Tuesdays and Thursdays Food Distribution Update!

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church will be the only food distribution site until further notice. 

This program was initiated to meet the need of the over 300 unsheltered individuals and families in the Anchorage area and was made possible by a grant by Alaska Community Foundation.  

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church
855 E 20th Ave Anchorage AK 99501

Local Housing & Homelessness Highlights

Shiloh Community Housing, Inc. (SCHI)

Save the date for SCHI’s partnership meeting on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.  SCHI will be discussing the vision for the Community Resource Center (CRC) that will be located in MountainView, Anchorage. SCHI’s goal is for the CRC to become a central hub for information and a “one-stop shop” that will provide important resources and support services.

The mission of the CRC is for services to be used to disrupt the cycle of homelessness in our city and give Alaskans the connections they need to prevent them from losing stable housing.

RSVP to carmen.nikolai@shilohhousing.org to reserve your spot.

Alaskan’s for Better Elections (ABE)

Alaskans for Better Elections is providing the following resources to help voters understand this year’s elections:

Train-the-trainers: ABE has partnered with Democracy Rising, a renowned national organization with years of experience helping educate voters on Ranked Choice Voting, to provide opportunities for community leaders to learn best practices for voter education. These training sessions are free of charge.
Next ZOOM training: Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 3pm – register here

Educational Resources: Downloadable resources including handouts, a training presentation, and mock election materials can be found on our website: www.alaskansforbetterelections.com/resources.

If you are interested in scheduling a Train-the-trainer event for your organization please reach out to Owen Hutchinson: ohutchinson@aceh.org, 907-312-9547

National Housing & Homelessness Highlights

Community Solutions

Housing is health care

How a pilot is connecting health systems with homeless response to find solutions to chronic homelessness

People experiencing homelessness don’t just lack housing. They also, quite often, lack health care. In fact, “studies show that folks have a shorter life expectancy, 10-20 years shorter, because they are chronically homeless,” shared Betsy Kammerdiener, at CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

Kammerdierner works at a hospital that is part of a pilot initiative to realize the critical role that health care systems can play in helping communities reduce chronic homelessness. 

“There is a health gap,” reiterated Kammerdierner. “If we are treating [individuals] within our health care system, and discharging them back into homelessness, all of our progress is truncated because we are not able to do the follow up we need.”

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Special NOFO to Address Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness Available in e-snaps

The Special Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to Address Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness (Special NOFO) forms are now available in e-snaps with a submission deadline of October 20, 2022, at 8:00 PM EDT.
Continuums of Care (CoCs) can access the CoC Application and Priority Listing through their Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 CoC Program Registration funding opportunity. Project applicants can access project applications through either:

1. The Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside
2. The Rural Set Aside
3. CoC Planning Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside
4. Unified Funding Agency (UFA) Costs Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside

Project applicants must be sure to select the funding opportunity corresponding to the Set Aside they intend to apply for (i.e., the Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside, the Rural Set Aside, CoC Planning Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside, or UFA Costs Unsheltered Homelessness Set Aside) to ensure the project appears on the correct Project Listing once it is submitted to the CoC.
In the coming weeks, Navigational Guides and Detailed Instructions will be released to help CoCs and project applicants access the applications and answer the questions on each form. Once posted, these resources will be available via the HUD.gov Special NOFO page.
For additional resources, visit the CoC Program Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness NOFO page on the HUD Exchange.

National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)

How Nonprofits Can Use Information from the Federal Government’s Project to Advance Equity and Racial Justice

For most of us in the nonprofit space – whether as nonprofit employees, board members, volunteers, or donors – we’re driven by both a personal sense of calling and a collective sense of shared mission to make the world, our community, a better place. Fortunately, that drive to improve is not restricted to nonprofits. 

• In 2021, the federal government launched a comprehensive internal review of major services it provides to the public to assess whether systemic barriers are blocking people from receiving high-impact services. 
• Federal agencies then developed Equity Access Plans for removing barriers. Many of these plans have been assembled in a report, Advancing Equity and Racial Justice Through the Federal Government, along with other useful information.
• As organizations committed to the public good, nonprofits would benefit by learning more about this sweeping project. 

To that end, our article describes the government’s comprehensive approach, identifies how nonprofits can use the information, and offers steps nonprofits can replicate to advance equity and racial justice in their organizations.