Editor’s note: The following commentary is an excerpt from remarks presented before the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission on March 16, 2026, with minor edits made only for readability.
I serve as executive director of the Downtown Hope Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Our ministry serves people experiencing homelessness and hardship in our community. Every day, we serve more than 700 people a warm, nutritious lunch. During the day, the Hope Center serves everyone who seeks our services. We offer meals, showers, laundry service, and assistance to rebuild broken lives. We also offer trauma and recovery classes and a job-skill training program in culinary and bakery skills, helping men and women find healing, stability, and purpose in their lives.
Over the years, thousands of struggling individuals have come through our doors seeking help to alleviate the rigors of life on the streets of Anchorage. Everything we do is motivated by the love of Jesus and the firmly held belief that every person—no matter how broken his or her life is — has dignity, value, and a God-given destiny to fulfill.
We also operate an 80-bed women’s shelter. The shelter is a large, open room with cots three feet apart for women to sleep on. In Alaska, the cold is not just uncomfortable; it can be deadly, and nights on the street are extremely dangerous. Recently, we have experienced double-digit minus-zero temperatures. For many women, Hope Shelter provides something they’ve not felt in a very long time: safety and protection.
For years, Anchorage has faced a serious homelessness crisis. At times, roughly 1,400 people are living on the streets year-round. Alaska also has some of the highest rates of domestic violence in the country — four times the national average — and a serious problem with human trafficking.
The majority of the women who come to our shelter are survivors of sexual assault, sex trafficking, and severe domestic violence. Most arrive with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. Some have just escaped a life-threatening human-trafficking situation. Others have just been assaulted and show up at our door injured at all hours of the night.
This is why our shelter exists. We’ve heard women say, “When I came here, it was the first night in years I’ve felt like I could sleep in safety.” That is the kind of hope we provide to women. But, unfortunately, the city of Anchorage disagreed.
In January 2018, the ladies were settling in for the night, and I received a call to come downstairs to handle a “situation.” A 6’1” man dressed in a pink nightgown and carrying a pink suitcase had arrived at our door. He identified as a woman. He was heavily intoxicated and extremely belligerent. He had a large gash across his face from a fight earlier that evening, beating up four other men down the street. The police delivered him to our door because he said he wanted to stay in our shelter.
It was obvious he needed medical attention, so I called him a taxi and paid for him to go to the hospital for stitches. He thanked me, called me “Mother Teresa,” and off he went.
After he left, the women in our shelter were visibly shaken. Many knew him from the streets. Several told me that, if I had allowed him into the shelter, they would have left that night and slept in the woods because they would have felt unsafe. And understandably so. Asking a survivor of sex trafficking or sexual assault to sleep three feet away from a man would destroy the very safety she came to us to find.
Within a week, I received a letter from the city. This gentleman filed a complaint with the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission against the Downtown Hope Center alleging discrimination based on gender identity. The city opened an investigation and attempted to force us to allow men into our women’s shelter, even though the city’s own ordinance contained an exemption for homeless shelters.
But the pressure to let men sleep next to our women didn’t stop, so, to protect the privacy and dignity of the women in our care, we had to file a federal lawsuit.
Our objective has always been clear: We serve everyone. We feed everyone. We clothe everyone. To this day, the man who filed the complaint still comes to our soup kitchen. But at night, our shelter is for women.
Thankfully, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, the court ruled in our favor — but that was not the end of the story. Instead of accepting the court’s decision, the city changed its nondiscrimination ordinance and tried again to make us allow men into our women’s shelter. That forced us into a second lawsuit.
Thankfully, the courts again protected our freedom to exist consistent with our belief that God created men and women distinct in design. Our freedom to serve women should never have required years of litigation. Freedom is a God-given right, not a privilege granted by whoever holds power. Women should never have to worry whether their safety and privacy will disappear with another ordinance change.
At the Downtown Hope Center, our mission is “hope restored, hearts renewed, lives transformed.” Religious liberty is what allows us to remain faithful to the convictions that make this mission possible.
That’s why we are grateful for the work the Trump administration is doing to protect this first freedom. And we urge leaders at every level to safeguard it — so ministries like ours can continue serving those who need it most.
Sherrie Laurie is executive director of the Downtown Hope Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
