In 2022, Monique Crespo was one of the last to leave the Sullivan Arena mass shelter before it closed for the summer. A year later, she was moving into her own home. In the days between, her path led through tents, shelters, hospital stays and caseworkers.
Monique Crespo slips out of a minivan as she moved into an apartment in East Anchorage on June 12, 2023.
In the space between, Monique’s life changed in ways both triumphant and devastating. Anchorage changed, too.Long before Monique was homeless, she was a West Anchorage High School cheerleader.Born Monique Mortera, she grew up mostly in the Turnagain neighborhood. Her mom worked as a waitress at PJ’s, a Spenard strip club. Monique — voted class clown — thrived in high school, a vision of early 1990s big hair in the yearbook.
After stints couchsurfing, Monique became what she considered “truly homeless” around 2016. She woke in the morning wondering where she’d sleep that night. Often, the answer was just to walk around the streets of Anchorage until the darkness bled out of the sky. Monique Crespo waited outside the Sullivan Arena as a case worker tried to find her a place to stay when the homeless shelter ceased operation on June 30, 2022.
On that day, Monique and her friend Cindy waited all day for something to come through, some social worker’s miracle landing her in a proper bed for the night, if not the foreseeable future, but nothing turned up. And by afternoon, the two had reluctantly boarded a bus for the. The two arrived at the campground, with Cindy pushing Monique, and were handed tents.
Around the same time, a promissory note of future stability arrived: the long-awaited housing voucher. Monique could apply for an apartment and use the voucher to pay the rent. All Monique could think about was reuniting with her cat, Coco. Maybe family members would even feel comfortable visiting. But she needed to find a suitable apartment, and with her record of evictions that would be a challenge.
Monique moved in during the rains of August, knowing that others were still in soggy tents at Centennial Campground. She felt a swell of good fortune.
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