Each year, an average of 1500 Anchorage families find themselves homeless. Some are able to stay with family or friends, some choose to stay in hotels until they find permanent housing.  There are two shelters in Anchorage that support families but most of the time they are at capacity.  In 2010, the Anchorage municipal code was changed to allow the use of church buildings to be used for temporary shelters when temperatures fall below a predetermined level.  

The Emergency Cold Weather Shelter (ECWS) at First United Methodist Church started October, 2016, joining 7 other churches in Anchorage in providing homeless families a warm and secure location at night.  All guest referrals come from AWAIC, one of the few 24-hour staffed crisis lines in Anchorage, they also provide transportation for the families to/from the shelter.  The Municipality of Anchorage is on the forefront of gathering data on the homeless population and the ECWS churches are gathering data every night in order to get families support they need to acquire permanent housing.  

The United Methodist churches in Anchorage have a rich history of supporting this community and the ECWS is one of many programs that support those in need.  This 2016/2017 winter, First UMC opened its ECW Shelter and had 29 nights in service from October through May 18.  We hosted 176 Adult bed nights, 183 children bed nights, for a total 359 bed nights. Just recently the shelter city-wide program reported that the ECWS churches have provided more shelter beds through this February than were provided all of last season, approximately 40 percent higher than last year.

The ECWS at First UMC has been blessed by so many volunteers and behind the scenes support.  Many thanks to members of First UMC, Anchor Park UMC, and Turnagain UMC, Central Lutheran, First Samoan UMC, and St. John UMC for their donations and prayers!  Thank you to the overnight volunteers; Barbara Cash, Larry Cash, James Zuke, Elena Snyder, Wayne Campbell, Bill Pelke (and for bringing his famous Mac & Cheese), Pastor Bob Smith (Turnagain UMC), Mark Messner(Anchor Park UMC), Rick and Jennifer Miller,  Pastor Steve Fisher, Ben Fish (Anchor Park UMC), George White, Kathy Harris, Kaprice Zuke, Anna Bryant and Hilary Emmel (Central Lutheran), Tina Racy (St. John UMC), Brian Zuke, Alex Miller, and Beth Milliken.  Special thanks to Elsa Tutaan and family, who have tirelessly helped make our guests comfortable nearly every Thursday night (and her delicious Filipino food), Finau Maga and Moana Silva for cooking breakfasts for our guests, Richard Nurre for cleaning and setting up our rooms, and Jennifer Miller for all the background admin support.  Thanks to Doug Serdahely for his generous financial support, vision, and patience throughout the winter.  All Glory to God!

Respectfully submitted,

Melody Milliken