Under Gov. Michael Dunleavy’s proposed spending plan, funding for housing assistance and homeless services would be slashed. On the Kenai Peninsula, organizations are saying that they wouldn’t be able to serve people in need.
Love In the Name of Christ of the Kenai Peninsula works with churches and agencies to assist people struggling, including those without housing.
Leslie Rohr is the executive director of the organization.
“We are recipients of an Alaska housing finance grant that provides permanent housing placement for those who are homeless and prevention services to hopefully keep people from becoming homeless,” she said.
Under Dunleavy’s proposal, the organization would loose roughly $321,000. That is 60 percent of the entire organization’s budget and Rohr said it would have a huge effect.
“[It has] the potential to completely eliminate or drastically reduce our ability to provide those prevention and placement services,” she said.
She said the loss of state funding would also hamper their ability to apply for other grants.
Since last July, she said the program has helped 123 families on the peninsula. Rohr adds that more people have been relying on the program in recent years.
Her worry is that if the cut Dunelavy is proposing goes through, not only would the organization not be able to provide as many services as it has been, but that the budget itself would increase the need for services through loss of Medicaid and jobs.
That’s something that Joyanna Geisler is worried about as well. She’s the executive director of the Independent Living Center in Homer and she said many of her clients depend on state programs that would be cut under the governor’s proposal.
The Living Center receives around $45,000 from the state to provide financial assistance for people who may become homeless or are already homeless.
“It's a pass through program that can assist folks who are in this particular situation and who have a future sustainability plan to do a onetime benefit or financial assistance to them so they can get on their feet and carry on with their lives,” she said.
She said the Living Center helped over 60 people on the peninsula last year but under the budget proposal, it would no longer able to offer any financial support.
Others organizations that provide similar services such as South Peninsula Haven House and Kenai Peninsula Housing Initiatives would also lose funding under Dunleavy’s budget proposal.
