By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Plans are underway to build a cluster of small cabins to house Sitka’s homeless population, but a long list of challenges remains to be overcome.
To Gayle Young, founder of the Sitka Homeless Coalition, it’s critical to give Sitka’s unhoused people a safe place to sleep and store their things.
“We realized that they needed a warm place, they needed a lock on the door, they needed a place that didn’t have to be big. It needed to be big enough to sleep, and a chair to sit in and a spot to put all of their stuff in one place, so when they locked it and walked away and came back it would still be there,” Young said in an interview Wednesday.
Gayle Young, one of the founders of the Sitka Homeless Coalition, stands on property owned by the Alaska Mental Health Land Trust Wednesday. The land located at the end of Jarvis Street is earmarked for housing for Sitka’s homeless population. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Young’s current plan to build a dozen small cabins on Alaska Mental Health Trust land at the end of Jarvis Street is not her first plan for housing the homeless. She has dedicated years trying to find shelter for and improve the lives of Sitka’s homeless population, which usually numbers about 15. As developed over time, the concept is for a cluster of “dry” cabins – that is, without plumbing – with a central communal facility with toilets, showers and kitchen.
“One of the big reasons to go to the trouble of constructing dry cabins for Jarvis Street is to accomplish housing for Sitkans who are presently living outside, and to not encourage people from other communities to come to Sitka in order to find homeless housing,” Young wrote in a follow-up email.
Young recalled efforts as far back as 2017, when she and the Presbyterian Church worked to open a homeless shelter in town. The plan showed promise but in the end got nowhere, she said, after some of those living near the church objected.
Despite the setback, Young said, the late 2018 start of a showers and laundry program for Sitka’s homeless has been a success.
“They would come in in the morning and it was freezing and their hair, their caps, their beards, they were just icicles. And they would come to the laundromat and we would have coffee, and after a while we would have treats too,” she said. Local businesses such as the Highliner and ALPS Credit Union have contributed to the program, she noted.
Through the years, the Homeless Coalition has made multiple attempts to open a shelter, to no avail.
“Four times someone has offered us shelter, four times. And every time it’s the same routine - a small group of people from an agency or a church says we’re looking into doing this… and then they say, ‘Now we’re going to take this idea to the bigger group.’ And when they do, they say, ‘If this isn’t unanimous we won’t do it.’ And it’s never unanimous,” Young told the Sentinel. Back in 2019, the coalition even received a grant from the Mental Health Trust, but couldn’t find a location for a shelter and had to return the funds unspent, Young noted.
Although the multiple efforts to establish a homeless shelter in Sitka have fizzled, Young is unfazed.
“I’m ready, I’m really ready,” she said.
In 2020, a new opportunity arose. The Alaska Mental Health Trust told Young that the coalition could possibly use one-and-a-half to two-acre parcel of trust land at the corner of Jarvis and Haley streets, at the base of Mt. Verstovia.
“That is not anything less than a miracle in Sitka, because there’s hardly any land for anybody in Sitka,” Young said.
She added that funding would need to come from donations and grants.
“It would have to be funded off of grants, though I have to say from the very beginning I thought that we could raise the money for the little cabins ourselves in Sitka. And every time I submit my materials list to Spenards, it comes out to about $8,000 or $8,500,” she said. “Well, now everything has changed with the pandemic, the lumber stuff. But I actually thought I could convince people, three or four different donors could contribute towards a cabin and there could be a plaque.”
In a report written for the coalition back in August of 2020, the consulting firm Agnew-Beck summarized the goals of the project:
“Provide housing stability so residents may consider and address their other needs. Offer access to supports such as employment services, health and behavioral health care, and basic needs (food, clothing, transportation); engagement with services and support is voluntary, not required. Provide long term, permanent housing for those who need it. Provide housing for those who need a shorter-term option. Promote a sense of community.”
The consultants listed options such as tiny homes with full facilities or dry cabins that would have electricity but not running water. The coalition settled on the dry cabin concept, with facilities centralized in a communal building. Young said she would like to see this building constructed first.
All told, Agnew-Beck estimates the whole project would cost $1,097,403 to build.
The homeless coalition’s plan calls for an onsite staff member to ensure smooth functioning of the miniature community.
“Treating them as adults, as what we expect, is only going to be helpful,” Young said. “And giving people who have mental health issues plenty of space and private space can only be a good thing… There would be a live-in person there. And that would be a person to greet people, to keep informed on how people are feeling, to mediate difficulties if they can and to call for help if they need help, so there’s hopefully not a lot of grief.”
The Agnew-Beck report supported the idea of having an on-site staffer.
“Based on the experience of a Housing First facility in Juneau, this doesn’t necessarily need to be someone with particular expertise in behavioral health, case management, homelessness, or property management, but someone who can act more as a constant and positive presence for tenants,” the report states. “The primary goal is a 24/7 presence who can greet tenants and visitors, identify medical or other crisis situations in which first responders need to be called in, and possibly carry out other light duties as appropriate such as cleaning, mowing.”
The report noted that after speaking with potential beneficiaries of the housing project in Sitka, the consultants saw certain items as high priorities.
“Posting of rules for residents and visitors. To-do/chore list and responsibilities for residents. Outdoor-entrance restrooms with 24-hour access for residents. Secure space for belongings,” the report says.
The consultants interviewed community stakeholders including representatives of the City and Borough of Sitka, the Salvation Army, Baranof Island Housing Authority, Sitka Community Land Trust, Sitkans Against Family Violence, and Sitka Counseling and Prevention, who offered various degrees of support for the project.
Looking into the future, Young said the dry cabins could also include a women’s section.
“Already, there’s talk about having a section for women, because not always are women able to stay at the DV (domestic violence) shelter,” she said.
City Planning Director Amy Ainslie told the Sentinel that the needs of the homeless are in the city’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan.
“There is in our housing action section of the Comprehensive Plan... that states ‘create housing for the homeless through public-private partnership,’” Ainslie said. “What I’m hearing so far about how the project is shaping out… is very much in line with the Comprehensive Plan, and specifically the housing section.”
She noted that the AMHT land in question is currently zoned C-1, general commercial. Zoning requirements will need some analysis before going to the Planning Commission or the Assembly, she said.
“That’s sort of the part that remains to be seen,” Ainslie said. “We don’t have a defined use in our zoning code that really neatly aligns with the Agnew-Beck proposal.”
“Depending on the specifics of the proposal, we would see if it cleanly fits into something or if we could make an interpretation, or if the interpretation needed to be vetted to the Planning Commission. That could be done,” she said. “The applicants could (also) seek a chance in the zoning code through a zoning text amendment.”
It was a warm sunny day when Young spoke to the Sentinel, but she was already worried about the coming winter.
“Winter is coming really soon,” she said, “and just the other day I realized that instead of thinking so much about the little dry cabins, I need to think about the services building, because if we were able to even put up the shell of a services building and put heat in it, people could sleep there this winter while we were doing more.”
Young said she is looking forward to a meeting next week with leaders of Juneau’s Housing First project.
“Next week the director and the program director at the Housing First Project over in Juneau are coming over to spend the day with us and we’re going to have a community meeting for people who are interested in hearing more,” Young said.
The meeting will take place at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Centennial Hall Room 1 and is open to the public.
