Assembly votes Tuesday on a $2.77 million health grant that funds shelter TB screening

Anchorage's public health nurses would keep running tuberculosis screenings at homeless shelters and transitional living centers under a $2.77 million state grant the Anchorage Assembly is set to approve Tuesday, Sept. 1. It sits on the consent agenda, where items pass in a block without debate or a public hearing.

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

The money is not for tuberculosis alone. It funds the health department's public health nursing program, in which TB control is one of eight service categories, alongside immunizations, disease surveillance, family planning, health education and citywide investigation of communicable disease reports. The grant comes from the State of Alaska Department of Health as a quarterly reimbursable award and covers July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. Nearly all of it, about $2.67 million, pays straight time labor across the whole program.

Tuberculosis control services include tuberculin skin tests, chest X-rays, TB assessments, treatment for active and latent infection, and contact investigations.

That screening capacity sits directly against shelter admission rules. Catholic Social Services states on its Get Help page that guests at Brother Francis Shelter must be "free of highly contagious medical conditions (e.g., Tuberculosis, ringworm, chicken pox, whooping cough, measles, COVID-19)." State shelter TB guidelines require first-time clients to show TB clearance within 10 days of admission, obtainable from the shelter clinic, the Municipality of Anchorage Public Health Clinic on L Street, or another provider. The same shelter guidance warns that excluding people with contagious TB without adequate alternative isolation space can leave medically vulnerable people unsheltered.

The state has funded Anchorage's core public health services since 1966, when the community voted for public health powers. Municipal budget records show the nursing grant funded in multiple years since, including $3,205,500 in 2020, though the record does not establish uninterrupted annual renewal. State epidemiologists reported 68 active TB cases in Alaska in 2015, with six of the nine cases among people experiencing homelessness occurring in Anchorage. A 2023 statewide count recorded 77 tuberculosis cases, and a 2023 state bulletin identified persons experiencing homelessness and those in congregate settings such as shelters as among the highest-risk groups.