The Homelessness Prevention & Response System

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** Homeless Prevention & Response System
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Weekly Digest


** Anchored Home 2023-2028
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** The Homelessness Prevention & Response System
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The Homelessness Prevention & Response System serves those at risk of or experiencing homelessness to safely housing people.

The Advisory Council’s goal is to establish a complete and comprehensive system of care; addressing and resolving programmatic and systemic gaps in service will help achieve this goal.


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** Prevention
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* Prevention
Serves low-income and extremely vulnerable people about to lose their housing.
* Diversion
Serves people who have lost housing and are facing imminent entry into a shelter or sleeping outside.
* Retention
Ensures that people that previously experienced homelessness and have been placed into permanent housing retain their housing.


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Homelessness Response
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Navigation
* Outreach
* Emergency Shelter
* Transitional Housing

Housing
* Supportive Housing
Combines housing assistance with support services to address the needs of chronically homeless people.
* Rapid Rehousing
Designed to help people quickly exit homelessness & return to housing.
* Independent Affordable Housing
When the occupant pays no more than 30% of gross income for housing.


** We want to hear from you!
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60 day community engagement period ends April 12, 2023

If you have comments or feedback on the Anchored Home plan, please send them to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
View Anchored Home 2023-2028 ([link removed])
ACEH News & Updates

All individuals actively experiencing homelessness [Built for Zero public dashboard ([link removed]) ]


** Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness Monthly Data Report
Takeaways from September 2022 – February 2023
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Since September 2022, the Homelessness Prevention Response System (HPRS) has seen a 28% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness. Why?


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Contributing factors:
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The end of Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) in September of 2022 is contributing to an acceleration of single adults experiencing homelessness for the first time
* As cash infusions end across the US, evictions are up – especially in areas with a severe housing shortage such as Anchorage
* From October 2021-2022, 159 single adults returned to homelessness after previously being housed. Since just September of 2022, 108 single adults have already returned from housing

Increased street outreach is causing a “showing” of data versus a “growing” of data effect
* In January and February of 2023, nearly 90% of those newly “active” came from coordinated entry (CE) and emergency shelter (ES). Since September of 2022, the total share of CE and ES’s contribution to new inflow has increased almost every month since October from around 80%
* Increased street outreach is increasing contacts with people experiencing homelessness who have not yet touched the HMIS system. Some of the new inflow are people who have already been experiencing homelessness and are finally being captured by HMIS
+ Overlapped street outreach numbers are now putting our unsheltered population at roughly 320-350, about 50-60 more than our original estimates before more extensive street outreach

Housing placements in February dropped off significantly, particularly among single adults and veterans, driving more net inflow than usual
* For all individuals, but especially singles and veterans, February 2023 was by far the lowest number of folks housed in a month since July of 2021
* Housing fewer individuals and families results in a greater net inflow into the system


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To put the recent spike into perspective: the number of people actively experiencing homelessness in the first month of the year is at its 2^nd lowest in four years:
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* February 2020: 3,347
* February 2021: 3,670
* February 2022: 2,990
* February 2023: 3,090

Download Report ([link removed])


** HUD Announces Continuum of Care Awards to Help People Experiencing Homelessness in Anchorage
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HUD announced $4,121,822 in FY 2022 Continuum of Care (CoC) Competition Awards ([link removed]) to Anchorage homelessness housing and service programs. These CoC grants provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and local government to quickly rehouse individuals and families experiencing homelessness and provide support while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused by homelessness. Download: FY '22 Report ([link removed])
Learn More About CoC Funding ([link removed])
Local Housing & Homelessness Highlights
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation


** Anchorage Housing Choice Voucher Waiting List Opening
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On April 1, 2023, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation will begin accepting applications for placement on its Housing Choice Voucher wait list in Anchorage. The Housing Choice Voucher program allows an eligible family to select a unit in the private market to rent, and AHFC pays a portion of the family’s rent directly to the landlord. The voucher jurisdiction is the Municipality of Anchorage and includes Girdwood, Eagle River, Eklutna and communities in between.

1. Applications will be accepted from April 1, 2023 until April 30, 2023.
2. Each applicant family may submit only one application. Duplicate applications will be withdrawn.
3. Date and time of application submission will not factor into the applicant’s final placement on the waiting list.
1. Every applicant has an equal opportunity to be ranked at the top of the list.
2. Once the application period has closed, all applicants will be notified of their position number.
4. Housing Choice Voucher applications for Anchorage must be submitted online at www.ahfc.us.


Features this year include:

* Online applications available in multiple languages
* Applications may be submitted for an applicant by an Agency, Family or Friend, etc.
* Assistance with the Online application process is available through [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or by calling 907-330-6100
* Download: Online instruction guide ([link removed])

Download Application Guide ([link removed])
UAA College of Health


** Sleep Out Kincaid Park
One Night, One Purpose
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Join Covenant House on April 21st for Sleep Out at Kincaid Park. This fundraiser helps ensure Alaska’s youth have a safe place to sleep each night. Participants are asked to register in advance, raise funds for the cause and then join this family-friendly event at Kincaid Park filled with awareness, music, and community. Participants will then camp out. Bring yourself or create a team with your school or church groups, friends, or co-workers (like Delta Air Lines). Prizes for the top fundraising individuals and teams. Follow the link for more details: www.sleepout.org ([link removed])
Register Now! ([link removed])
National Housing & Homelessness Highlights
Community Solutions


** Helping close the housing supply gap
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“It’s not just about a unit. It’s a process to connect the most vulnerable in the community.”

Community Solutions has partnered with Built for Zero communities, like Jacksonville, to pioneer a social impact investment model to help close the housing supply gap. Jacksonville was chosen for this level of investment because they’ve built a strong homeless response system, which has driven a 35% reduction in veteran homelessness since 2015.


“Jacksonville is proving that a large city can solve homelessness,” said Kally Canfield, Built for Zero Systems Improvement Advisor for Jacksonville.

They have recently acquired a third property in the city to accelerate community efforts to reduce veteran homelessness. The 175 units across the three properties will center approaches proven to promote long-term stability for all its residents.

“It’s not just about a unit. It’s a process to connect the most vulnerable in the community,” said Dave Foster, Manager of the Community Solutions Large Cities Housing Fund.
Read More ([link removed])
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)


** Leading With Kindness in Encampment
Resolution
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Communities across the country are dealing with an unprecedented increase in people experiencing unsheltered homelessness with even greater visibility due to encampments. Often referred to by other terms such as tent cities, homeless settlements, and homeless camps, encampments are simply gathering places for groups of people who experience unsheltered homelessness and are trying to find someplace to live and be safe together. Many communities utilize methods that criminalize homelessness and are ineffective in decreasing homelessness, causing unnecessary additional trauma to an already traumatized population. Understanding encampments, and why they may be the only option for some people, is a starting point for communities to learn more about variances in characteristics, social structures, and regions.

In 2022, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness released 7 Principles for Addressing Encampments, which are as follows:
* Principle 1: Establish a Cross-Agency, Multi-Sector Response.
* Principle 2: Engage Encampment Residents to Develop Solutions.
* Principle 3: Conduct Comprehensive and Coordinated Outreach.
* Principle 4: Address Basic Needs and Provide Storage.
* Principle 5: Ensure Access to Shelter or Housing Options.
* Principle 6: Develop Pathways to Permanent Housing and Supports.
* Principle 7: Create a Plan for What Will Happen to Encampment Sites After Closure.

The importance of centering these principles in encampment resolution is demonstrated by this story from Randy, an encampment survivor. He shared “I've been misplaced and removed from three encampments and the same thing happens each and every time: they come in with force—police with dump trucks removing people's belongings. I've watched tons of food and clothes be thrown in the trash—people's tents people's belongings tossed in the trash—and we get put in the streets and what do we do? We relocate and then the same thing happens over and over again. Man, I tell you, people are dying out here; I've watched people drinking and drugging themselves to death because they don't have a place to call home because every time they settle down in our so-called community, they run us out or remove us or lock us up!”

Continue reading... ([link removed])
View Full Guidance ([link removed])

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Direct link to the video on YouTube. ([link removed])

NARBHA Institute


** The Man in the Dog Park Film
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Coming Up Close to Homelessness

The Man in the Dog Park Film based on the book The Man in the Dog Park, by Cathy A. Small, with Jason Kordosky and Ross Moore published by Cornell University Press.

"Suffering is a basic matter of living, and one of the most common human responses is ignorance, or avoidance, which of course can perpetuate and amplify suffering. I joined this project because it was an opportunity to render the suffering of homelessness more accessible and relatable. By feeling into the daily plights, joys and doldrums of those experiencing homelessness, perhaps their lives and experiences will be harder to neglect. My desire is that as the perceived distance between audiences and characters wanes, compassion and compassionate action will grow."

- Director's Note by Daniel Cowen
Learn More ([link removed])

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ACEH Weekly Digest
Please reach out to ** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=ACEH%20Weekly%20Digest)
if you have questions, suggestions, or resources you would like to share in the weekly digest.

Copyright © 2023 Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, All rights reserved.
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Our mailing address is:
Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness
3427 E Tudor Road
Suite A
Anchorage, AK 99507
USA
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