Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness

The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness will spend the next year testing whether a Yup'ik healing framework can help Alaska Native households find and keep housing, under a $450,000 federal grant announced last week.

The $450,000 did not come through a grant competition. Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested it for the coalition in the 2026 budget, Congress listed it by name and amount, and the Administration for Children and Families then required the coalition to submit a plan before releasing the money.

The congressional request said housing support services for vulnerable individuals. In February, Murkowski's office identified it as going to Project Next Step, the coalition's existing housing effort. The award HHS signed Aug. 24 is titled "Strong Families, Strong Communities" and funds services for Alaska Native households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, through a model grounded in Calricaraq.

Calricaraq is not new and was not invented for the grant. It is a Yup'ik framework for healing and healthy living that follows the teachings of the late Elder Peter Paniguaq Jacobs. It grew out of a parenting effort begun in 2008, was formally adopted for Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta use by Elders and Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation in 2012, and is used today by YKHC and RurAL CAP. Harvard's Honoring Nations program named it a semifinalist in 2016.

In the coalition's own January 2025 snapshot, Alaska Native people made up 53.5 percent of those experiencing homelessness in Anchorage's system data. Anchorage's adopted homelessness plan for 2023 through 2028 already called for culturally meaningful approaches, noting they had not been built into the response system.

Services under the award may include case management, housing navigation, warm referrals, wellness planning, peer and community support, and coordination with Alaska Native organizations and Tribal partners. HHS says the project will address barriers tied to homelessness, behavioral health, family stability and disconnection from culture or community.

HHS classifies the award as social science research. The public award record does not say what the coalition will measure, how many households it expects to serve, who will evaluate the work, or which Alaska Native organizations are partners. A search of published research found no peer-reviewed evaluation of Calricaraq's effect on housing placement or retention.

Calricaraq's own guidebook says parts of it may be most applicable to Yup'ik and Cup'ik people, while the Anchorage award describes serving Alaska Native households generally, in a city where people come from many different Alaska Native cultures.

The award runs through Aug. 30, 2027. The coalition owes the federal government performance and financial reports twice a year. Nothing in the public record says whether its findings will be released.