With housing, they get their lives back

Beau, Sarah and their dog, Hot Wheels

Beau and Sarah sit in their cozy living room in Spenard and count their blessings. 

During the pandemic shutdown, it had been one thing after another. They let their professional licenses as an electrician and a registered nurse lapse because they were planning to move to California to care for Sarah’s mom. But they couldn’t drive through Canada and couldn’t afford to barge everything. “It was like $30,000 to get out of the state,” Beau said.

Other things went sideways, too. They were stuck without jobs and spiraled into a dark place of depression and drug misuse. They couldn’t see a way out. They lost custody of their son. They went from living in the southside Anchorage home where Sarah grew up to couch surfing to living in their car to a room in an emergency shelter. “Everything every day was stressful,” Beau said.

Decoration in Beau and Sarah's home.

Now they are rebuilding their lives. Through the Next Step housing collaboration, they have an apartment of their own and were able to regain their beloved dog, Hot Wheels. They are recovering, healing and working. Beau, who had been doing day labor and then was working for a shipping company, is again working as a licensed electrician. Sarah is working, too, and plans to regain her nursing license. They can work on regaining child custody. For the first time in a long while, they feel like someone’s got their back.

“It’s nice to just be able to come home and just come home,” Sarah said.

“I feel better now that we’re here. I feel I can get ahead and start to make progress,” Beau said.

Next Step weaves together a year of support that includes rental assistance, in-home case management and landlord supports to help individuals and families move from homelessness to housed. Beau and Sarah are among more than 150 people who have been housed so far.

Their steps forward began when they met the outreach team from the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness at Cuddy Family Midtown Park, where there was a large encampment the winter of 2023-2024. They followed up at the ACEH office on Tudor Road, where they enrolled in Coordinated Entry, an assessment that establishes a by-name priority list for housing based on vulnerability. They connected with the team at Henning Inc., which at the time was operating emergency cold weather shelters for the Municipality. They moved from their car into the shelter at the Alex Hotel, and along with dozens of other Alex residents, were offered housing through Next Step.

That connection was critical, they said. They had a housing voucher through Alaska Housing Finance Corp. that would cover rent but past issues prevented some apartment complexes from offering a lease.

Sarah and Beau worked with Next Step to find an apartment that would accept Hot Wheels.

“It seemed like we could never get enough money to get it going and no one would give us a chance,” Beau said.

With Next Step, ACEH’s unit acquisition and landlord liaison Mary Jane Michael found housing options to match their needs. The program covered deposits, and Michael helped with the application.

“Both were just normal working people who were in a bad situation that caused them both to be homeless,” their landlady, Thao Le, said. “Then they found Mary Jane.” She sees a hard-working couple with much promise. “They are driving toward something and wanting to make their lives better.”

Their advice on improving the homelessness response system? Those working with people experiencing homelessness should always keep in mind that at the end of their shift, they get to go home.

“Remember everything that you have,” Sarah said. “Be grateful you are not in that position.”

Beau is both an electrician and an artist. He often portrays family and friends, and their pets.