Please..Before You Move Anywhere..Have a Plan (Anchorage: homes, employment) - City-Data Forum

Alaskapat528 · 01-29-2009, 05:21 PM

Newly homeless plead: 'We're not throwaway people': Nation | adn.com (http://www.adn.com/nation/story/672203.html - broken link)

Whether moving to Alaska, moving out, or moving anywhere, please check out this article. All too common anymore. Folks ending up homeless.

Chilkoot · 01-29-2009, 06:00 PM

Good post Pat!

The Division of Public Assistance is seeing an increase in applications for assistance from out of state families who are moving to Alaska without jobs. It's pretty sad.

Wrennie · 01-29-2009, 11:45 PM

This related story is a mind-blower....

NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com | Oklahoma Woman Freezes To Death In Montana

Nephler · 01-29-2009, 11:50 PM

Wholly crap, that really is a mind-blower, man.

InfectedMushroom · 01-30-2009, 01:07 AM

Wow thats crazy...I feel sorry for them, as a Montana winter is not something to be taken lightly. The fact that they really had no plans for winter, or anything in general, is so hard to imagine.

Alaskapat528 · 01-30-2009, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilkoot

Good post Pat!

The Division of Public Assistance is seeing an increase in applications for assistance from out of state families who are moving to Alaska without jobs. It's pretty sad.

Maybe it's me, but why in the world would anyone move anywhere (especially Alaska) without having employment unless they have a large reserve of money??

arctichomesteader · 01-30-2009, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Maybe it's me, but why in the world would anyone move anywhere (especially Alaska) without having employment unless they have a large reserve of money??

Didn't you see the Simpsons movie? They hand out wads of cash at the border...

jsr5 · 01-30-2009, 10:33 AM

Most likely I would think they were lied to. Somebody had to have told them somthing to get them to spend what little they had remaining to go anywhere. They still should have done a bit more of their own research but do you always double check when you believe the source of you info to be credible? I am starting to be less trusting but still somtimes get caught accepting what I am told at face value.

Chilkoot · 01-30-2009, 10:55 AM

I think people are seeing all of the good about Alaska, and there is a ton of good stuff, and not seeing the negatives. You have a family with 4 or 5 kids and very little income and they see that Alaskan’s get money every year which last year ended up being about 3K per person. That seems like an incredibly large sum when you have a large family.
Although it’s certainly cartoonish, that Simpsons movie post by arctichomesteader is fairly accurate when it comes to why people are moving here.
The state has spent millions on promoting Alaska as a wonderful tourist destination and the governor has promoted the state through her exposure in the recent election. We’ve actually become our own worst enemy in a way as we now will be supporting thousands of individuals who are arriving in Alaska without jobs.

Glitch · 01-30-2009, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Maybe it's me, but why in the world would anyone move anywhere (especially Alaska) without having employment unless they have a large reserve of money??

For the adventure! You don't need to be pre-employed or have a large reserve of money in order to move to Alaska and be successful. It certainly helps, but it isn't necessary.

As your original post title says "have a plan", and that is excellent advice. I would expand upon that advice and recommend that people who move to Alaska have a back-up plan, in case their original plan doesn't work out like they expected.

When I moved to Alaska 18 years ago I did not have a job or a place to stay. My original plan was to build a cabin and live in the bush for one year. I had a plan, complete with milestones that had to be met by certain dates or the plan would be deemed a failure. When I failed to meet one of those milestones I fell back to Plan B - Move to Anchorage, get a job, and a place to live.

I am an avid outdoors person, and have backpacked for months at a time in the Sierras and Rockies, and felt confident in my outdoor skills. That is until I arrived in Alaska. I was unprepared for the differences in the Alaskan environment compared to the lower-48. Everything was more difficult than I was used to in the lower-48. An easy one day hike in the lower-48 would take two grueling days to complete in Alaska. The forests are less dense in Alaska than in the lower-48, but the ground vegetation fills in those gaps and makes hiking extremely slow going and difficult.

I can laugh and my obvious newbie mistakes today, but only because I had a plan, and a back-up plan in case of failure. Without that plan and back-up plan, I could have ended up like Chris McCandless.