CBJ City Planner Laurel Bruggeman was assigned to review Tlingit & Haida’s application for consistency with land use codes and applicable plans and issue a report to the commission. Her findings identified the transitional housing project met the intent of the WC zoning district and requirements in CBJ’s Table of Permittable Uses, Note N.
“Over the course of several months, Tlingit & Haida’s Public Safety department has worked diligently to engage the community and meet with neighboring businesses and homeowners on the transitional housing project,” said President Richard
(Chalyee Éesh)
Peterson. “There has been an overwhelming level of support from the community for this project and the vision of giving our citizens the support they need to successfully reintegrate and become the best version of themselves.”
Yak’éiyi
K
ustí Yinaadei Hít
means “going towards the good life house” in
Lingit
and will provide sober and supportive housing to men released from incarceration and transitioning back into society. Tlingit & Haida has been working very closely with community partners to develop the framework for the reentry housing program which will be modeled after the Delancey Street project, a nationally-recognized and vetted model of peer support in the San Francisco area that uses employment, training and housing to produce an estimated 75-90% reentry success rate.
Yak’éiyi
K
ustí Yinaadei Hít
will provide 16 sober-living beds in 8 units with a full-time manager on site and deliver comprehensive and culturally responsive services for participants with direct channels to workforce development, training, and supportive employment.
“We want this program to empower our returning citizens to ‘go towards the good life’ by removing barriers and providing alternatives to the current situation awaiting many when they are released from incarceration," said Tlingit & Haida’s Second Chance Coordinator Talia Eames who has overseen the development of the transitional housing program. “Working closely with our other departments will allow us to provide programming, such as training and employment through social enterprises, while respecting our tribal values and restoring cultural identities to those that may have been lost in the justice system. The access to the beachfront and water will be ideal for this cultural programming.”
With the conditional use permit approved, Tlingit & Haida will now turn its focus toward securing funding, building partnerships and staffing for
Yak’éiyi
K
ustí Yinaadei Hít.
The transitional housing program is expected be in operation by the summer of 2019.
Gunalchéesh, Háw’aa
(Thank You) to the following agencies, organizations, and community members who supported
Yak’éiyi
K
ustí Yinaadei Hít
and have been instrumental in moving this project forward:
Alaska Department of Corrections, Alaska Judicial Council, Alaska Native Justice Center, AWARE, City and Borough of Juneau Housing Office, Family Promise of Juneau, Haven House, JAMHI Health and Wellness, Juneau Coalition on Housing & Homelessness, Juneau Housing First Collaborative, Juneau Reentry Coalition, Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition, Lemon Creek Correctional Center, Melody Millard (Community Member), Patty Ware (Community Member), Sealaska Heritage Institute, Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL), The Glory Hole, The Learning Connection (SERRC), University of Alaska Southeast, and United Way of Southeast Alaska.
