Dear Editor: A successful state-funded program that helps people onto a path of safety and stability faces devastating cuts this legislative session. On behalf of Alaska homeless service providers, we express our strong support for continued and sustained funding of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s Homeless Assistance Program.
This program provides vital flexible dollars for the very interventions that reduce unsheltered homelessness: connecting people from the streets to shelter and from shelter to permanent housing. Through HAP, a coordinated network works every day to keep people safe, housed and connected to services. In some rural Alaska communities, the only shelters and supports for people experiencing homelessness are funded by HAP.
The Sitka Homeless Coalition has two programs that receive support from HAP, and Sitkans Against Family Violence also receives these funds.
Cuts will mean more people living outside, increased strain on emergency services, and higher long-term costs to the public.
The governor’s capital and mental health budgets propose a 50% cut in HAP, from $10.15 million to $5 million statewide. While there is legislative support to reinstate funding for HAP, the budget measures are advancing with the governor’s cuts.
Reinstating these funds assures a better future for many of our neighbors.
Jessica Parks,
interim executive director
Anchorage Coalition
to End Homelessness
Brian Wilson, executive director
Alaska Coalition on
Housing and Homelessness
