Good Neighbor Fund fills the gaps: IDs, medicine, even a plane trip home

A project that started during the pandemic to help people leaving the Sullivan Arena mass shelter has grown into a community-wide fund to help our unsheltered neighbors in a variety of ways.

The Good Neighbor Fund, officially launched in November with support of the Municipality of Anchorage, has amassed more than $90,000 in donations from 183 individuals as of Dec. 10. Funds are held at The Alaska Community Foundation. Donations help with medicine, IDs, birth certificates, phones, meals, temporary hotel stays, transportation and other individual situations. The goal, say organizers, is to help people be safe and improve their lives.

“This is a fund for you, and for the people,” Midtown businessman Kenny Petersen said at the Town Square launch event. “Have you seen a neighbor in need on the street corner or laying on the side of a street or even downtown here, sheltering in a tent and wondering who is responding?”

Kenny Petersen hugs Cathleen McLaughlin during the November launch event at Town Square Park in downtown Anchorage.

Through the Good Neighbor Fund, anyone can pitch in and make a difference in direct aid to individuals, he said. Frontline workers with the Anchorage Police Department HOPE team and Restorative & Reentry Services have discretion on specific expenditures that can be made in real time, for real needs, according to organizers.

Petersen, one of the owners of Allen & Petersen Cooking & Appliance Center and a board member of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, said he’s been working to establish a fund like this for 15 years. He says it will fill in gaps when other options aren’t available or already have been exhausted.

A $15 issue

“I drove someone to DMV because they needed a driver’s license,” said Cathleen McLaughlin of Restorative & Reentry Services. The individual had a job waiting for him — once he got his license in hand. “It was a $15 issue,” she said. Her organization provides third-party oversight to Anchorage shelters and also provides support to individuals at the Anchorage Safety Center.

One family camping outside couldn’t get into shelter because they didn’t have a birth certificate for one of their children. Community funds covered the $35 cost, and the family moved into the shelter the same day, according to Restorative & Reentry Services. A young woman new to Anchorage hoped to return to her family in a rural village but couldn’t afford the $400 flight. The community fund covered the cost. Another individual had to complete a round of medication before undergoing surgery but couldn’t afford the $140 copay. Community funds paid for the medicine so the person could get essential medical treatment.

When the Anchorage Assembly heard public testimony earlier this year on an ordinance that made camping in certain areas a criminal offense, with individuals told to move along or face arrest, many people called for a better way. “This is that,” Petersen said.

Encouraging all to give back

One donor shared that he’s excited to be part of a larger cause that is actually making a difference. Administrative costs are covered – none are coming out of donations. Individuals who receive help are encouraged to give back, if able.

Petersen urges those who can afford it to join the meal challenge: Skip a meal or two a month and give the money to the Good Neighbor Fund.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance told the launch audience that the Good Neighbor Fund pays for things that other funds cannot, like a plane ticket home.

“I hope you all will join these generous community donors and become part of the Good Neighbor Fund,” the mayor said.

Learn more about the fund: 907-244-1728 or through The Alaska Community Foundation.