Clare House is an emergency shelter for women with children in Anchorage. Over the years Catholic Social Services has received great support from the community to operate this Anchorage outreach. Many extraordinary volunteers have dedicated time and effort to improving the lives of women and children in need. Surprisingly though, it is not a place that many people in Anchorage have ever seen. And if they have seen it, they may not have known they passed it.
In an effort to protect the privacy of clients and provide a safe space for women and children that may be very vulnerable, we try to stay under the radar. In this article though, I thought I’d walk you through Clare House and give you a sense of what it’s like.
The building is a hotel that we refurbished with the support of many in the community. The front door is decorated on either side by two beautiful stained glass windows that celebrate Saint Clare and Saint Monica — these were donated in loving memory of Evelyn “Bobbie” Hamm, a longtime supporter of CSS and Clare House, by her family. The doors remain locked at all times, and people are allowed in by our front desk staff.
Our front desk is where new clients hear about the services available at Clare House. These include access to a case manager to work with them to find permanent housing, a small computer lab and regular activities and education, among other things. New clients learn the rules of Clare House in terms of safety, and about weekly meetings that all clients are invited and encouraged to attend.
We can house approximately 100 people in our emergency shelter beds downstairs. These consist of 25 individual living units of varying sizes, allowing for more private moments as mother and children heal from the trauma of homelessness while making plans for the future. In addition to the living units, there is a large kitchen and separate dining area, a large community meeting/learning space, a small children’s library and an indoor child’s play place. This is all downstairs.
Upstairs at Clare House we have 12 units for transitional housing. This is a great next step for guests coming from the emergency shelter rooms to have a more private space that is theirs to rent for a reduced rate. While in those units, women still receive case management and support in building skills around finances and being a good renter. Clients can stay in these housing units for up to two years.
Many women at Clare House work in jobs with little pay and find it difficult to make ends meet when paying high rent, utilities, and providing other necessities including diapers, formula and child care. With a vacancy rate in Anchorage of two percent, the challenge of finding affordable housing becomes even more difficult. Homeless women and children are often invisible in a community, because you do not necessarily see them on the street — they may be sleeping on other’s couches or in cars, or in other places that could be unsafe. For homeless women with children, Clare House is an option.
In our work at Clare House in particular I’m reminded often of the Virgin Mary.
“Let us always have at heart the Virgin Mary, a humble girl from small people lost on the fringes of a great empire, a homeless mother who could turn a stable for beasts into a home for Jesus with just a few swaddling clothes and much tenderness.” – Pope Francis (Speech on the Poor and Indigenous Peoples, July 10, 2015).
The writer is executive director of Catholic Social Services in Alaska. For more information about CSS, call 222-7300 or visit cssalaska.org.
'How Clare House shelters Anchorage’s women & children'
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