Community centered community supported Alaska Public Media.

This.

This might be the calm before the storm.

So it is very empty when the sun is out and it's still kind of warm and there is a congregate shelter.

They don't usually come until it gets too cold or it starts snowing.

Crystal Abbott works for Henning Incorporated, a nonprofit with contracts to run Anchorage's three main winter shelter sites, including this converted city building.

They have a common area in the middle which they can congregate, talk to each other, but they can't cross the lines.

Congregate basically means the beds are in a shared common space for this facility.

That space is a converted vehicle bay.

There are two other winter shelters.

Henning is running for the city that are non congregate.

They're in hotels.

And those rooms did fill quickly after opening.

Abbott says a lot of the people on the waitlist don't want to go into the group shelter.

A lot of them are couples who want to stay together in their room, so they will wait until a room come becomes available.

They stay on the list.

That lines up with the results of a survey.

The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness ran in September and October at outreach events.

Respondents said they strongly preferred a more private space, and separation from a significant other was the most common reason those surveyed gave as a barrier to going into shelter.

That was followed by a disability or mobility challenge.

And then pets, which generally aren't allowed in the hotels.

There is space set aside for pets and this shelter, so this will be one of the rooms for the pet shelter.

Nobody wants to leave their babies outside.

Henning also ran the mass shelter inside the Sullivan Arena last winter.

Thank you.

Around 500 people would fill the cots and crowd into an overflow warming area on the coldest days in the beginning of Sullivan.

We were slow to open, and then we got fairly full, fairly fast.

So I believe that's what's going to happen here, too.

Shawn Steik was one of the 22 people with a cot at the shelter after the COVID hit.

Then the rent prices went skyrocket.

I can't pay $1,300 for a one bedroom apartment.

So I got expedited out of the place.

And I've been homeless ever since.

City officials and non-profits created hundreds of new affordable apartments this summer through hotel conversions.

Despite that, demand for winter shelter appears to be much higher than last winter.

Dramatic increases in the average rent in Anchorage in recent years is likely a big factor in that.

When rent becomes less affordable, that directly contributes to more people becoming homeless.

Researchers studying pre-pandemic national data have found specific thresholds of unaffordability that predict homelessness.

They published an academic paper in summary in 2021 about their findings.

Now I live out of the two boxes.

Steik grew up in Anchorage.

He says he spent the last seven months or so mostly camping outdoors on a hill near the Alaska Railroad depot in downtown Anchorage.

After one night in the shelter, he's already feeling better.

A lot more safer, warmer.

And I didn't have to worry about being stolen from in the middle of the night.

You go by Ship Creek and you look up that hill.

That's all you see is trouble.

I mean, everybody's back and forth passing deals.

I mean, if you want to have a good life, you wouldn't want to hang down there.

And I was tired of getting tired of watching over my back.

Steak has worked for several restaurants as a dishwasher in downtown Anchorage.

He says he hopes he can get back into it, back on his feet and stay out of the cold.

That was before Anchorage got any significant snowfall.

Now it is snowing.

And like Abbott predicted, a lot of the cots inside are starting to fill up.

She thinks it's just a matter of time and temperature until the rest are filled, too.

In Anchorage, I'm Jeremy Shea.