A Pacific Islander nonprofit told an Anchorage homelessness commission its housing assistance program is over-subscribed — and asked for city funding to expand it

Polynesian Association of Alaska CEO Lucy Hansen told the Anchorage Housing and Homelessness Advisory Commission on Tuesday that her organization's housing assistance program has helped 42 families avoid eviction since 2021 but routinely turns applicants away, and she asked the commission to consider the organization for city housing grants.

The numbers Hansen presented: 25 families assisted with rental aid, 16 with electricity and gas, 390 individuals served across households of two to ten members. The volunteer-run nonprofit, which has 21 members and no paid staff, currently accepts two applications per month due to funding limits. Hansen said 15 families applied the first night the program opened in 2021. "When we first brought it to the community, I mean, the hall was full of people," she said.

Hansen described overcrowding she has observed in client homes. "I went into one of my Micronesian family and they have 3 families that live in a 2-bedroom and the grandma was sleeping on the floor in the living room, 2 grandmas," she said. She estimated 75 to 80 percent of Alaska's roughly 35,000 Pacific Islanders live in Anchorage.

The advocacy connects to documented broader patterns. Anchorage's 2018-2022 Consolidated Plan to HUD found that 48.82 percent of residents identifying as Asian or Pacific Islander experienced housing cost burden, overcrowding, or substandard housing. Alaska Housing Finance Corporation has described overcrowding and doubled-up living as "a different view of homelessness" — many Alaskans without adequate housing are crowded into small units rather than living in shelters or on the street.

Hansen did not publicly specify the funding amount she is seeking. The commission she addressed is an advisory body to the Anchorage Assembly; it does not directly award city funding, and Hansen would need either an assembly appropriation or a competitive grant award through the municipality's housing programs to expand the operation she described.

The Polynesian Association of Alaska is one of several community organizations in Anchorage providing direct assistance to Pacific Islander households. Hansen, who retired from the state of Alaska after 27 years, said she now runs the nonprofit to address community needs she encountered through her former work.