COALITION UPDATE

November 8, 2024

Partnership ensures the most vulnerable people are sheltered


In the first week after Anchorage’s early, record-breaking snowfall, 200 beds of emergency shelter were filled.

This is notable for the quick, safe sheltering of so many, but equally notable for the collaboration that led to prioritizing and moving first those most vulnerable to dangerous weather, those in wheelchairs, with disabilities, or facing poor health.

This approach is a vast improvement over the "first come first serve" approach to winter shelter offered in years past and took active coordination among the shelter providers and oversight (Henning Inc., Catholic Social Services and Restorative Re-Entry Services).

COC CORNER

CoC grantee spotlight

AWAIC provides a path to housing.


For more than 20 years, Anchorage’s main shelter serving domestic violence survivors also has not only provided safety in the moment, but has helped clients transition to stable housing.


Women, and men, turn to Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) for shelter. One way that AWAIC helps them take the next step is through its Continuum of Care grant for rapid re-housing.


Those being hurt by their partner may be controlled financially as well as abused physically, said Heidi Hill, AWAIC’s grants and program director. “They may not have the funds to move on.” Read more here.

Our community seeks $5 million from HUD

Our Continuum of Care application deeply examines our commitment, effectiveness and coordination in efforts to solve homelessness. It includes a collaborative, communitywide application as well as local project proposals that have been ranked locally. The stronger the collaborative application, the better the chance of getting local projects funded. The Anchorage Homelessness Prevention and Response Services Advisory Council has approved the ranking of local project applications as well as the collaborative application, which has been submitted to HUD.


The applications can be reviewed here.

COALITION SNAPSHOT

Project Homeless Connect provides key connections for unhoused neighbors


Our neighbors experiencing homelessness connected to services and housing resources — and got some essentials for winter — at Project Homeless Connect 2024. More than 450 people were served, many of whom are living unsheltered as winter begins to set in. Of those, 47 people were new to the homelessness service system.


Anchorage’s annual daylong, one-stop resource fair took place Oct. 15 at Loussac Library in Midtown. The large and impactful event joined those experiencing homelessness with a wide range of organizations that offer help, from food to employment services, from health care to housing. Individuals could get flu shots, learn about GED classes and enroll in the Coordinated Entry system that prioritizes people for housing and winter shelter.


Learn more here.

AROUND ANCHORAGE

Municipality of Anchorage has a plan to address homelessness


The LaFrance administration has unveiled its one-year plan to address homelessness through four broad tactics:

  • Reduce unsheltered homelessness through low-barrier shelter and housing.

  • Increase access to behavioral and physical health care.

  • Add new housing and increase access to existing housing.

  • Harness community partnerships, funding and data

Farina Brown, a special assistant on homelessness and health to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, recently presented the plan to the Anchorage Continuum of Care Advisory Council and to the Anchorage Assembly Housing and Homelessness Committee. It includes action steps for the first 100 days, the first six months and the first year.


Learn more here.

HOW ARE WE DOING?

For the first time in 9 months, more people are flowing into the homelessness services system — 390 — than are flowing out, with 301 people exiting to housing or another place, such as long-term treatment. Exits are slowing because housing programs that serve those who have been living outdoors or staying in shelters are full. The good news is that over the past week, 200 people who had been living outdoors moved into cold weather shelter. That's about 40% of our unsheltered neighbors!


Here’s our one-pager on the current state of homelessness in Anchorage: View and download. Feel free to share.

FOLLOW US!

Want to stay connected all month long?


Follow us on social media!

We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In and X. Not on social media? You can catch these mission moments right on our website.

COMING UP