Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- It's been nearly six months since Johnny and Maria White had a place of their own.

They gave up their apartment in Fairbanks in October and, along with their 2-year-old son, Gavin, headed to Wasilla in a U-Haul truck, just weeks before their second child was due.

They lived with friends for most of the winter. These days, they bunk down in six local churches, courtesy of Family Promise, the only source of refuge for homeless families in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

For those who are single and homeless, there is no such shelter.

Family Promise rotates families through its six coalition churches -- First Presbyterian, Abundant Life and Christ First United Methodist, all in Wasilla, and United Protestant Presbyterian, Palmer Seventh-Day Adventist and Glacierview Alliance in Palmer -- where they stay in one-week intervals, until they find permanent housing.

"The first night I stayed in the church was the first time that I actually slept through the night in a long time," Johnny White said. "It's a load off."

The Valley homeless population is hard to gauge, say those who work with them.

Last year Family Promise sheltered 21 families, said Kat Foster-Dalmolin, network director for the faith-based program. But there are many more families in need, she said.

Reports from the borough School District support that claim: Of nearly 16,000 students enrolled in Mat-Su schools last year, more than 450 were homeless.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg," Foster-Dalmolin said.

Janet Ogan, former board president of Love Inc., agrees. She estimates as many as 1,500 homeless men, women and children live in the Mat-Su.

Love Inc., which closed its doors in August 2007, served as a clearinghouse for Valley homeless, providing them with things like food, clothing and gas cards and connecting them with local social service agencies.

The faith-based organization served hundreds each year during its three-year run, Ogan said.

"People go 'Oh, we don't have a homeless issue in the Valley.' I can tell you we do. They're just hidden," she said.

HOMELESS ... WITH CHILDREN

The Whites spent months among those hidden homeless.

Johnny, a 30-year-old apprentice electrician, was laid off in October.

Maria, 27, still had her job, but the small office where she worked as a receptionist didn't pay much and offered no maternity leave. With a baby due in early November, they'd soon both be out of work.

And they were without a car. They'd totaled their only vehicle, a pickup, shortly after Johnny lost his job. With no jobs, no transportation and little money, they feared they'd wind up without a home as well.

"I know people have the impression that people are homeless because they don't work," said Foster-Dalmolin. "But sometimes they were working and it just simply wasn't enough. A few things happen and it's just too much."

That's how it was for the Whites.

"It was hard because last year we were both working extremely hard -- every day was trying to make ends meet. But somehow it just all fell through," said Maria.

SHORT-TERM HELP

When the possibility of an eviction began looming larger every day, the Whites opted to "drop out honestly," Maria said. They looked for a way to move on.

Some friends in Wasilla -- one of Johnny's old Army buddies and his wife -- offered to put them up. The offer, which included money for the U-Haul, was one the Whites didn't dare pass up.

"We came down to start over in Wasilla," Maria said.

Johnny figured he'd find work once they got here. But he didn't know the area. He didn't realize how far out his friends live -- 10 miles up Knik-Goose Bay Road and seven or eight miles past a bus pickup point.

Though his friends loaned him a car from time to time, it wasn't reliable and he had no money for gas. Without reliable transportation, opportunities for work were few and far between.

He and his family spent most of the winter holed up in one bedroom of his friends' small, three-bedroom home.

By early February they knew it was time to go.

"We didn't want to be in the way. They needed time for their family," Johnny said.

HOPE FOR FAMILIES

The Whites turned to Family Promise, a program they'd learned of through the Wasilla public assistance office. They're one of three families staying in the churches now, Foster-Dalmolin said.

Each passed a background check and a pre-screening interview. Those that don't pass or those that are actively abusing drugs or alcohol are turned away, she said.

"Our churches don't have the types of safety systems" to deal with those things, she said.

Families that pass can stay up to four months, she said, but most make it out in less than half that time.

"They can save a paycheck or two and get into a place pretty quickly. We do want folks to be really focusing," she said.

The Whites say they hope to be out in April. That's when they expect their low-income housing subsidy through Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to start. The folks at Family Promise, they say, helped walk them through the paperwork to get that subsidy.

Meanwhile they're saving their unemployment checks, which they began collecting with the help of Family Promise, and they're both looking for jobs, another requirement for staying in the shelters. Telephones, fax machines and computers with a printer and Internet access are set up in the Family Promise day office at Wasilla's First Presbyterian Church to assist with that effort.

The children, who now include 4-month-old Johnny 4th, or John-John, are holding up well, their father said.

"It's horrible having them in this situation," he said. "But at least we're together."

And at least, as a family, they have a place to go. The single homeless and those with addictions or mental illnesses aren't so lucky.

THE INVISIBLE ONES

Some live in their cars, others bounce from couch to couch. And many fade into the Valley's vast open spaces.Those are the ones Gary Oathoat says he's encountered most often.

"They were camping out in the woods most of 'em, even in the cold winter," he said.

Oathoat, a former Love Inc. board member, is a 25-year Valley resident and a visitation pastor at Wasilla's Church on the Rock. Caring for the Valley's homeless, he said, is something church groups and social service agencies have struggled with for decades.

"It's a very tough issue. ... It just takes tons of money," he said.

Money, or lack of it, eventually closed Love Inc.

"We just didn't have enough to keep operating. ... We just couldn't keep the lights on," Ogan said of the nonprofit's demise. "We had wonderful people that gave generously. But those kinds of resources get drained pretty quickly."

NEED HELP?

• Homeless families looking for help should contact Family Promise rather than the churches in the shelter program. Call Family Promise at 357-6160 or visit www.familypromisematsu.org on the Web.

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