TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Homeless Project Advances to Planning Phase

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer

The project aimed at housing Sitka’s homeless people is picking up steam.

Just a few months into their fundraising campaign, the Sitka Homeless Coalition has raised more than three times its initial goal, said longtime group leader Gayle Young.

The group had set a fundraising goal of $20,000 by the end of 2021, but as of this week donations had reached $70,000, Young said.

The Sitka nonprofit marked the occasion by inviting everyone who donated to get together last Saturday for a group picture.

Supporters of the Sitka Homeless Coalition effort to build a homeless shelter stand to form the outline of a house on the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka campus parking lot Saturday. A fundraising campaign for the project exceeded its goal. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

 

The project’s goal is to build a neighborhood unit of about a dozen one-room cabins to shelter homeless men on land owned by the Alaska Mental Health Land Trust. Planners have estimated the cost at about $1 million.

Young, who has worked for years to improve the lives of Sitka’s homeless, said she was delighted by the success of the fundraising drive, which began in September after the project was selected as a community goal for year at the annual Sitka Health Summit.

“What an amazing thing!” Young said about the fundraising success. “Every one of us was shocked and surprised. We didn’t realize there was that much support in the community.”

The SHC registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation three years ago. Previously, Young had been advocating for the homeless, and working to make showers, laundry and other assistance available to them, while at the same time looking for longterm housing solutions.

The campaign swung into high gear when Sitka Health Summit named it a community goal for 2022.

“It feels like exhilaration and total relief, because I was feeling like I didn’t really have any more big ideas and I certainly know that I was not skilled enough to do what’s being done now,” Young said in an interview. “My main (focus) has always been just meeting up with the men on the street and assisting them however I could until we somehow got to a point as a community where other people recognized that it needed to be done and they could probably be a part of it. And the Health Summit turned out to be that group.”

The largest single donation was $12,000 from Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Donations have ranged in size from a few dollars to thousands and have come from hundreds of Sitkans, Young said.

“It was nearly a five-year project for me, and I never anticipated that it was going to be that long. But, you know, it doesn’t matter now that we’re coming through it,” Young said. “The main thing is that we build something well, and we maintain it really well, and we take care of peoples’ gift to us that they’re making, and that the men have somewhere to live as long as they want for the rest of their lives, because they’re our people, our Sitka people.”

Doug Osborne, organizer of the Sitka Health Summit, highlights the importance of community support for the homeless project.

“Community support and bringing in key people are the two biggest things, and there are people working on this every day,” Osborne told the Sentinel. “We’re growing and we’ve got some momentum and some local support, now we’ve just got to turn in a really strong application for this ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money.” The grant application seeking about a third of a million dollars is due Feb. 16.

“All this community support really helps, and then we are able to hire people to do stuff that makes our grant stronger,” Osborne said. “It’s neat to have something kind of life affirming, a humanitarian project that people can get behind.”

In late April the Homeless Coalition plan will go before the Alaska Mental Health Trust board seeking a lease on a tract of trust land at the end of Jarvis Street. 

Sitka’s recent harsh weather points out the need to house those who currently sleep outside, Osborne said.

“It has a huge impact on people living in tents out in the woods or even sleeping in a car,” Osborne said. “We need to have people in a warm, dry, safe space with heat, and anything less than that is not the best we can do...The only solution to not having a warm, dry shelter is having a warm, dry shelter.”

Professional development specialist Lenise Henderson has been hired to write a business plan for the homeless project.

“She has a lot of experience in Alaska and she just happened to move here,” Osborne said. “Her son goes to Mt. Edgecumbe High, and she moved to Sitka a year ago.”

Henderson said today she’s currently filling in the background information on the grant, “and we are beginning to work on answering the day-to-day operations questions.”

She said the project to house the homeless has a personal significance to her.

“Taking on this project is near and dear to my heart because my brother had experiences with homelessness. He actually died in Seattle and was found in a park, and so I have a real personal connection to this subject and wanted to make a difference,” she said.

Osborne said he hopes to have building underway by the end of this year.

“This ARPA grant is a lot of site development and building prep and everything else,” he said. It would be ideal if some housing could be completed by next winter, “but I don’t know if that’s feasible,” he added.

Young said it’s the community’s responsibility to care for its people.

“My part was just to hold the candle up until the other people came and now they’re coming,” Young said. “If there are people born and raised in our community and they’re sleeping outside, it’s on our plate, because all of us are sleeping inside,” Young said.

Information on the housing for project is available at the Sitka Homeless Coalition website sheltersitka.org. Donations can be made on the website.

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.

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