Where Anchorage residents without a home sleep

Meg Zaletel, Executive Director, and Mac Lyons, Coordinated Entry Director, with the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, performing the Point-in-Time Homelessness Count in downtown, Anchorage

Trained teams from agencies that work with people experiencing homelessness fanned out across Anchorage Jan. 30–31 to count how many are unsheltered in our community.  

The annual Point-in-Time Count required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides a snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness on a single January night and helps to guide funding and policy decisions. The Anchorage survey asked people where they slept the night of Jan. 29. 

Shontale Johnson, VA Homeless Care Coordinator, talks with a man sheltering in his vehicle.

The project is challenging anywhere and especially so in Anchorage. Meg Zaletel, Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness executive director, says it is the farthest-north urban homelessness response system in the country doing the count. And it covers an area the size of Rhode Island. (Fairbanks is part of the Balance of State Continuum of Care for people experiencing homelessness.) As the HUD-designated lead agency for the Anchorage Continuum of Care, ACEH coordinates the unsheltered count with field work by Coalition staff and partners. This year, the Coalition reached out to the public ahead of time to help pin camps on a Municipality of Anchorage map and connect teams with as many people experiencing homelessness as possible.  

At Cuddy Family Midtown Park and Davis Park in Mountain View, many camp sites and parked vehicles where people had been sleeping appeared empty, and for good reason. Temperatures started at 1 degree the first morning of the count and minus 4 on day two. More than a foot of new snow had collapsed tents and obscured footpaths into more secluded camps along greenbelts and in urban woods. Newly opened warming centers offered safety and another spot for people to be counted. Warming centers don’t have beds, so people staying in one are considered unsheltered.  

The project kicked off just after 8 a.m. with a check of sidewalks and alcoves downtown Anchorage by a team that included Zaletel; Mac Lyons, Coordinated Entry director for the Coalition; Radhika Krishna, executive director of the Anchorage Downtown Partnership; and Ray Gilkey, Safety Team lead for the downtown partnership. Gilkey spends his workdays checking on the wellbeing of those who are most vulnerable. He guided the group to where people huddle through the night. 

“Did you have anywhere to sleep last night?” Zaletel asked two people walking past on Fourth Avenue. No, they said.  

Zaletel and Lyons went through the survey questions. Name? How many times have they been homeless? Any disability? Did they serve in the military?  And for the first time in Anchorage, people are asked what factors may have contributed to their situation, such as lost jobs, inability to pay rent, family issues, physical or mental health issues, and substance abuse. 

The team hands out goodie bags with hats, two pairs of gloves, handwarmers and snacks including protein shakes. Some people’s hands were so cold that Zaletel put their gloves on for them. 

The team also made sure those they encountered knew that the Municipality temporarily opened warming centers to keep people safe overnight. “It’s super cold out. Don’t be afraid to go to the warming areas,” Lyons told a woman huddling under a frosty brown tarp. A man under the tarp beside her didn’t want to do the survey but was counted by observation, an option for the count. 

HUD requires a count in order for the Anchorage Continuum of Care network to receive federal dollars. The Point-in-Time Count along with a Housing Inventory Count play a critical role in the annual competition for funds. HUD deems the quality and accuracy of the count to be most important as opposed to the numbers counted. The Anchorage data will go to HUD before being released publicly later this year. 

The snapshot is just that and complements the work done by Anchorage service organizations to regularly collect and update information on each person experiencing homelessness. The Alaska Homelessness Management Information System provides a more complete, continually updated list with names, homeless history, health challenges and housing needs.   

The last Point-in-Time Count in January 2023 tallied 1,760 people experiencing homelessness in Anchorage. While most were in emergency shelters, 335 were unsheltered.  

[In the news: Anchorage Daily News story on 2024 count.] 

A big thank you goes out to partners who braved the snow and the cold to help us count.

They were: Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Catholic Social Services, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Covenant House Alaska, RurAL CAP, SALA medics and Veterans Affairs.