At long last, a place of his own
Dale shares a moment outside his apartment.
On a drizzly summer afternoon in Anchorage, Dale notes the two best things about having his own apartment: Taking a shower and coming in out of the weather.
His long journey to housing took an alarming turn but with care and follow-through, his apartment became reality.
“A lot of organizations came together to make this happen,” said Michaela Franklin, a team member at the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Unique challenges led to what she described as “an extreme amount of coordination.”
Sleeping rough outdoors in Alaska is never easy. Dale figures he was in survival mode for 11 or 12 years, ever since he arrived in Anchorage from a rural community. He worked when he could but often worried about finding a place to sleep and staying warm under blankets.
He regularly stopped in at the ACEH office on Tudor Road, near where he slept, to warm up with a cup of coffee and update his information for the Coordinated Entry prioritization list for housing. Early in 2025, the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. opened applications for housing vouchers. Michaela, working the ACEH front desk, helped Dale apply. A year later, his name had risen to the top of the waiting list.
The Anchorage Affordable Housing and Land Trust, which owns and runs apartments for those with low and extremely low incomes, lined up a unit. Dale was almost off the street, awaiting only a required AHFC inspection.
Then, things took an awful turn. He was crossing Tudor Road when a motorcycle hit him, breaking his pelvis, injuring his knee and landing him at Alaska Native Medical Center. Once he was well enough using a wheelchair, a hospital social worker helped to get him discharged to Brother Francis Shelter’s medical respite unit. No ADA apartments were available. The shelter got Dale to medical appointments and helped him get medically cleared for a walker, so that he could move into a non-ADA unit. Dale’s Alaska Native corporation helped him get a tribal ID and a needed proof of income. The community Good Neighbor Fund agreed to cover his portion of rent for the first three months.
Now, just months after the accident, Dale has his own apartment, settling into a life that he couldn’t envision before. He wears a leg brace and uses his walker to get to a nearby gas station for groceries, mainly microwave meals, maybe a burger. He watches scary movies. He has a comfy bed and can take a shower whenever he wants. On-site case management at the apartment complex comes through Graceful Touch, and Brother Francis still gets him to medical appointments.
Asked about his biggest dream for himself, Dale doesn’t hesitate: “Getting full-time work.” He envisions doing something physical, maybe warehouse work, once his body mends.
As he puts it, his little apartment in downtown Anchorage “feels like home.”