Housing First project progresses
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority announced last week a $375,000 grant to the Nome Community Center for their HomePlate Housing First project. Early this week, Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation also announced a $73,350 grant for the project.
NCC has been working on a concept for 15 units of permanent housing and support services, including case management, physical and mental health care, and help devise individual success plans for chronically homeless individuals.
“The concept is really to support people whose challenges prevent them from being successfully housed in traditional housing settings. Even the challenges that we’re seeing in our unsupportive housing will go away in a supported situation,” said NCC Executive Director Rhonda Schneider.
NCC Housing Resource Coordinator Liz Johnson explained that even people who have become sober and are holding jobs can struggle to find adequate housing due to a criminal record. Others struggle in those settings because they aren’t allowed to invite members of their homeless community to come live with them and get lonely. While volunteering at NEST, the Nome Emergency Shelter Team, Johnson saw currently-housed clients coming to check on their friends.
The HomePlate project was designed with all these concerns in mind. There is private space, there will be a shared laundry facility, there will be a “great room” for workshops and trainings. NCC plans to seek a variance from the Nome Planning Commission to turn some of the required parking spaces into an outdoor space with picnic tables for community members to congregate.
Johnson and Schneider explained that the developer is in place and has contracts for construction, engineering and environmental review. The contract with the construction company even has a local-hire component, to train 8-10 apprentices on basic labor skills. Pilings are to be set in August of this year, with a planned completion of December 2023. The complex will be located at 502 and 504 East Nathan Baron Alley.
The developer also did the Munaqsri Senior Apartments, and HomePlate will be similarly self-sustaining. The 15 units aren’t free, Schneider said, and 30 percent of a resident’s income will go towards paying for their housing. Many of the future residents may be people who currently quality for benefits such as veteran’s benefits or disability but are unable to access them due to a lack of permanent address. When they become housed in this project, they’ll be able to access their benefits and then start to pay that portion towards rent. The remaining 70 percent will come through Project Based Vouchers, a HUD program that has been renewed multiple times since starting in 1998.
With the recent grant from the Mental Health Trust, $200,000 from the City of Nome and $1.5 million through Senator Murkowski’s Congressionally Directed Spending, Johnson said they’re pretty close to reaching their goal. On Tuesday, Premera Blue Cross announced that HomePlate will receive $125,000 from Premera’s social impact grant program for “improving access to behavioral health care, addressing health inequities, and supporting programs related to the intersection of homelessness and behavioral health.” Furthermore, Johnson attended a call with the Denali Commission and will apply with the City for an Alaska Community Development Block Grant. They hope to meet with Native corporations such as Sitnasuak and Bering Straits Native Corporation in the coming months, as well.
NCC has been looking at the Housing First model since 2009, and this project was originally expected to be $5.6 million, but the pandemic caused material and shipping fees to skyrocket and contractor availability to plummet. The project cost ballooned to just under $10 million.
Despite that cost being five times the NCC’s operating budget, the organization plugged on. “Because of good people who are committed, we’re going to get it done,” Schneider said. “We have people who do heroic work.”
Juneau completed a 32-unit Housing First project in 2017, and it was so successful that they’re in the process of building a second. While NCC does expect a waitlist, they don’t expect people flocking to Nome to get in, and there are criteria to be applicable to live there, such as having been homeless for a year.
Fifteen units are roughly half of the number of units needed, Schneider thinks. That doesn’t necessarily mean that NCC will be jumping into another project anytime soon, but they’re not the only ones working on the issue, either. The assorted members of the Nome Housing Coalition are all addressing the needs of their clients, and collaborations are possible, too. Johnson hopes to grow the coalition, working together to tackle homelessness.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the impact Housing First will have on the community, and hopefully people will see how much it’s working for our folks,” Johnson said.