Summer not so sunny if you don’t have a home

For most of us, this week’s amazing summer weather has been an excuse to drop an extra line in a local lake, prepare every meal on the grill and explore the great outdoors of the Mat-Su.

If you’re one of the thousands of estimated homeless in the Valley, summer is a short break from the biting cold and harsh reality of not knowing where your next meal is coming from or not having a safe, warm place to stay.

Beginning at 5 p.m. tonight, hundreds more will get a small taste of homelessness at the fifth annual Cardboard City event, a fundraiser for Family Promise Mat-Su, a nonprofit that’s helping lead the charge to end homelessness in the Valley.

Participants bring their own cardboard boxes and spend the night at the Alaska State Fair grounds. They eat at a makeshift soup kitchen, enjoy live music, contests and hear testimonials, while learning more about some of the Mat-Su’s most vulnerable residents.

Of course, one night in a cardboard box in a designated location with a guarantee of food and fellowship is hardly a true representation of what it’s like to be homeless. But that’s not the point. The point of Cardboard City is the more than $8,000 the event raises that Family Promise Mat-Su uses year-round to benefit those truly in need.

Those sitting comfortably in their living rooms secure in the notion that Alaska’s economy has been somewhat insulated from the economic downturn of the past several years should consider these sobering facts:

• Alaska identified 4,451 homeless youth in public schools in 2011 — more than 800 in the Mat-Su Borough alone — a 31 percent increase from 2008.

• A single person living in the Mat-Su Valley has to earn a minimum of $14.98 an hour to afford the average fair market rent of a two-bedroom apartment.

• Of those homeless (also labeled “unaccompanied”) youth in the United States — an estimated 55,066 — 48 percent aren’t proficient in school.

• At the most recent local homeless count held in January at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, 339 people turned out to receive help (218 adults and 121 children).

Many of the Valley’s young homeless population are teens. Some “couch surf” at the homes of friends and family, while others are vulnerable to predators who can subject young people to things much worse than homelessness. That’s why events like Cardboard City are so important. While it’s unlikely anyone will come away from the experience with a true understanding of what it’s like to not have a home, participants can gain a new appreciation for the problem in our Valley.

Many will be inspired to become more aware of the issue in their daily lives, while others will be moved to give their time, money and love to some of their neighbors who need it the most.

For one night this summer, leave the golf clubs in the trunk and park the Jet Ski. Grab a roll of duct tape, the largest cardboard boxes you can find and share a meaningful night with your extended Valley family.