Thrift store turns over new leaf to help homeless

Our reporters spend a lot of time at charity events and planning sessions, board meetings and fundraisers.

There’s something they hear quite often when those charities have something to do with homelessness, an old saw with a truth everyone recognizes: It’s easier to keep someone from falling into homelessness than it is to pull someone out of homelessness.

Valley Charities, which you probably know better as turn A leaf thrift store in Wasilla, seems to be on board with that adage.

Having teamed up with an all-star lineup of other successful local charities, turn A leaf intends to deploy $550,000 in grant money from the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to prevent homelessness.

The idea is to help people pay utilities and make rent, though organizers insist there has to be some ownership in the process for their clients. After all, $550,000 is a lot of money, but not enough to pay everyone’s full rent each month.

And they hope to be up and running by the fall, just in the nick of time.

“We want to make sure we can supply and service people through the winter,” said John Rossi, head of Valley Charities.

Rossi said the effort is unprecedented not just for turn A leaf, which was already a charitable organization, but for Valley Charities, which didn’t have much focus on homeless prevention until now.

“It’s the first time there’s been something of this magnitude available in the community,” he said.

That team of charities includes just about all the usual suspects when you think of people working with homeless issues in the Valley — everyone from Blood and Fire Ministries, to Alaska Family Services and Family Promise Mat-Su.

That so many heavy-hitters in the field chose to get behind the effort tells us this is the real deal.

Another thing that gives us confidence the grant will be well used is that turn A leaf isn’t new to the charity game.

Just so far this year the charity has helped nearly 1,000 people get clothing and medical equipment, saving $422,000 in costs to people who can’t afford them.

So we hope you’ll join us in applauding this effort, and maybe spend some money at turn A leaf thrift store. We hear you can even get power tools there. Where else in the Valley can you do that and know your money is going to a good cause?