A new housing program in Anchorage moved 150 people from the city’s homeless shelters into apartments between December and May. In recent weeks, another 27 people have been housed – this time directly from homeless camps into apartments – bringing the total number of people housed to 177.

The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness has the housing initiative called Next Step. It is a system of housing services based on a successful model from Houston, Texas, that has reduced homelessness there by more than 60% over the past decade.

Anchorage’s program provides clients with a year of assistance, covering some or all of the rent and paying move-in deposits, furnishing apartments with essentials such as a bed, towels, linens, kitchenware and other moving items, and providing clients with individual case management through local service agencies. The Assembly allocated $1.5 million to the coalition in January to fund the project.

It also provides ongoing support to landlords and property managers who rent units to Next Step clients. A point of contact works with landlords, property managers and clients to address issues as they arise.

According to the coalition, about 96 percent of the 150 people evacuated from Anchorage’s winter shelters are still housed and living in apartments across the city.

However, it will take a long time before medium and long-term success can be measured. It is not yet known how many Next Step clients will be able to continue to be housed after the year of receiving rent payments and case management support.

Anchorage has a significant homeless population and has struggled for years with a shortage of emergency shelters and a lack of transitional and care options amid an ongoing housing crisis. Supporters of the Next Step initiative say such programs can play a critical role in reducing homelessness in the city.

“We all deserve additional opportunities”

For Patricia Kohler, the small apartment she rents with the help of Next Step is the opportunity she needed.

Kohler, 51, moved from the city’s former winter quarters at the Alex Hotel to a downtown studio in February.

“I was shocked when I walked in,” Kohler said. Although she had lived in apartments in the past, “from being outside or in the shelter to walking into a room or an apartment. It’s just like, ‘Wow, I’m inside. I have my own space.’ You know, you just can’t believe it.”

She has since moved into a slightly larger one-bedroom apartment in Mountain View. One recent evening she was sitting in the small living room on a futon sofa that she had just bought at Wal-Mart.

A television and a selection of art supplies and novels were arranged on a small shelf.

“We all deserve a second chance, maybe even a third chance or whatever – as many chances as we need. Some of us need more, more, more support than others. But you know, we all deserve additional chances,” Kohler said.

Kohler, who grew up in Aleknagik in southwest Alaska, moved to Anchorage in 2017. Since about 2018, she had been homeless on and off, sometimes on the couch, sometimes in camps and shelters, she said. She struggled with depression, anxiety, substance abuse and finding work, she said.

At some point, “I just gave up,” Kohler said. “Because … just hopelessness, you know. Like this feeling of, I keep trying to get a job and I just don’t get any support – not from my family or my friends – but just no support trying to get through this.”

Kohler was living in an outdoor encampment in December when she slipped on ice and broke her ankle. She ended up in the city’s mass shelter on East 56th Avenue and was moved to a room at the Alex Hotel Shelter after a few weeks.

There she met Daryl Burse, a case manager in the Next Step program at local homeless nonprofit Henning Inc. Burse worked at Alex as a housing specialist and helped Kohler move into an apartment.

Burse is currently a case manager for 21 people in the program, including Kohler. Most of the other people who remained at Alex also moved into rental housing through Next Step.

In June, at Burse’s suggestion, Kohler landed a full-time job at Graceful Touch Transitional Services, another local nonprofit. She works as a case manager in a former hotel that was recently converted into public housing. Kohler helps residents navigate the often frustrating and confusing system of benefits and benefit applications.

In her free time, Kohler crochets hats, scarves and socks for those in need, just as she did when she was homeless herself. She still gives them out to people on the streets who are cold, donates them to homeless shelters and gives them to her case manager to distribute to people in encampments. Kohler uses yarn with reflective tinsel to make wearers more visible in the dark.

“Instead of ‘hats for the homeless,’ I call it ‘hats for my buddies,'” she said.

Measuring success

Meg Zaletel, executive director of the coalition, assesses the success in three ways.

“The immediate success is that these people are not homeless,” said Zaletel, who is also vice-chair of the assembly.

The goal is that after the end of the year of care for the first 150 clients, 85 percent will be able to stay in their accommodation, said Zaletel. She believes that they are “well on the way” to achieving this goal.

“We know that one year of support may be enough for some people but not for others,” she said.

Anchorage doesn’t have enough permanent supportive housing for those who need longer-term help with housing costs and services, she said. Next Step is a “rapid relocation program” that runs for only one year.

The longer-term metric the coalition will track is whether Next Step clients keep their housing two years after they leave care. The coalition hopes the 85% retention rate will be maintained, she said.

Case management focuses on preparing people to maintain their housing on their own, she said. They try to get people a “runway” of funds that will allow them to continue paying their rent so no one ends up in a “rental crisis,” she said.

Kohler has been sober for about a year, is now paying part of her rent and is saving for a car, she said.

She’s nervous because she won’t have any more appointments with Burse starting in February. He’s someone she relies on to keep her on track.

“Last week I had this urge to go out and do drugs or drink or whatever, but I talked to my case manager and said, ‘No, I’ve come this far. I shouldn’t screw it up.’ And he said, ‘No, you don’t have to. Don’t do that. Please don’t do that,'” Kohler said.

She considered Burse a friend, she said.

Burse said many of his other clients are also nervous. For those who were placed in December, the program ends in a few months.

“I know I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous for her,” Burse said.

Most recently, Burse has been helping to move people living in encampments in Elderberry Park and Jacobson Park into shelters. This phase of the program has brought more challenges, he said. People living at the Alex have already stabilized, but people in the encampments are moving into shelters right out of survival mode, he said.

“Their mindset is completely different,” he said. “It can work, but you have to stabilize them.”

This means multiple check-ins per week and support to help patients refocus on their goals.

Burse intervened when some of them were packing their homes with old belongings from their previous camp, finding it difficult to part with the things they once needed to survive, or when they were bringing other people into their new homes and trying to help friends who were still living on the streets.

He explains to clients that they must first help themselves, honor their lease and keep the apartment in good condition so that the landlord will rent the apartment to another homeless person in the future, he said.

“When you show them step by step what they need to do and what they shouldn’t do, it helps them grow,” Burse said. “It helps them gain confidence in the system. They need to have confidence in you, and that helps them go back to the community they came from and say, ‘Hey, look, buddy, this worked for me. Just try it. Come on, get off the streets.’ And it’s a win-win for everybody.”

• • •