Mayor Dave Bronson said he plans to close the campground Friday, locking the gate and the restrooms and shutting off electricity and water. The city will begin moving homeless residents from the park and back to Sullivan Arena early Saturday morning.
On Monday, the Anchorage Assemblythrough December to meet the estimated demand. The $2.4 million package and approved contracts would fund a shelter at Sullivan Arena for 150 people and 85 rooms of leased housing at the city-owned former Golden Lion Hotel, and fund local private shelters to open up more beds, including Bean’s Cafe, which plans to open a 40-person shelter for men.
By Wednesday, the mayor hadn’t committed to follow through with it, despite Centennial’s impending closure. A spokesman said the administration was “continuing to conduct due diligence and evaluation” of the Assembly’s plan. Late Thursday, the mayor’s office said it would be busing people from Centennial to Sullivan on Saturday. “As per the Anchorage Assembly’s plan, preparations are happening to move people from Centennial Campground to the Sullivan Arena on Saturday, October 1st,” Corey Allen Young, spokesman for the mayor, said by email. “In terms of the Golden Lion, the Municipal Attorney’s Office is still reviewing this component of the Assembly’s plan.” Bronson has through Tuesday to issue a veto of any part of the package, and it’s largely up to him whether the city will follow through and use the former Midtown hotel. Hans Rodvik, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said the campground usually closes a few weeks earlier than Sept. 30, on Labor Day. “It is being closed to ensure staff have time to winterize the facility and clean it up prior to winter. Water and electricity will be turned off as is normal. Campers at the campground have been given ample notice that the facility was closing on the 30th. Parks and Rec staff will be there to clean up the facility and will work with AHD staff to transport those who seek shelter elsewhere. All operations will cease at the campground on the 30th. Port-o-potties and trash service will remain onsite for now,” Rodvik said. The city can’t legally clear homeless camps, a process it calls abatement, unless there is shelter available. On Wednesday, no one with the city had told Cofey or others at Centennial where they should go after the shutdown. Homeless service providers weren’t exactly sure what to tell people either. That notification process began Thursday. A group of Salvation Army staff wearing red safety vests walked the campground’s loop. They carried yellow legal pads, checking off the numbered campsites they’d stopped at and writing down names of campers who want to go to Sullivan. They told the campers that the city would bring them two totes to pack their belongings in, and pick them up on Saturday for the ride over.Bean’s Cafe CEO Lisa Sauder is now rushing to get a Midtown building that the soup kitchen has been leasing prepped, furnished and ready to become a shelter facility. She’s been working with the health department to get all the right paperwork done, but the building still needs a fire safety inspection, she said. No contracts have been signed so far. “We’re all anxious to find out what’s going to happen. Hopefully it will move forward,” she said on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of people operating in good faith right now, trying to make things happen.” Sauder and employees from Tote Maritime passed out fleece-lined high visibility vests to campers at Centennial on Wednesday, to help keep them safe while walking on streets in the dark, especially as they begin to disperse from Centennial.Sauder said on Wednesday she had a lot of big concerns — such as how Bean’s will continue to bring hot meals to campers in the food truck once the gate is closed. Sauder said she would be at Centennial again on Friday “figuring out the lay of the land” and how to keep feeding people, at least until shelters are opened. In a donation-based effort with no city support, Bean’s began delivering three meals a day to campers there shortly after the city directed homeless residents to stay there. She’s worried for the many Centennial campers who own pets, and who won’t be able to get into a shelter facility with an animal. She’s worried about how case managers, navigators and other homeless service agencies will be able to contact their clients once the electricity is turned off and they can’t charge their phones — and can’t call 911 for police or medical help. The city “should at least extend power and water until shelters come online. People need potable water,” she said. “There’s all these unintended consequences that people don’t think about.” There are more than a dozen vehicles still in the campground. Some are broken down, appearing stripped for parts, with no wheels or missing a hood, windows and bumper. Others are still running, slept-in and driven by the campers who own them. The mayor’s office did not answer a question about whether it would begin impounding any remaining vehicles after Friday. Chris Vincent takes a break from chopping wood at a campsite in Centennial Park campground in Anchorage on Monday. Vincent has a home in Glennallen but came to Anchorage to help a friend who has been staying at the camp. It all seemed like rumors to Christopher Vincent, who spoke while chopping firewood on Monday. He has been staying at Centennial to watch out for a female friend who is just “100 pounds soaking wet,” he said. He’ll stay there until she finds a place to go, he said. “I heard they’re supposed to be putting people up in the Golden Lion. That’s a pretty smart idea,” he said. “Gets people off the streets, gives them a chance to get back on their feet. They should turn all those rooms into studio apartments, help people get jobs to be able to afford it. It’s just logical.” The Assembly-approved contract for a shelter in Sullivan is for 150 people. That’s less than half of unsheltered people in Anchorage. Bronson has long opposed the city’s purchase of the Golden Lion, and he has given no word on whether he will agree to use it for housing unsheltered people. Salvation Army staff are still on-site through Friday, said the organization’s divisional secretary, Capt. Kevin Pope. On Wednesday at Centennial, he stood at the opening of a green Conex filled with donated items like clothes, blankets, tents and sanitation kits.
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