Visiting the Homeless in Alaska
Blogger Mark Horvath is reporting from his trip to Alaska, where the homeless are subjected to the elements and die at alarming rates. Read his first post here.
It is days like this I really wish I had paid more attention in English class. So much happened I want to share with you, yet I just don't know how to express it in written word.
We started the day at the Anchorage Rescue Mission. See a photo gallery of the place here. Lots of great improvements. I still wish I could check in multiple times for same story. I interviewed program director Dave Williams and you can watch that here. I really enjoyed my tour and getting to meet Dave.
Ed O'Neill then picked us up to visit camps. But first stop was a meeting with Assembly Member Debbie Ossiander. If I had known I wouldn't have worn my "Animal" muppet shirt. It was very interesting seeing
the political process in the works and I was honored to be included.
Ed is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He once owned 20 liquor stores and now runs a nonprofit called Anchorage Responsible Beverage Retailers Association that is funded by the liquor stores he sold. Basically it goes to homeless camps and cleans up the mess while also trying to help people get out of homelessness. ARBRA is a really amazing and unique nonprofit community support model. Here is a short interview with Ed at one of the nearly two dozen camps around Anchorage.
Ed O'Neill interview at homeless camp in Alaska from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.
Ed drove us around trying to visit camps. During the day no one is home so we didn't meet anyone at the two camps we visited. I did have the honor of meeting Bernice on the side of a busy road. She has severe mental illness and was extremely grateful for the gift of socks and gloves. Thanks to all of you that helped support this trip for making that happen. Special thanks to sponsor Hertz.
Luke we met panhandling. I still cannot wrap my mind around living outside in this weather. But I saw an example of that story, the main reason I am here, play out in real life. We stopped at a park and I met a nice older man with a female confined to a wheelchair. They are also sleeping outside and have been homeless 11 years. They were very nice but did not want to go on video. I always respect people and my first priority is to make a friend. I really wish you could have seen the woman put on the new gloves. She was so happy. While talking, another homeless man pointed out a "native" trying to walk down the street. Alcohol is a huge issue here and this man could hardly walk. He went behind a van so I could not see him fall, but I noticed he wasn’t coming into view so I walked over. He was collapsed in a snow bank.
I ran over to see if he was ok and Ed followed. The man was barely conscious and mumbled something about his back. Ed called 911, which is the right thing to do. Left alone in the snow this man probably would have died. The police arrived quickly, but by this time the man had gotten up and had stumbled around the corner only to fall down in another snow bank. The officer loaded the man into a police car and I am told this is called a "sleep over" where drunks are given an overnight stay.
As I type this I cannot get the image of this man out of my mind. What if we were not there? How many other drunks are falling into snow banks tonight? My heart is broken from what I experienced today. Sadly, there is no easy or quick solution for Anchorage's complex homelessness problem! More people will continue to die unless real action is taken.
Mark Horvath
is an activist for the homeless. He vlogs at invisiblepeople.tv and blogs at hardlynormal.com. He was formerly homeless in Hollywood.
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