A quarter-million dollars spent on Anchorage homeless initiatives this summer paid for good work by nonprofits, officials reported to members of the Anchorage Assembly Wednesday.
But some officials said the city needs to do more to move beyond helping individuals and focus on the big picture — moving people out of tent camps and emergency shelters and into apartments with access to a net of services.
At the same time, one official also kept the focus on a single troubled soul. Alison Kear, head of Covenant House, brought to the meeting a bag containing the ashes of Tucker Sauder, the son of Bean's Cafe director Lisa Sauder who died after a suspected heroin overdose in early December. Kear pointed to Tucker Sauder's ashes to call for better access to drug treatment in Anchorage.
Kear, a close friend of Lisa Sauder's, said she and Sauder both tried relentlessly to get him treatment. But they couldn't do it, she said.
"I think there's something wrong when we continue to fund the pick-up of people, and we don't fund what we do after we pick them up," Kear said.
The Assembly was scheduled Wednesday to hear updates on how $425,000, approved in the spring, was spent among five nonprofits — United Way, Alaska WorkSource, the Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RurAL CAP), Covenant House and Catholic Social Services. Officials said the money helped find jobs for homeless people, expand emergency shelter hours and help connect with homeless people in camps and on the street.
Burke, the city's homeless coordinator, said the city has learned "a tremendous amount" so far. She said much of the first year of the Berkowitz administration's initiative had focused largely on data. That included an extensive effort to count and assess the vulnerability of Anchorage's homeless population, and create a list of names to help tailor services and share data.
The big push next year, Burke said, will be on apartment units.
At Wednesday's meeting, Dave D'Amato, hired to oversee Anchorage homeless initiatives for United Way of Anchorage, said there was some success exploring whether a "landlord liaison" program that offers help to landlords in exchange for housing more high-risk tenants could work in Anchorage.
The city's $50,000 grant helped United Way hire a contractor, Andy Mergens, to research the issue and contact landlords. Mergens filed a report that showed the Anchorage housing market could support the program and landlords were interested in it, D'Amato told the Assembly.
But Mergens also found the program couldn't work without a functioning list of names and subsidies that could help set people up in housing, D'Amato said.
"If you didn't have support of the provider community and getting the appropriate client to the right thing, the likelihood of failure on behalf of the landlord-tenant relationship was higher," D'Amato said.
The executive director of Alaska WorkSource, a nonprofit that ran an experimental work van program for the city, also reported success. In a PowerPoint presentation, Darryl Waters said the van program led to a successful package of job training, housing and substance abuse treatment for 19 people. Five people in the room became sober and found jobs, he said. Waters was partnered with a for-profit substance abuse treatment program owned by his wife, Eydie Flygare. He found housing for program participants in a Spenard motel.
Addressing the Assembly, Waters also criticized an Alaska Dispatch News story this week that raised questions about the city's contract with the nonprofit. He called it a "very sad article" that distracted from what he described as the city's "staggering problem" with homelessness.
Assemblyman Bill Evans, the chair of the homeless committee, said he agreed with Waters that the city is confronting a huge homelessness problem.
"But that doesn't give us a pass, even because we're working for a good end; we're still using taxpayer dollars," Evans told Waters. "So we have to be willing to take that level of scrutiny."
Evans called the WorkSource program "money well spent" and said he would answer for problems in the contracting process. He told Waters he was doing a good job and he'd like to see the Alaska WorkSource program continue.
Then Kear, of Covenant House, sat at the table to speak to the Assembly. She told the Assembly that the city's $50,000 grant helped reach out to more homeless youths. But she also talked about frustration boiling up on a cold night last week when the shelters were full.
"There is still work to be done," Kear said. She said the city wouldn't be able to get to its housing goal without building a system that people can navigate and find help.
Then Kear turned attention to a mustard-yellow bag sitting next to her on the table. The bag had a yellow note posted to it that read, "Sauder."
A gap in the system, Kear told the Assembly, that is "continuing to kill young people, is the fact that we do not have treatment access."
On Tuesday, Kear told Assembly members, she picked up the ashes of Tucker Sauder. Sauder, 23, was found dead of a suspected heroin overdose early in the morning on Dec. 3. He had struggled with depression and anxiety, and his addiction to drugs was exacerbated by injuries and painkiller prescriptions, Kear said.
In an interview later, his mother Lisa Sauder said she couldn't attend the Assembly meeting but supported Kear's action.
Kear told Assembly members that four of the kids staying at Covenant House are struggling with heroin addiction.
"I commit to do more. I implore you to help, because it's going to take all of us," Kear said, wiping tears away.
In the following presentation, Corrine O'Neill, the director of supportive housing for RurAL CAP, added to Kear's plea. She asked the Assembly to look at ways to pay for apartments for the city's long-term homeless, in addition to expanding emergency shelter space.
She called housing models like Karluk Manor and a newly opened complex on Third Avenue "potentially controversial" but effective for people who have battled long-term homelessness and problems with substance abuse.
In her report to the Assembly, Lisa Aquino, the director of Catholic Social Services, noted rising problems in the past year with shelter space. She said the city's grants, totaling $150,000, greatly helped boost staffing and shelter hours.
The winter has been challenging for the shelter, she said. But she said Burke has been the leader of trying new things, adding, "From desperation comes innovation."