Anchorage weighs $1 million for nonprofits feeding and sheltering vulnerable residents

The Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on just over $1 million for nonprofits that provide the city's most essential human services — food, emergency shelter, and support for people who would otherwise face serious hardship going without.

Most of the money, about $796,000, is prepaid state funding, with roughly $219,000 from the city's own budget. It covers a year of services starting July 1 across several categories: food, temporary and emergency shelter, health support not covered by Medicaid or Medicare, protective legal services, and housing paired with stabilization help. Nonprofits applied through a competitive grant process.

The vote follows a separate $978,240 package the Assembly took up in July for nine nonprofits serving homeless residents, domestic-violence survivors, youth and food-insecure families — among them Bean's Café, for meals, and AWAIC, for domestic-violence shelter and support. "These funds will be used to support nonprofit organizations that are providing essential services to our most vulnerable residents," Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said of the city's broader human-services funding.