Sanctuary opens to shelter pets of homeless families

WASILLA — Homeless people with pets now have a safe place for their four-legged friends to stay during their time in pet-free, temporary housing, thanks to a joint nationwide effort by PetSmart and Family Promise.

“At PetSmart, pets are our kids, and that’s how we look at it, so this is very exciting for us,” PetSmart district manager Stephanie Juarez said at the Tuesday ribbon cutting ceremony.

The new pet sanctuary at Family Promise Mat-Su in Wasilla is now one of eight on-site facilities at various Family Promise locations around the country, five of which opened or will open this year. The $35,000 building includes kennel space and a fenced-in outdoor area for two to three dogs, plus a “kitty condo” for two cats, separated from the canine area by a locking door.

“This is a huge, huge investment in homeless families’ pets,” said Family Promise Mat-Su executive director Laurie Kari.

Kari said she is grateful for PetSmart’s funding and for the services provided by private, local contractor Tim Ensminger who built the building, both of which made the pet sanctuary possible.

Family Promise Mat-Su serves up to 15 people at time, Kari said, and uses their office for “overflow and transitional housing.” The place isn’t that big — about 1,000 square feet — and due to employees’ and temporary residents’ allergies, they haven’t been able to host pets in the building. For some homeless families, that stipulation is enough to turn them away.

“They will choose to stay in their car rather than come to the shelter sometimes,” Kari said at the ceremony.

Kari also said that giving up a pet can be “very detrimental for the family” in transition as they deal with a living situation that is “already an upheaval.”

In his blessing of the facility, Glacier View Alliance Church pastor Rev. Ron Jones spoke to the importance of animals by quoting Genesis 2:19 and Bob Dylan — “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” — after the fact.

“Animals are important to us, pets are important to us, and they’re therapeutic,” Rev. Jones said.

Newly elected Wasilla mayor Bert Cottle expressed his agreement with all the speakers during the post-ceremony festivities by saying that in his 20 years as a police officer, he would see people break into animal shelters to reclaim their pet before they would break their spouse out of jail.

On the other side of the fence, some homeless people, Kari said, might be tempted to leave their pet at the facility and not return. There is a section in the Family Promise eligibility application that inquires about pets of the homeless individual or family, and oftentimes people will answer, “yes I have pets and I don’t know” what to do with them during the transition period, Kari said.

To minimize the chance that the pet will be neglected, PetSmart Promise, as the partnership is called, recommends that each affiliate develop a process to evaluate pet health; a waiver, in the event that the pet is injured, becomes ill, dies, or injures another pet or person while in the program; a process for exiting the pet from the sanctuary once its owner is permanently housed; a schedule according to which owners will visit their pets; and an abandonment procedure, determining the number of days after which a pet is considered abandoned, for example.

Kari said Family Promise Mat-Su is currently working on adapting the recommendations to fit the needs of homeless people in the Mat-Su Valley and the reality of their situations. If owners need financial assistance in obtaining health certificates or vaccinating their pet, for example, Family Promise will provide it.

“Usually our guest parents are very busy, so if we can help we will,” Kari said.

The sanctuary will be ready to house pets on Monday, she said.

“I hope it gives our community a picture of the good stuff happening (here),” she said.

For more information, visit petsmartpromise.com.

Family Promise Mat-Su is located at 561 W. Nelson Ave. and can be reached by phone at 357-6160.

Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.