Group continues to work for homeless solutions

WASILLA — Affordable housing remains at the top of the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness’s list of issues, organization leaders say.

However, the language used to address that issue will become slightly more active. And one group that used to be a task force for the coalition has blossomed into a coalition of its own, said John Rozzi, CEO for Valley Charities, Inc., one of the member organizations that make up the coalition. The group intends to unveil a new strategic plan and reorganization at a meeting at the Yenlo Square conference room at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec 1.

The changes will be relatively slight. For example, the previous strategic plan called on the coalition to be “a voice for sustainable solutions” to issues surrounding housing and homelessness. The new plan calls for “community action for sustainable housing and homelessness solutions,” according to Rozzi. Where in the past, the strategic plan might have called for the coalition to encourage a plan to deal with issues, the new document calls for the coalition to plan, Rozzi said.

That might seem like a more aggressive tack, but the core mission will remain the same, Rozzi said.

“We’re focusing more on action-oriented steps,” he said. “It didn’t feel like the statements we were making in our plan were as action-oriented as we need them to be.”

Rozzi rejected the notion that the changes were cosmetic, though he said the organization’s primary goal of encouraging people to deal with the issues surrounding homelessness would remain the same. Despite more active verbs, the coalition would continue to serve as facilitators and coordinators, Rozzi said.

“We might get a little more vocal, but it’s more along the lines of putting people in the right place to help

The coalition will also formally introduce a new group designed to focus specifically on prisoner re-entry, under the leadership of Janice Weiss, Rozzi said. The new coalition has been underway since October, Rozzi said.

MY House will replace the unaccompanied teens task force, according to MY House director Michelle Overstreet.

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it that way,” she said. “We don’t have a separate youth committee.”

Apart from the reorganization and the mission statement, Coalition members will also plug upcoming events, like the annual Project Homeless Connect, slated for Jan. 27, 2016 at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Complex. The event serves as a clearinghouse between the Valley homeless and basic service providers, like charities and healthcare providers.

Despite the changes, affordable housing — distinguished from low-income housing in that it doesn’t partition the consumer market based on need — is likely to remain the Valley’s top housing issue for the foreseeable future, Rozzi said.

“It’s going to be a topic for a little while just because of where were at and the number of factors that are involved, like the economy, where people live,” he said.

For example, housing developments on Knik-Goose Bay Road don’t necessarily translate into affordable housing without an affordable method of getting to and from work — which means some kind of public transit system, Rozzi said.

“That’s what they’re working on right now,” he said.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.