A grassroots charity plans to break ground in Anchorage later this summer on six tiny homes to shelter people who are homeless. It’s likely to be the first time anywhere in Alaska that the extra small structures are used specifically to address homelessness.
The tiny homes will be built outside of Central Lutheran Church off 15th Avenue. Coincidentally, people started setting up tents in June on city-owned land right next to the future shelter site. Shelter operators usually want to keep camps like these – and the unsavory elements they sometimes attract – away from the people they’re actively serving.
But for this organization to try to get this encampment cleared would be hypocritical. The name of the nonprofit is In Our Backyard.
Julie Greene-Graham said she used to hear “not in our backyard” a lot when she was a member of a city task force that worked on emergency shelter plans.
“We want to welcome people in our backyard,” she said.
Greene-Graham chairs the nonprofit’s board. It started with members of the Central Lutheran Church last fall.
The plan is to build six tiny homes out of structural insulated panels, and set up a trailer with two full bathrooms in it this summer. Four of the units are for individuals and will be 64 square feet. Two are for two people and will be 96 square feet. For safety, one unit will be used by a paid, overnight site manager, Greene-Graham said.
The goal is to open the tiny homes in October to seven people, aged 50 and up who can live independently and don’t have substance or alcohol use issues.
“‘Cause we don’t really have the capacity to manage people with more, you know, complex medical issues,” she said.
The tiny homes will be open year-round. The idea is people can live there temporarily until they find more permanent housing.
To determine who lives in them, the nonprofit will rely on the Coordinated Entry system that social service agencies use to connect people with shelter beds all over town. It works like a triaged waitlist for people seeking shelter. Generally, it prioritizes people with the greatest needs. But it can also screen for eligibility characteristics that In Our Backyard and other higher barrier, privately operated shelters impose.
Seven people is just a drop in the bucket of the 550 people that the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness estimates are living out of tents and cars in the city right now. But Greene-Graham said there’s been a lot of interest in the project.
“There’s definitely an appetite for more, and every time we give a talk, we have people step up with either donations, or volunteer, or people saying, ‘I’m a structural engineer, I want to help,’” she said. “So there’s lots of caring and compassionate people in our community.”
Donated expertise and services have helped keep the costs down. Greene-Graham said Thursday the organizers have raised about half of its $300,000 capital budget, and that Matson recently committed $8,000 worth of shipping expenses to get the building materials to Anchorage.
She said they’re planning for it to cost about $73,000 a year to run. Specifics of the operation are still being worked on. She wants a case manager to be on site regularly, and to build up a community support network willing to help out the shelter users with little errands.
They also intend to collect occupancy fees, but haven’t figured out how much yet. If things go well, they’ll give those fees back to shelter users when they move on, perhaps to be used as a security deposit on a new apartment along with a good reference letter for a prospective landlord.
Separately, Greene-Graham has also been volunteering for the church, helping the new neighbors camping along the property line where the tiny homes will soon be built. She helps them with some basic needs.
A few Fridays ago, she was doing her rounds in the camp, and a man with wet hair walked over to ask if a dumpster was coming. She wasn’t sure, but offered him some trash bags, and told him where to put garbage to make it easy for the city’s seasonal cleanup crew to pick up.
“We want to keep it clean, yeah?” he said.
“Yeah, and I think you guys are doing a good job,” Greene-Graham told him.
“Thank you very much,” he said.
“And you look so good, after your shower!” she told him.
That afternoon, a First United Methodist Church-affiliated project had its mobile shower trailer available in the parking lot. A lot of organizations have been pitching in. There’s also a porta potty and free meals distributed daily.
“Just trying to be good neighbors and having a relationship with people who are staying here, to ask them to keep it safe,” Greene-Graham said. “But we have seen some criminal activity. We did call 311 yesterday to have people walk through.”
That’s a phone number for contacting Anchorage police with non-emergency matters.
“There’s a lot of, uh, bike activity,” Greene-Graham said.
Asa Plikat has firsthand experience with that “bike activity.” The recent high school graduate lives nearby with his family. A few weeks ago, he said, their garage was broken into and his mountain bike, worth about $1,000, was missing.
Within a few hours, he spotted it in the camp.
“And about nine people emerge from tents that are staring at me and yelling at me,” he said.
He said he impulsively grabbed his bike, and in a super-assertive voice, announced, “This is my bike. I’m taking this with me.”
He said one woman followed him back to his truck and doused him in bear spray.
Plikat’s mom, by the way, works at Alaska Public Media and she’s not very happy about some of his decisions. He got home and reported the incident to Anchorage police, who also discouraged amateur repo work.
“I think it could’ve gone a lot worse,” Plikat said, on reflection.
So that’s the other side of In Our Backyard’s backyard. Greene-Graham said there have been setbacks to maintaining a good neighbor relationship.
“So, it’s that balance,” she said.
The number of tents in the camp fluctuates a lot, but it’s been around 20 to 25 lately. Theoretically, under an ordinance the Anchorage Assembly adopted in May, sites with more than 25 are supposed to be a high priority for the city to clear out. City codes also forbid camping within half a mile of a licensed shelter, though that doesn’t apply to In Our Backyard.
Greene-Graham said she’s not sure how the camp will impact the tiny home project. For now, she’s still working the good neighbor angle, trying to keep the church’s property safe and the encampment civil as construction approaches.
She thinks of the tiny home project as a pilot: Work through the building process, resolve problems, document it, and turn it into a manual for other groups to emulate in their own backyards.
Jeremy Hsieh covers Anchorage with an emphasis on housing, homelessness, infrastructure and development. Reach him atjhsieh@alaskapublic.orgor 907-550-8428. Read more about Jeremyhere.
