faces, real relationships, and a house where everybody is known.
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More than care
This is home.
Care here doesn’t happen down a long hallway or behind a nurses’ station. It happens around the kitchen table, on the front porch, in an afternoon conversation, and in the ordinary relationships that make a house feel like one.
With six people in a home, the person who brings your coffee in the morning is the person who brought it yesterday, and last year, and knows you take it black.
That is the difference at Living Waters.
Our homes
Five houses. Up to six people in each.
The scale of the thing
Six people. One house.
In a large facility you are one of ninety. Here, six people share a kitchen table and the same few faces every morning.
Not a wing, not a hall, not a floor.
That isn’t a smaller version of care. In this work, it is the care.
A larger facility90
Ninety residents. Rotating staff. A wing, a hall, a floor.
A family care home6
Six people, one kitchen table, and the same face every morning.
Who lives here
A community where everyone has a place.
The people who call Living Waters home come from different backgrounds, different stages of life and different circumstances. What they share is something all of us want.
Everyday life
A part to play in the house.
Meals made in a kitchen you are allowed to stand in. Jobs worth doing. An afternoon that belongs to you.
Dignity
A life that is still yours
Somewhere safe to live, and no requirement to become a smaller person in order to live there.
In practice
Living Waters is a home for people who need one.
Most of the people who live here were told, somewhere along the way, that there wasn’t room for them.
There’s room here.
- Older adults who need somebody nearby, but not a nursing home
- Adults living with serious mental illness — often people leaving a hospital with nowhere to go
- Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Adults living with a brain injury
- People in their forties and fifties on disability — not everyone here is old
A day at Living Waters
Life happens here.
At Living Waters, every day is about creating the comfort, rhythm, and familiarity of home.
- Coffee in the morning.
- Breakfast around the table.
- Your favorite show in the front room.
- Appointments, errands, outings.
- Dinner together.
- Family visits.
- A quiet evening at home.
We believe a meaningful life is built through everyday moments like these.
Where to start
Whoever you are and whatever brought you here, there is a short way in.
01
I’m looking for a home for someone.
What it costs, what the first week looks like, how to come and see it.
Start here
02
I need to place someone this week.
Open rooms, funding accepted, who we can and can’t serve. We answer on weekends.
Availability & referrals
03
I’m looking for work.
Bring your children. Live where you work. Text to apply — no résumé needed.
Work with us
Here, everyday moments are what matter most.
Our people
Familiar faces make a difference.
Good care starts with relationships, and relationships need time. When caregivers stay, they learn somebody’s routines. They notice when a day feels different. They know what makes someone laugh, and what a good day looks like.
So we try to make this a place where our team can build a life too.
- Familiar faces and consistent care that build trust over time
- A family friendly environment where caregivers may bring their children to work
- Optional housing opportunities that provide additional support and stability
When we care for the people who care for our residents, everyone at Living Waters benefits.
Why we do it differently
Two things about this place that surprise people.
Neither is marketing. Each started as a practical answer to a real problem, and each turned out to be good for the people who live here.
01
Our caregivers bring their children to work.
Child care falling through at six in the morning was the most common reason a shift went uncovered. So we stopped making people choose. What we didn’t expect was what it did to the houses.
Why we do it differently
02
Our staff can live where they work.
[Asheville] is an expensive place to live and caregiving does not pay like one. That isn’t a complaint, it’s arithmetic. Housing is an option here, never a requirement.
Work hereThe numbers are public. Almost nobody knows them.
What North Carolina pays for a person to have a home.
In 2026, Special Assistance pays a maximum of $1,397 a month for an eligible resident’s room and board. That covers the room, the utilities, three meals and snacks, the laundry, and a house with staff awake in it around the clock.
$0per day, per person
A budget motel room costs more than that. It doesn’t come with dinner.
SA rate from the NC DHHS Special Assistance Manual, January 2026. Assisted living and nursing home medians from 2025 CareScout survey data.
What it actually looks like
A porch, a drive, and the hills behind.
Connected to the community
Home isn’t only what happens inside four walls.
The people who live in our homes should stay connected to the people, places and relationships around them. Family visits. Time outside. Holidays and birthdays. Appointments kept and errands run. Conversations with neighbours.
They are not separate from the community. They are part of it.
An ordinary Tuesday
Hour by hour, this is the shape of it.
Breakfast at the table, off plates. Somebody’s show at ten. The kids home from school at quarter past three. And a light on all night.
6:30Coffee’s on. [Name] is usually the first one up, and has been for [N] years.
7:30Breakfast at the table. Everybody eats together, off plates, at a table. No trays.
8:00Morning medications.
10:00[Somebody’s show] is on in the front room.
12:00Lunch.
3:15The kids get home from school and do homework at the kitchen table.
5:30Dinner.
Evening[TV, cards, phone calls home, somebody on the porch]
OvernightSomebody is awake. Every night, all night, in the house.
Room right now
Call us — availability changes faster than this page does.
Come and look
The best way to understand Living Waters is to walk into one.
Photographs and words can introduce you to our homes. Coming through the front door tells you far more. Any day, no appointment — walk through the whole house, meet whoever is on shift, and ask us anything you want.
A person answers — including weekends