“This will be a building where kids can come and know that it’s a safe place.” Ground broken for new Carson-Cottle Center, a MyHouse facility

Ground was broken for the new Carson-Cottle Center, which will serve as a new facility for MyHouse, specifically providing youth housing and work services, and training areas, along with retail spaces on the bottom floor. The ceremony was the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to the community and homeless youth.

For Michelle Overstreet, Founder and CEO of MyHouse, it is the culmination of a labor of love that began in nothing more than a small space at Burchell High School in Wasilla.

“When we started MyHouse, what we heard over and over and over was that it will never work, that kids don’t want to have jobs, they don’t want to get training, that they won’t come,” said Overstreet during her remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony. She said that the doubters and naysayers provided the motivation to make sure MyHouse came to fruition.

She told the audience that it was Senator Lisa Murkowski who reached out to her and encouraged Overstreet to apply for an appropriation, telling her to “dream big, and send me something awesome.”

“Can you imagine being a kid, living upstairs and being able to go downstairs to learn to do something downstairs? Those are things young people feel excited and proud of,” she said, overcome with emotion.

“The thing that I think is the most meaningful about this program is that homeless youth in our community are not invisible, and they’re not put in a building where they’re kept away from the public eye. They’re brought into a building where they interact with all of you,” Overstreet said.

“They recognize that they have value. That they’re part of our community.”

Michael Carson, Vice Chairman of MyHouse, served as Master of Ceremonies. He thanked the MyHouse Board members, the City of Wasilla and Mayor Glenda Ledford, along with the Mat-Su Borough Assembly for working lock-step with MyHouse as they worked to get through the different processes needed to move ahead with the new facility.

He also thanked Senator Murkowski, who assisted with the federal grant that allowed MyHouse to expand its services.

“We really love how Senator Murkowski gets us, but more specifically, gets kids, and what it takes to be able to prevent homelessness for kids across the state,” Carson said.

Carson also thanked funders including Alaska Housing, Mat-Su Health Foundation, Cook Inlet Housing, Rasmussen Foundation, MEA, MTA, GCI, RuralCap, and the Department of Labor, to name just a few.

“Last, but not least, are you, the individual donors that keep our doors open, keep job training going, so that our youth have that way out of homelessness.”

The new building is named for Carson, who has dedicated decades of service to working with homeless youth, first in Anchorage as part of the first Outreach Team for Covenant House when it launched its homeless youth services, and vast experience working with youth of all ages in homeless and substance abuse recovery situations. He had been on the Operating Board for the local Housing and Homeless Coalition before joining MyHouse, joining Overstreet in founding MyHouse right after retiring and has been hard at work since that time. He has also chaired the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force for the past five years.

The other half of the name is in honor of the late Bert Cottle, who passed away late last year. He had served on the Wasilla City Council before being elected Mayor for 2 terms. Cottle was known for his passion for the community, having long served on various boards throughout the state, and providing much-needed support for different outreach organizations. MyHouse, in particular, was an organization near to Cottle’s heart.

The land was purchased from the Carter Family Trust, overseen by Kris and Ray Carter. On hand was daughter Marie Carter Smith to speak for the family.

“My parents are very happy to support this project.” The Carters have been longtime volunteers in the Wasilla community, after moving here in 1965.

“They were always advocates for student programs, things like building parks, starting a Cub Scouts group, my mom gave sewing lessons to kids, and they did 4H. Recently, my mom began making quilts for children in foster care,” their daughter said.

Smith told the audience after having tried to sell the property for a long time, which her parents gave up finding a buyer, but that when Overstreet had reached out to inquire about the property, it was an easy decision.

“Because of the excellence of care, and because we personally knew someone who had their program, knew her story and everything she had gone through, and because of that, we said ‘yes, we want to help with this project.’”

Smith said that her parents had also done previous volunteer work with MyHouse, before a message from her mother:

“This is the only project that I would sell this property to at this time. As a family, we hope that we can to a point that we don’t need these services. But until then, we really love the values of the MyHouse model and are really glad to play our small part, being able to provide the land for this facility.”

Mayor Ledford, who participated in the groundbreaking, said that this new MyHouse project was a long time coming.

“What this means to the community is just overwhelming. I remember meeting Michelle when she was only working out of a closet at Burchell (High School), and this is so deserved. To see the support of the community is just wonderful. It’s just like Bert (Cottle) said, ‘these are our kids.’ We need to be there to help them.”

Taylor Jordan, who owns Black Birch Books, was on hand for the ceremony, said she was excited about what this will mean moving forward.

“I am so excited, I cannot tell you! The amazing opportunities that MyHouse provides for the community, and the amount of inclusion they do for the people that really, desperately need help. They are never short of people that want to help the community, and that is such a huge deal for everybody. We’re very grateful,” she said. Jordan’s store exclusively hires staff from the MyHouse internship program.

Among the planned services is a new restaurant space designed by Josh Broda from the Chop House and Settlers’ Bay Lodge; a concert space which is being designed by Josh Fryfogel; Voices of America will be offering a Recovery High School and outpatient services for youth; and the only secure residential human trafficking recovery program for young adults in Alaska.

“This will be a building where kids can come and know that it’s a safe place, that they’re going to get the treatment and help that they need, and they’re going to get loved.”

Overstreet says that the space will serve both the community and homeless clients, and that the current drop-in center will remain firmly where it is and continue to serve homeless and at-risk youth with the wraparound services and job training at the Gathering Grounds Café and Steampunk Boutique.

Construction is set to begin shortly and should take 3 years for completion.