The city’s emergency cold weather sheltering plan has a total of 524 beds — at two already-operating hotels and a mass care shelter in the city’s former Solid Waste Services administrative building, which is scheduled to open Nov. 1. By Thursday, the city’s registration list totaled 989 people.
Vehicles and tents are scattered across a municipal-owned vacant lot adjacent to the Cuddy Family Midtown Park earlier this month. the mayor blamed the Assembly and the nonprofit that tracks the homelessness response system in Anchorage for the unfolding situation. Bronson asserted that the city needs a mass shelter, saying, “it’s clear that the 1000-bed shelter/navigation center I’ve been advocating for since I took office is necessary.
Dora Menegak stands with her belongings at the Third Avenue homeless camp in downtown Anchorage on Friday. While officials have been attempting to get people to leave the camp, Menegak hopes to continue living there. Bronson, in response to questions from the Daily News, pointed to actions by the Anchorage Assembly that stalled his early-term effort to build a large homeless shelter near the intersection of Tudor and Elmore roads in East Anchorage.
Soon after taking office in 2021, Bronson began pushing for the city to build a 1,000-person shelter in East Anchorage using a framed tent building from Sprung Structures. The project was dogged by controversy, missteps and a ballooning budget.The Assembly and administration negotiated over homeless plans for months and whittled the proposal down to a 150- to 200-bed shelter. The Assembly in May 2022The Assembly in August again voted down a proposal from Bronson to restart construction.
Social service providers say smaller shelters and non-congregate shelters like hotels are better for clients and the community. “Every dollar you’re spending on shelter is probably a dollar not available for housing and moving people out of shelter,” said Meg Zaletel, executive director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. She is also the Assembly’s vice chair.Anchorage has, at least in part, a plan for emergency cold weather sheltering this winter that is “transformational” for the community, Constant said.
“You plan shelter like seats on a bus. Not everybody who may ride the bus will ride on the same day, all the time, at the same time,” Zaletel said.Assembly Chair Chris Constant, left, and Mayor Dave Bronson listen as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge addresses the media following a roundtable discussion about housing and homelessness in August.
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