Luke is homeless and panhandling in Anchorage, Alaska. In Alaska, he is often referred to as a “chronic inebriate”–an individual who drinks too much, too often.
Last night, Luke slept at the “sleep-off,” a center in Alaska for chronic inebriates to safely sleep and recover from drunkenness. It’s one of the few warm places to sleep in the Alaskan winter. But Luke cautions, “You’d better have enough to drink, otherwise they won’t let you in.”
It’s a system meant to help but obviously comes with its own problems. And Luke, like the rest of us, doesn’t have a great solution for homelessness in Alaska. He just wishes he had a roof over his head, a little money, and that he could get cleaned up and start going to church again.
Storyteller takes look at Anchorage’s homeless – Local NBC story