News

School Board member asks county commissioners to stop funding Only Hope

School Board member Amy Lynn Holt speaks during Wednesday’s county commissioner’s meeting.

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 20, 2025

Citing cease and desist letters sent from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to the now criminally charged founder and operator of a shelter for homeless teenagers, Henderson County School Board member Amy Lynn Holt on Wednesday urged county commissioners to stop funding the shelter.
Holt, who is also a member of the county’s department of social services board, said that while she understood county funding for Only Hope WNC was paused after the recent arrest of Michael Lee Absher, she would not support any further funding for the shelter.
“The major reason for that is that Only Hope has never had approval from DSS to place minors in their possession,” Holt told commissioners during their regular monthly meeting. “They were not and never were allowed or approved as a licensed facility to keep children there. I don’t feel as a Henderson County taxpayer that our dollars need to be going to support an organization that has no business and no license in taking care of minors.”
Absher, a former school board member himself, was the operator of Only Hope when he was charged in July with sexually assaulting boys at the shelter.
He remained in Henderson County’s detention facility on Wednesday under a $650,000 secured bond.
Commissioners did not respond to Holt’s comments during the meeting.
In an interview after the meeting, Bill Lapsley, the chairman of the board of commissioners, said he understood Holt’s frustration.
He also said he did not know about the letters Holt referenced from the state directing Absher to cease and desist from operating Only Hope.
In a letter from North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services dated June 20, 2017, the state’s child welfare agency said it had determined that Only Hope was operating as an unlicensed child placing agency as well as operating as an unlicensed residential child care facility serving children younger than 18.
The letter quotes state law that requires a license to operate a residential care facility for children before telling Absher to obtain a license or stop operating the facility.
“This letter serves as notice to immediately cease and desist from operating as a Child Placing Agency and Residential Care Facility in North Carolina until a license is obtained,” according to the 2017 DHHS letter. “If Only Hope WNC continues to operate as a Child Placing Agency and Residential Care Facility without obtaining proper licensure, the Division of Social Services will take legal action.”
In response to the cease-and-desist letter from DHHS, Michael Edney, who is the current vice chair of the board of commissioners and was the board’s chair at the time, wrote Absher a letter dated Oct. 18, 2017.
In the letter, Edney said that the board had requested in August that year that Absher inform the county when he received proper state licensing for Only Hope to ensure funding for the organization in 2018.
Edney’s letter quotes Absher’s response.
“We subsequently received a letter from Only Hope in which you stated that ‘at this time, all investigations have been closed, and we are currently not under any open investigations or corrective actions with DSS or DHHS. Only Hope has not and will not provide ‘foster care’ or operate a ‘residential child care facility’ as defined in the June 20,2017 letter DHHS (referencing G.S. 131D-10.2).’”
Edney’s letter to Absher then said that DHHS could not confirm the assertions he made about the operations of Only Hope.
As a result, Edney’s letter goes on to say the county would withhold grant funding from Only Hope until it received verifiable information that the shelter had a proper license or did not provide services that required a license.
DHHS sent a similar cease and desist letter to Absher in 2019.
In a letter dated May 21, 2019, DHHS told Absher it had information that he admitted to housing homeless children and that the average stay was four or five months. The letter asks Absher to inform them within 10 days if the statements attributed to him were inaccurate.
The 2019 letter referenced the 2017 warning before again telling Absher to cease and desist from operating a shelter without a license. The 2019 letter also warned Absher that under state law he could also face criminal charges for operating the shelter without a license.
“If Only Hope WNC, Inc. continues to operate, establish or provide foster care for children without a license or receive and place children in a Residential Child Care Facility without obtaining appropriate licensure, the Division of Social Services will seek appropriate legal action,” according to the 2019 letter.
Attempts to reach DHHS for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Holt, in an interview after the meeting on Wednesday, said she did not know why DHHS did not follow up on the letters they sent to Absher.
“I wish I knew that. It’s absolutely insane. They failed our children,” she said. “I want an investigation opened up to see how this happened and how we can ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Absher was successful in the years after founding Only Hope in persuading local governments and other grantors to appropriate money to support its operations. In the budget it adopted in June, the board of commissioners approved $35,000 to Only Hope.
The Board of Directors of Only Hope WNC Inc. removed Absher from “all positions of authority” and banned him from the organization's home for teen-aged boys, which is also Absher’s residence, the nonprofit said in a statement Monday.
The move came after authorities charged Absher in recent weeks with numerous sexual offenses involving children.
Absher was charged in July with two counts of statutory sexual offense against a child 15 or younger. Detectives with Henderson County Sheriff’s Office later charged him with seven counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, court records show.
Sheriff's deputies executed a search warrant at the Only Hope building, which is also Absher's residence, on July 31, at which time he was detained, searched and arrested. Deputies executed other search warrants for Absher’s cellphone and the cellphone of one of his alleged victims.
In her statements to commissioners, Holt told commissioners on Wednesday said she had been concerned about Absher for a long time.
“I have long been speaking out against Michael Absher since 2017 and the fact that he had no business around minors,” she said. “I realize the board has just separated from him, but that still does not curb the fact that they have no license to have minors within their care.”