The money will fund a police detail for encampments, bolster the city’s cleanup response, and improve its health safety efforts for homeless residents, including city-provided potable water, toilets and hand-washing stations.
The staffing issues largely remain, police and parks and recreation leaders told Assembly members Tuesday.
The police department is experiencing a continued “staffing drought,” and a further increase in overtime puts more stress on police officers, Case said. Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness’ executive director, Meg Zaletel — who is also a Midtown Assembly member — told the Assembly on Tuesday that the coalition supports and will collaborate with the added police presence at the Third Avenue encampment. “Usually our first, knee-jerk reaction is, ‘Oh no — it’s going to chill the response to our outreach efforts,’ ” Zaletel said.
The coalition’s homelessness outreach team is contracted through the city and coordinates resources to provide food, basic medical care and harm reduction kits during weekly popups around the city. But it’s no longer safe for outreach staff to go into the Third Avenue encampment, Zaletel said.
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