A winter storm didn’t deter participants in this year’s homelessness outreach event in Soldotna. The one-day program connects attendees to resources ranging from housing, to addiction treatment to food. A change this year allowed organizers to scale up operations and serve more people.
Since opening its doors earlier this summer, the Soldotna Field House has hosted a sportfishing roundtable, charity fundraisers and a steady stream of sporting events and community activities. But on Tuesday, the facility welcomed the central Kenai Peninsula’s homelessness outreach event in what marked the program's fifteenth year.
“We've got the food bank, we've got three transportation groups here,” said Kathy Gensel, pointing to different booths set up on the field house’s artificial turf. “So we've got CARTS is here, and Kahtnu Transit, the new bus system, they're here. And then Mo On the Go, is one of our transportation folks, so we've got them here. We've got Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous.”
Gensel is coordinating the event, which is a sort-of one-stop shop of resources for people who are experiencing homelessness. She is also director of Central Peninsula Hospital’s Health Foundation.
There’s more space, more vendors and more room for people without homes to partake, thanks in part because of the new, bigger space. In prior years, the event has been held at the smaller, adjacent Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
Gensel says organizers were also ready to welcome more attendees, if needed, after the remnants of a typhoon displaced more than 1,000 people from western Alaska. But after talking with organizations in Anchorage, she says not many evacuees made it to the Kenai Peninsula.
Attendees can learn about local housing options, get their haircut, take a shower and leave with a backpack full of supplies and winter clothing. The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank serves lunch, the job center runs a table and the state’s public assistance office helps with benefit applications.
The event is also a crucial source of data collection. When attendees arrive at Project Homeless Connect, they complete an intake assessment. The results are shared with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of what’s called a point-in-time count.
“When they come in and do an intake, the question is: ‘Where did you sleep last night?’” she said.
It’s a question that gets asked at similar events elsewhere on the peninsula, around Alaska and across the country. It’s an attempt at a one-day, nationwide snapshot of people experiencing homelessness. The resulting national data are used to drive policy decisions, track housing trends and determine funding for local resource agencies.
This year’s count isn’t ready yet. But Gensel estimates between 90 and 100 people attend annually. She says the actual number of people experiencing homelessness is higher, because some attendees have families at home or other people who did not attend.
Data gathered from last year’s event showed a spike in people reporting living in places considered uninhabitable. And Cheri Smith says this year’s attendees are reporting similar circumstances. She’s administering intake assessments.
“A lot of the people that we're dealing with are out on the streets or they're living in a place not meant for human habitation, so vehicles,” Smith said. “I mean, almost without exception, the people that I've assisted today have been either in the streets or living in substandard conditions.”
A collection of nonprofits opened a homeless shelter in Nikiski in 2021. Gensel, the event coordinator, says the building consistently runs at or near capacity. The Kenai Peninsula does not have an emergency cold weather shelter – a place where anyone can go and get a bed for the night.
Smith also runs the LeeShore Center, Kenai’s domestic violence women’s shelter. She says she’s not sure what’s driving people to the streets, but unemployment is a common theme this day.
“When you're living in the clothes that you're wearing, and maybe you can't shower every day and you have no phone and no address, who's going to hire you?” she said. “How are you going to get to work? So that's a real problem.”
Now that the event is over, Gensel, the organizer, says they’ll review feedback from participants and consolidate it into a report. Even though Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event, the organizations that come together to make it happen operate year-round.
The Kenai Peninsula Continuum of Care maintains an active community on Facebook, where it shares resources for people experiencing homelessness. And the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation publishes a list of resources, many of which are offered at the event.
