Anchorage, Alaska has a significant homeless problem that is exacerbated by our cold and harsh winters. Alaska Dispatch News chose to do a three-part story -- Addiction, survival and love on Anchorage streets -- on the homeless and their problems.
In this second installment, the story is about a married couple living on the streets. What struck me reading through it was the discussion of trauma (in a non trauma informed way). Both husband and wife have had trauma, early engagement in negative behaviors and a slide into every mental and behavioral issues. Health problems followed. The husband has had heart surgery, has high blood pressure and does not expect to live for long. The wife has liver issues and a number of surgeries as well. When discussing their nutrition, both drive a lot of their calories from alcohol and free food. This small population is served by a $1.9 million grant that funds a pick up service and sleep off center. Hospitals see a lot of this population. 2 pubic facilities and a host of private and religious services are made available. No one has quantified the total cost of serving this population.
Only recently have efforts been made to help heal this population. A Safety First housing approach has been implemented, with an older hotel converted to house street alcoholics. This approach has been demonstrated to pay for itself through cost avoidance in the Seattle area. I have not heard of a similar analysis being conducted in Anchorage, but I haven't checked to see if one has. Cost avoidance means the absence of pick up and sleep off services, emergency room costs and police interventions.
Sunday's article will look at the search for solutions. I will be interested to see if trauma is seen as a major root cause of the problem. I have read both articles to date, and see trauma every where. I also see nutritional deficits.
The couple mention in the article going through rehab. The have likely tried before, many times. For this population, its easy to see the nutritional deficits in their lifestyle. I am fairly confident that nutrition will not be mentioned in Sunday's article.
Here's a link to the article by Michelle Theriault Boots and Marc Lester: http://www.adn.com/article/201...ve-anchorage-streets
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