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60 day community engagement period ends March 15, 2023

Alaska Homeless Management Information System (AKHMIS) Update from Institute for Community Alliance Alaska (ICA)

The AlKHMIS Policies & Procedures now require data entry staff to log in at least once every 45 days. If they do not log in for longer than 45 days, their access to AKHMIS is suspended, and they have to correctly complete a practice case to regain access. The reason for this policy is that data entry staff who only enter data infrequently have lower data quality; interacting with the database at least every 45 days can help ensure they maintain their familiarity with it.
 
This is consistent with how other HMISs are managed and is more generous than the previous 30-day requirement, which ICA found too narrow to enforce.

Please notes:

• You must log in to AKHMIS at least every 45 days to maintain your access.
• If you lose your access due to not logging in, you will be required to complete a practice case or additional training to regain access.
• We do not want you to have to complete a practice case or additional training, so please set a calendar reminder to remind yourself to log in to AKHMIS once a month.

‘It was so stressful before’: New Anchorage program bridges the housing gap

A new partnership with the United Way and local landlords incentivizes renting to people who have recently experienced homelessness.
Presented by United Way of Anchorage

At Alaska’s winter peak, having access to a warm space and a roof over one’s head can be the difference between life or death.

But home can mean so much more than that for new renters like Adrianna. Her apartment is also a place to study, stabilize and continue a path of recovery from substance misuse, safely.

It’s also something that felt out of reach for a long time. Adrianna struggled to find an apartment that would let her rent due to her criminal record from a decade ago.

“It was so stressful before,” she said. “Looking for an apartment and getting denied time after time.”

That was until a property manager asked her if she’d consider joining the Landlord Housing Partnership — a new program from the United Way of Anchorage that connects local landlords with case managers who have clients who have recently experienced homelessness. The goal is to get homeless residents into houses quickly and keep them there, with the recognition that long-term stable housing can be transformative.

Adrianna agreed to try the program, and the Landlord Housing Partnership worked with Adrianna’s case manager to secure housing for her. Six months later, she’s still happily housed in a two-bedroom apartment in Anchorage.

“Having a house has been extremely helpful for my life and my recovery,” she said. “It’s really worked out great for me.”

100 landlords sign up in one year: ‘I’m willing to give them a chance’

The Landlord Housing Partnership is one year old this month and is celebrating another milestone in February: It has partnered with 100 landlords. Continue Reading...

A new resource center for people experiencing homelessness is opening in Anchorage

On the inside, the new 3rd Avenue Resource & Navigation Center in Anchorage looks nothing like the industrial warehouse-turned-soup kitchen that used to operate here. There’s a lot of natural light filling the space, inviting furniture and cheery paint on the walls. 

David Rittenberg is the senior director of adult homeless services for Catholic Social Services, the nonprofit operating the new facility. During a tour on Wednesday, he pointed out a lot of new windows. 

“So really brightening up the space and using design and architecture and color to really try to lift people up,” he said. 

The new facility is opening in stages this month, at the former Bean’s Cafe building near downtown. It’s specifically designed to improve the way people experiencing homelessness address some immediate needs — think hot showers, laundry or charging a phone — and bigger goals like getting housing and access to other services. It’s one of the first facilities of its kind in the state, and one more step forward in Anchorage’s push to end homelessness. Continue Reading...

Dine to Donate

Texas Roadhouse, Thursday, February 23, 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM

DINE IN ~OR~ Use our Mobile App to place a curbside order. Make sure to let your Server or Curbside Specialist know that you’re part of the Shiloh Community Housing Fundraiser.

Policy brief: cities, zoning, and the fragmented response to homelessness

Boston University, Cornell University, and Community Solutions examine how local governments can better address homelessness through improved coordination of homelessness and zone/land use planning policies.

America’s cities are facing a pressing homelessness crisis, with insufficient affordable housing as the chief cause. Local governments are critical policy partners in addressing and ending homelessness through their control over land use policy, what housing gets built in a community, and where it can be built.

This policy brief explores the fact that there is little coordination of cities’ homelessness and zoning/land use planning policies, with findings such as:

• Only 54% of the nation’s 100 largest cities have homelessness plans. Plans are important documents that help to coordinate complex policies and services across different departments. Their absence suggests a serious general fragmentation in local homelessness policy-making.
• A small share of those cities that do have homelessness plans mention housing policies. Only 30% mention land use and zoning — the most powerful policy tools that local governments wield in reducing the local cost of housing. Higher shares mention eviction (61%) and affordability (87%).
• Mayors similarly do not perceive land use and zoning to be an important component of homelessness policy. Only 32% believe that land use and zoning are significant barriers to addressing homelessness, despite the centrality of these policies to reducing housing costs.
• Federal government plans have begun to incentivize connecting these important policy arenas, but could do more to clarify and strengthen the link between homelessness and housing policy.

HOME-ARP: Introduction to Coordinated Entry and HMIS

This pre-recorded webinar describes the Coordinated Entry (CE) process and its role in the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and provides an overview of Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) and its use within a community.

National Organizations Condemn Biden-Harris Administration for Forcibly Removing Unhoused People from McPherson Square

The Biden-Harris administration forcibly removed unhoused people from an encampment in McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., on February 15 before all individuals in the encampment had been housed – an action strongly condemned in a statement by the National Coalition for Housing Justice (NCHJ) as cruel and counterproductive to efforts to end homelessness. NCHJ is a group of national organizations, including NLIHC, dedicated to ending homelessness by achieving housing justice through pursuing racially and economically equitable policies that affirm the right of everyone to an affordable, safe, accessible, and stable place to call home.