Grants cuts threaten CSS homeless outreach

CatholicAnchor.org
A program that distributes funds to keep homeless and emergency shelters open across Alaska has been cut from Governor Bill Walker’s proposed capital budget. Unless legislators restore the funding, dozens of organizations, including Catholic Social Services in Anchorage will feel the pinch.

As reported by KNOM.org, the Basic Homeless Assistance Program (BHAP) provides up to $6 million a year to emergency shelters and transitional housing programs across Alaska. Last year 40 organizations received funding through the program, helping more than 13,000 of Alaska’s most vulnerable. Due to the state’s $3.5 billion budget crisis the grant was stripped from Gov. Walker’s capital budget in an effort to eliminate nearly every item that does not have federal matching funds.

In Anchorage, losing BHAP grants would impact the Brother Francis Shelter and Clare House, a shelter for women and children. Catholic Social Services Director Lisa Aquino told KNOM.org that the BHAP money goes directly to fund case management at these two programs. Case workers connect people with long-term housing, employment, treatment and heal care, Aquino said.

“Those case management services are really the ladder out of homelessness,” she added, “and without this grant funding, that ladder is going to disappear.”

Aquino said she aims to engage lawmakers in Juneau and make the case that funding shelters and homeless programs should be a top priority.