NOTE NOVEMBER 2014 - THIS POST HAS RECIEVED A HIGH NUMBNER OF HITS
ADN - MARK LESTER ON HOMELESSNESS IN ANCHORAGE
"Within weeks of landing in Anchorage, George McBee was learning how to be homeless on the streets of Anchorage. Camping on “Party Hill,” a slope of urban woods just a block from Bean’s Cafe, experienced street people showed him how to keep condensation out of his tent and taught him not to “party” alone.
It was a life not much better than the one he left behind.
McBee moved to Anchorage in 2007 from Porterville, Calif., where he lived a secluded life in a fifth-wheel trailer parked in the woods. A cousin urged him to try life in Alaska. A third-generation alcoholic and a methamphetamine user since he was 14, McBee brought his addictions with him.
He spent years in and out of homelessness here, sometimes couch surfing and often struggling to hold jobs. Now, as a monitor at Bean’s Cafe, which provides meals and daytime shelter for people in need, McBee acts as a sort of bouncer for the facility -- defusing arguments, controlling access and looking out for the welfare of clients who might be in trouble.
It’s steady work that allows him to keep a roof over his head. He says he loves it. But arriving at this place in his life has been a hard-won success that has taken him to the pits of depression, the loneliness of jail and the cold streets of the city.
There was a time, just a couple years ago, when he thought he had turned things around. He had an apartment and a job. None of it was compatible with his alcoholism, though.
"BEANS CAFE - ANCHORAGE HELPS THE HOMELESS
(Our first post on homelessness in Alaska!)
"The underlying premise of Bean's Café is a deep belief in the inherent dignity of every person, a belief that people respond with kindness when treated kindly, with trust when trusted, and respectfully when respected. Our aim is not to set up a value system – determining what is right or wrong – or a way of life for persons, but to allow them to form their own. In this situation a person is not pressured into acting in a special way, and their eventual response is free, lasting, and more fully themselves"
ADN : ANCHORAGE HOMELESS - SHELTER OR OUTSIDE by MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS
"In October, Brother Francis, which is run by Catholic Social Services, brought back a policy requiring people to work on a plan to get permanent housing or leave the shelter after 30 days.
The "30-in-30-out" policy had been the standard at the city's main shelter until two years ago.
The limits were relaxed after an epidemic of homeless people's deaths in 2009 and 2010, when nearly two dozen died outdoors in Anchorage.
As part of a response to the deaths, the city in 2011 raised the temperature of its "cold alert" status from 32 to 45 degrees.
At the same time, Brother Francis canceled its 11 p.m. curfew and relaxed its longtime "30-in-30-out" rule, meant to keep an emergency shelter from functioning as a long-term residence for the homeless, whenever the "cold alert" was in effect.
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