Every day, outreach workers try to lift homeless alcoholics from the streets of Anchorage, Alaska. In the past, a sober life has always been the goal. But a controversial approach called Housing First is challenging that thinking. Last story in a four-part series.
Daniel Sopcak and Betty Sanchez are married, homeless and struggling with alcohol and other ailments in Anchorage. Their days are a window into a rough, often invisible world.
Being homeless isn't easy anywhere, but especially not in Anchorage, Alaska, where hundreds subsist at the confluence of chronic homelessness and addiction. These individuals are the most prolific consumers of public services, gripped by a lifestyle of compounding health problems and risk of death.
Project: Faces on the street — Part 3
Every one of the people who have panhandled on an Anchorage street corner or passed out in a park has a story. Alaska Dispatch News reporter Marc Lester profiles nine in his series on the plight of the homeless in Alaska's largest city.