Our History

Aura Home Women Vets Founder Alyce Knaflich

Alyce Knaflich does not look like a dynamo women veterans’ rights organizer, but this determined woman has challenged the United States Veterans Administration’s policy on focusing on male veteran’s needs at the expense of women veterans head on.  An Army veteran herself, Alyce has experienced firsthand the wide spread experiences shared by women veterans leaving the services with minimal counseling and support the minute they are discharged.  She has survived Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and homelessness, turning these experiences into a drive to help other women veterans navigate the maze preventing them from receiving full benefits due to them.

In founding Aura Home Women Vets, Alyce was told at every turn “You can’t do this” which only inspired her to try harder.  Now Aura Home Women Vets is a growing non-profit, helping women veterans from all services with housing, counseling, financial guidance across Western North Carolina. 

The National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, a program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, estimates that Buncombe County is home to more than 18,000 veterans; some 2,000 of them are women. During this year’s National Point in Time Count on Jan. 31, the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Initiative counted 554 homeless people, nearly half of whom were veterans.

Homeless women veterans, says Knaflich, tend to be self-reliant, intelligent people with a strong work ethic and a dedication to personal fitness. But posttraumatic stress disorder stemming from such issues as combat, physical assault or other forms of military sexual trauma can wreak havoc with their feeling of being in control, making it even harder for them to ask for help when they need it most. According to the VA’s National Center for PTSD, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 100 men say they’ve experienced sexual trauma in the military.

These experiences can severely undermine a person’s ability to trust. Aura hopes to earn and rebuild that trust. “We’re helping people who’ve served our country,” says Knaflich. “All veterans deserve respect.” To that end, she’s assembled a cadre of dedicated volunteers who are willing to do the heavy lifting, whether it’s cleaning up the building, collecting donations or educating the community.

“When you’re homeless, you don’t have time to think about goals and dreams and schemes,” she says. “Every day becomes another battle for simple survival.”