The organization running Fairbanks’ only low-barrier overnight warming center announced Friday that it will not reopen next winter. A letter from HopeLink’s board of directors says the center will stay open through the end of April but will not return for the 2026/2027 season.
The decision comes on the heels of the City of Fairbanks granting HopeLink $40,000 in stopgap funding to help the center continue operating through the end of the current season. Though that’s only equivalent to about one month of HopeLink’s expenses, according to its board, the move was significant in that the warming center has been otherwise funded largely through private donations.
HopeLink is a member program of the nonprofit North Star Community Foundation, and it’s run the seasonal warming center for all or part of the last three winters. The organization first opened a space in February 2024 for people to escape Interior Alaska's often dangerous winter temperatures. That was in response to the cold weather-exposure death of Charles Ahkiavana in Fairbanks in late 2022, and it became – and has remained – the only low-barrier place for people to duck the Interior's brutal cold.
The “low-barrier” qualifier means sobriety is not a prerequisite for entry, distinguishing the HopeLink warming center from similar services for homeless people in Fairbanks.
In its first season, HopeLink used the Hannah Solomon building on the edge of downtown, but the organization later relocated due to a lack of space amid high demand. For the last two winters, it’s been operating out of an old fire station on 5th Avenue. Board members reported to the Fairbanks City Council that, in the current season, the center has served up to 100 people in a single night and averages around 80.
In the letter announcing the center’s pending closure, HopeLink directors said the level of need shows they’ve been providing an essential community service. The letter says their work has also shown that offering that service “requires year-round infrastructure, stable funding, and dedicated staffing beyond what a small volunteer board operating on a donation-based budget can sustain.
“We hope the work accomplished over the past seasons will help inform future solutions and encourage continued collaboration among community organizations, local leadership, and residents to address homelessness in Fairbanks,” the letter concludes.