Homelessness in Anchorage
Imagine for a moment what it would feel like if you did not have your home, your sanctuary:
- Where you safely put your kids to bed each night.
- Where you refresh and recharge after a long day.
- Where you launch yourself back into the world each morning.
Because we can imagine how isolated and harmful that would feel, we deeply care that too many of our neighbors – families, single adults, youth – do not have that safe and welcoming place to call home.
Home is the foundation for a meaningful life – a sense of community, success in school, the ability to find and keep a job, and overall financial stability start with permanent housing. Our neighbors may need additional supports to create a stable life, but without a roof over their head, the challenges can be overwhelming.
Never before have so many partners – community members, social service agencies, government, faith organizations, and businesses — agreed to join forces, to work together, and to use new innovative approaches to make sure that homelessness becomes as rare and as brief as possible here.
Emergency Cold Weather Shelter
Our vision is to ensure that no one sleeps outside during the coldest months of the year. United Way of Anchorage has been working with the Municipality and many partners to help keep all Anchorage residents safe and warm, and connect them to resources quickly so that they no longer need emergency shelter. Will you help us create a community where our neighbors aren’t faced with sleeping in their car or in a tent on a cold winter’s night?
Family Homelessness
By one recent count, there are as many as 1,094 homeless people in Anchorage, including nearly 100 families with kids. We are a community in which this is not acceptable and we are working to change it.
Home for Good: Supportive Housing
Persistent homelessness is one of Anchorage’s most complex challenges. Home for Good aims to lift 150 of the most visible and vulnerable homeless population from streets and shelter into housing within the next three years.
Anchored Home
Anchored Home: 2018-2021 is Anchorage’s strategic community plan to solve homelessness. United Way leads the efforts to promote prevention and diversion from homelessness and provides support for the other three key pillars.
WALK IN MY SHOES
Brings the Reality of Financial Instability to Life
Our interactive web experience depicts real-life scenarios faced by many of the more than 17,000 families living on the financial edge in Anchorage. With limited income and everything from medical payments and unexpected expenses to child care issues, your challenge will be to make it to the end of the month. The reality of walking in someone else’s shoes can be a real eye-opener. Take the walk today!
