The Hítx’i Sáani Community was initially planned as twelve dry cabins and a service building on Alaska Mental Health Trust land on Jarvis Street in Sitka. Hítx’i Sáani means “little houses” in Lingít, and the idea was to create some very basic shelter for the Coalition’s supportive housing program.
The dry cabins have since been upgraded to more of a conventional multiplex design. Andrew Hinton is the executive director of the Coalition. He attributes the changes to “value engineering.”
“Some of the units will have shared walls,” said Hinton. “ That’s been a reality of in order to be able to provide all the components in each of the units that we want: a bathroom, individual bathrooms, electric heating, a kitchenette. In order to be able to distribute these utilities in a cost effective way, we needed to go to more of a multiplex model. But each of these units is still just that – housing. They’ll each have a bed, a bathroom, kitchenette, electric heating, everything that one needs to to make the place at home.”
Hinton says the progress this year has been exciting.
“In the summer, we went from an undeveloped site at the end of Jarvis Street to a site that’s capable of housing those 13 units,” Hinton said, “with the development of a pad with the connection to city water and sewage lines, and much of the completion of our underground utilities.”
The Hítx’i Sáani Community is expected to open in the late summer of 2025. The Sitka Homeless Coalition calls this project “supportive housing.” Clients won’t just live there; they’ll be connected to services to assist them in the transition out of homelessness.
The Coalition’s program director, Denise Shaffer, says the other critical component of Hítx’i Sáani isn’t a service, but a feeling. She works directly with clients, and says that a feeling of community – of belonging – can be powerful in the fight against homelessness.
“I think a lot of times our clients are seen as people that are vulnerable and marginalized, and they truly are,” said Shaffer. “They often face a feeling of being alone, and it’s incredible the sense of dignity that we can put into somebody just by saying, ‘I believe in you. I support you. I’m here for you.’”
The Sitka Homeless Coalition has built momentum in recent years. Both Hinton and Shaffer are employed full time, and they’ve been critical to developing some of the Coalition’s other programs, like the warming shelter in the basement of the Methodist Church on Kimsham St. which is going into its second winter.
Shaffer has just helped to place four people in housing this fall; she says the move has been transformational for them, in their confidence, and in their sense of gratitude for the community.
Hinton says it’s important for Sitka to continue to pursue solutions.
“We’re all much closer than we think to experiencing homelessness,” Hinton said. “We all understand how difficult that might be in Sitka, but for some folks, it’s not just a thought experiment, it’s a reality, and so that’s really the overarching work that we hope to do, to recognize those individuals in our community that need that, and to recognize them as as people, as community members.” The Sitka Homeless Coalition’s “Shelter Sitka” campaign has a $25,000 goal by the end of the year. The group plans two community walk-throughs of the Hítx’i Sáani construction site in November and December to introduce Sitka residents to the neighborhood, and to answer questions.
