Music Matters
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bethel Winter House nears fundraising goal to build housing for people experiencing chronic homeless

 The Bethel Winter House in Bethel, Alaska
Courtesy of the Bethel Winter House
The Bethel Winter House in Bethel, Alaska

Bethel Winter House has gained another piece of funding needed to address homelessness in Bethel.

The organization is fundraising to build a 20-unit apartment complex, which would connect to the Bethel Winter House building. It would stand as Bethel’s first housing structure to provide individual housing units for people experiencing chronic homelessness. Bethel Winter House would partner with other organizations in Bethel to provide health and social services to residents.

Data from April 2021 showed 34 people experiencing chronic homelessness in Bethel, but the report notes that the actual number could be higher.

The housing project is estimated to cost over $6.7 million. Most of the money has been raised from multiple sources. The most recent funding comes from the Alaska Mental Health Trust, which awarded $375,000 towards the project. That leaves only $750,000 left to raise, according to Bethel Community Services Foundation Executive Director Michelle DeWitt.

Bethel Winter House plans to begin driving pilings for the apartment complex in the winter of 2022.
Copyright 2022 KYUK. To see more, visit KYUK.

Anna Rose MacArthur is KYUK’s English Language News Reporter. She got her start reporting in Alaska at KNOM in Nome and then traveled South to report with KRTS in Marfa, Texas. Anna Rose soon missed rural Alaska and returned to the bush to join KYUK in September 2015. Anna Rose is a Transom Story Workshop graduate.