Robbie Annogiyuk has been disabled his whole life and homeless in Anchorage for nearly two decades. He really depends on his friends to keep going, he said. They take care of him.
They were all camping together near a busy Anchorage intersection until the city cleared the site in mid-November. They prepared to move on, like they had before, determined to stick together.
“You become attached to people,” Annogiyuk said. “We think of ourselves as a family, and we don't leave anybody behind. Because, I mean, that's how people die, you know, when you leave ‘em behind.”
They assumed sticking together meant staying outside. Anchorage shelters and transitional housing rarely have space for big groups.
But now Annogiyuk’s living at the Creekwood Inn. He didn’t abandon his friends, who he calls his street family. They’re all there with him.
Their move was possible because of the Good Neighbor Fund, a new program launched in collaboration with the mayor’s office. It’s been a couple years in the making, started by two friends testing a simple idea: What if there was a pot of money that could go directly — and quickly — to people who need it?
Sometimes that means immediately covering big costs, like the hotel rooms for Annogiyuk and his crew. But most of the time, it’s the small things — replacing an ID, buying a tank of gas, paying for a cell phone. Outreach workers say it’s often those minor expenses that stand in the way of people getting help. And, until now, they didn’t have a way to cover them — leaving people stuck because of the smallest hurdles.
Looking out a business window
The fund was Kenny Petersen’s idea — and he’s watched it work over the last couple years.
“They can fulfill promises, and there's not a dashed hope or another application or another program to try to go through,” he said. “For me, I really wanted to have no dead-end referrals, because the hope goes down and discouragement increases.”
The idea came to him while working at Allen and Petersen Cooking and Appliance Center in Midtown. He said he was looking out the window at people who were homeless and gathered on the sidewalk below. It was more than 15 years ago, but he still remembers the feeling.
“Here I am in my chair, warm and comfortable, and they were not, and I felt that disparity between the two of us,” he said.
Slowly the idea of a community-supported fund took hold. People want to help, he said. It’s just hard to know how.
“If you’ve ever seen a neighbor in need on the street corner, or laying in the side of a street or sheltering in a tent, and you're going, ‘Is someone going to come and help them?’ This is that,” he said. “If you’re wondering if there's some better way to help a panhandler. This is that.”
Eventually Petersen decided to launch the pilot project himself, using $40,000 of his own money. He partnered with Cathleen McLaughlin, who has been working with Anchorage’s homeless residents for years. She would decide who to give the money to. Since then, she’s spent it on IDs and cellphones, food and health care and pet care and transportation, tracking each expense meticulously.
The fund has already changed lives, she said.
“We had a gentleman who had stage four cancer,” she said. “He was here from Minnesota. He got stranded here, and we were able to fly him back to his hometown about three weeks ago. Why wouldn't we do that?”
She said even small amounts of money can have outsized effects.
“I drove somebody to the DMV because they needed a driver's license,” she said. “A driver's license replacement is 15 bucks, and he had a job waiting for him, but he didn't have the driver's license and it was a $15 issue. Why not give him $15?”
The fund becomes official
Petersen said he pitched his fund to several city administrations in the past but Mayor Suzanne LaFrance was the first to bite. Her office partnered to officially launch the fund on Nov. 19 at Town Square Park. There was a DJ and hot drinks, speeches and mittened applause.
LaFrance took the mic. She told the crowd that while her administration is working hard to combat homelessness in Anchorage, she knows they can’t do it alone.
“And that's why I am so happy to be here today to help launch the Good Neighbor Fund,” she said. “Community donors, including Kenny, Kathleen and so many of you here today, have started this fund so that we can all contribute to help our neighbors take steps towards safety and stability in their lives.”
Now that the fund has officially launched, the Alaska Community Foundation is managing the account. As of Monday, it had raised more than $34,500 from 89 people. A handful of outreach workers will decide how to spend the money.
There are strict guidelines for them to follow.
First, the needs have to be immediate.
And they have to be needs, not wants.
And all of the money donated to the fund has to be spent on those needs — administrative costs are covered elsewhere.
And people who receive the fund have to give back to the community, or commit to improving their lives in some way. Petersen says it’s important that the money not feel like a handout.
At the Clearwater Inn, Annogiyuk said he’s thankful for the fund and the comforts that come with living indoors, like the light switches — no more fumbling around in the dark for his flashlight. Or eating hot soup, and feeling warmed from the inside out. But that’s not the best part.
“You can invite somebody into your place and show them that, hey, I do care,” he said.
His friends are constantly coming and going, he said, joining him in his room, making food and checking in.
