The Mobile Home Owner Town Hall Episode

Today our show is about mobile home parks. As the state representative for house district 20, I have several mobile home parks in my district. Mobile home owners face unique challenges: they own their home but must rent the land on which their home sits. Every year that rent goes up – yet the value of their home tends to go down. This can create a vicious cycle that can be incredibly difficult for a mobile home owner to break out of. This podcast episode today is an edited version of the Town Hall that I held on Zoom on March 14, 2024. The main guest is attorney Charles Ward of Alaska Legal Services. He answers questions specific to mobile home owners. I also included an excerpt of an interview that I did with my younger brother David Andrew. He owns several mobile home parks and speaks from that perspective. Finally, we hear from Demetria Veasy the assistant director of workforce services at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. She discusses resources available through her Job Centers throughout the state which help folks achieve higher paying employment.

• To reach Alaska Legal Services, click here, or call Charles Ward at 907-373-3656

• To reach the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Job Centers, click here, or call the Midtown Anchorage Job Center at 907-269-0088.

• To read "‘We are in dire need’: Mobile home park residents urge Nevada lawmakers to stabilize rents," click here.

• To learn more about the the PBS documentary, "A Decent Home," click here.

All future podcast episodes will be on East Anchorage Book Club.

Chelsea Foster of Anchorage is a director on the board of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association and a long-time cannabis advocate. She is COO for Birch Alaskan Naturals CBD, and a consultant for the Alaskan cannabis industry. She has successfully pursued regulatory and statuary changes for the Alaska cannabis industry with a focus on social equity and sustainability.

Bailey Stuart of Wasilla is co-owner of the the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's first recreational dispensary Green Jar. She also teaches a course at UAA called "Cannabasics." The class is a hands-on culinary course that covers proper cannabis terminology, techniques for decarboxylation and infusion, and utilization of the plant's anatomy. Stuart has been a trailblazer for the Alaska industry by advocating at the local, state, and federal levels to modernize the marijuana industry and treat it like any other business.

Visit the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association website by clicking here.

Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA) is a non-profit group made up of folks with lived experience in the foster care system. As former foster youth themselves, these individuals can offer expertise to make Alaska's system better from the inside out. Today on the show we hear from the most recent FFCA board president, Angel Gonzalez, Mateo Jaime, Kxlo Stone, and then three sisters, Anna Redmon, Sarah Lewis, and Abby Redmon.

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, click here to learn more.

If you are interested in working for the Office of Children's Services, click here to learn more.

NOTE: this episode contains discussions of child abuse, neglect, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, drug overdose, and death. If you are thinking of harming yourself, call 988. Someone is waiting for your call.

Representative Gray's office is sponsoring two bills related to foster care:

House Bill 320 would protect foster youth sibling relationships when they get adopted. What this bill does is when a foster youth is adopted, they become a legal stranger to their biological family. But this bill would exclude their sibling relationships, which means that after they're adopted, they are still legally brother and sister with their biological siblings.

House Bill 363 would require that foster youth placed in a psychiatric institution would get a timely hearing in front of a judge to ensure that they actually require that level of care. This bill has been referred to Health and Social Services Committee.

To learn more or donate to Facing Foster in Alaska, click here.