A state grant would keep TB screening running at Anchorage homeless shelters

Anchorage's public health nurses would keep running tuberculosis screenings at homeless shelters and transitional housing under a $2.77 million state grant the Assembly is set to approve Tuesday. It sits on the consent agenda, where items pass in a block without debate or a public hearing.

That screening is directly tied to shelter access. Brother Francis Shelter and state guidelines require clients to show they are free of contagious conditions like TB before admission, and the same guidance warns that turning away people with contagious TB, without somewhere to isolate them, can leave medically vulnerable people unsheltered.

The grant would also direct the health department to "facilitate and support" emergency housing to isolate people with contagious airborne disease — though the memorandum does not establish that such isolation housing currently exists.

The money funds the health department's entire public health nursing program, not just TB, which is one of its eight service areas — mostly covering nurses' wages through June 2027.

Shelters and congregate settings are among the highest-risk settings for TB, and Alaska recorded 77 cases in 2023.