It was gratifying to read a front-page article in ADN about the successful Next Step program of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness to counterbalance the ugly story of a man shooting into a homeless camp and complaints about drugs, drinking and crime attributed to homeless people.
Meg Zaletel deserves a lot of credit for her leadership of the Anchorage Coalition, as well as serving as the Assembly vice chair. Despite her always recusing herself from voting on any issues where she might have a conflict, there have been false allegations that she is using the homeless issue to perpetuate homelessness in order to enrich herself, and there was even a recent totally misguided effort to recall her from office.
The ADN article featured one success story of a 51-year-old woman who has been homeless for more than five years and is now in her own studio apartment and working for a nonprofit organization, as well as crocheting hats, scarves and socks that she donates to homeless people. The article described how thrilled this lady was to finally have her own place.
This lady is just one of the 177 people who have been moved from homelessness to apartments under the Next Step program. This program provides a year of support to clients as well as landlords, and includes a counseling component ad well as financial support.
Obviously, there are still many homeless people in Anchorage, but instead of just complaining and denigrating the homeless people as vagrants and criminals, it is important that we take notice of successes and applaud people like Ms. Zaletel.
— Joanne Kell
Anchorage
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