Anchored Home 2023-2028

Homelessness is the result of not enough
housing.

*Gap = Demand – Capacity

MEASURING NEEDS ACROSS THE SYSTEM

The Gap Analysis uses a rigorous data model to quantify the scale of estimated need (demand) for housing and services, understand the system’s current capacity to meet those needs, and then identify areas for improvement (gaps) in the Homeless Prevention and Response System.

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. 
 

We want to hear from you!

If you have comments or feedback on the Anchored Home plan, please send them to [email protected]

Homelessness Prevention & Response System Advisory Council Monthly Meeting

Updated Coordinated Entry Access Points

Find the updated contact list for Coordinated Entry Assessments here: https://aceh.org/coordinated-entry

About Coordinated Entry: 

Coordinated entry is an important process through which people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness can access the crisis response system in a streamlined way…

When possible, the assessment provides the ability for households to gain access to the best options to address their needs, incorporating participants’ choice, rather than being evaluated for a single program within the system. The most intensive interventions are prioritized for those with the highest needs. – Coordinated Entry CORE ELEMENTS, HUD

Questions or Comments?

Contact Mac Lyons, Coordinated Entry Manager, at: [email protected]

Peer Support Training

Next Saturday training class starts April 8th
 
Peer Support Training offers those with lived experience with mental illness and substance misuse training to learn how to use their personal experiences to help others. Alaska Behavioral Health is also offering week-long and weekend sessions, and advanced classes. The full 2023 calendar of peer support trainings is available now, view it here

Bean’s Café closed as a hot food kitchen and reopened as a production facility

It’s a leap in the right direction for food security in Anchorage — at least a step into much bigger shoes.

Beans Café is no longer serving hot food from its former Downtown Anchorage location — The expanded new kitchen off Fourth Avenue in the Fairview neighborhood is producing a lot more food overall.

$7 million in private donations, city grants and CARES Act funds helped the food kitchen transform into a food supplier, an expansion from 5,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet.

The café now supplies food to 24 different partners from after-school programs to homeless outreach programs. Continue reading...

Emerging Practices to Enhance Safety at Congregate Shelter Guide Now Available

This four-part guide offers guidance and resources that demonstrate ways to create safer, more accessible, and inclusive congregate shelters, regardless of size or mission. It highlights procedural enhancements, practice improvements, and structural recommendations that work in concert to enhance safety for organizations providing shelter.
The guide combines practices from shelters across the country that have successfully supported safer operational environments.
General guidance and principles are organized into four broad categories:

• Part 1: Operational and Administrative Rules
• Part 2: Physical Spaces
• Part 3: Staff Training
• Part 4: Building Trust

New Framework Materials Available: Reimagining Interim Housing

The guidance and recommendations of people with lived expertise of homelessness make it clear that we must create and seize opportunities to transform our approaches to sheltering people experiencing homelessness.  
The Framework for an Equitable Homelessness Response team has released new materials on reimagining interim housing to discuss these approaches:  

• PDF: Stages and Action Areas for Transforming Approaches to Sheltering People Experiencing Homelessness 
• PDF: Tools for Strengthening Current Interim Housing Programs and Services (Supplement) 
• Webinar Recording: Reimagining Interim Housing: Transforming our Approaches to Sheltering People 
• Slide Deck: Reimagining Interim Housing: Transforming our Approaches to Sheltering People

Nonprofits Confront the “Hunger Cliff”

Inflation is not the only challenge for individuals struggling to feed their families and the charitable nonprofits dedicated to supporting them. The last of the enhanced federal food relief prompted by the pandemic went out at the end of February, forcing millions of families to turn to hunger-alleviating and other nonprofits for basic support. About three-quarters of food banks reported that the ending of the emergency allotments has driven up demand. [Read more]

Why It Matters: Food banks, house of worship, and other charitable nonprofits may see increased demand for support now due to the ending of the food relief and then even more so in the coming months when other pandemic-related programs end on May 11.

New Gap Report Shows Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes Has Worsened for Nation’s Lowest-Income Renters

NLIHC released its annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. This year’s report finds that the lowest-income renters in the U.S. face a shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes. Between 2019 and 2021, this shortage increased by more than 500,000 rental homes, as the number of renters with extremely low incomes increased while the supply of housing affordable to them declined. The report calls for greater federal investment in the preservation and expansion of the affordable housing stock, more Housing Choice Vouchers, a national housing stabilization fund for renters who experience an unexpected short-term financial shock, and federal tenant protections. Read the report here.

Frequently Asked Questions About All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness

In January 2023, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) hosted a webinar called “All In 101: Overview of the New Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.” Answers to questions received during the webinar are now available on the USICH website.

To read All In, visit usich.gov/all-in. To watch the webinar and download the slides, click here.