With further abatements of homeless camps outside of the one at Third Avenue and Ingra Street halted until the municipality finds more space to house homeless people, Anchorage officials say they’re now dealing with more than double the number of people they expected to seek winter shelter.
In May, the numbers were tallied from the most recent winter point-in-time count of homeless people in Anchorage. An unexpectedly large number of unsheltered people were counted: 335. That was more than double the number of people counted the year before.
How did city officials reach that number? The Bronson administration says data provided by the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness and other sources showed more than 700 unsheltered were living in outdoor public spaces, but that about 300 were being moved into converted hotel rooms such as The Golden Lion Hotel on East 36th Avenue and the Seward Highway, and The Barratt Inn on Spenard Road.
On Oct. 16, abatement notices were posted at the Third Avenue and Ingra Street encampment and homeless residents started moving into the two hotels.While the system seemed to run smoothly those first few days, something happened to the predictions. They were wrong. “ACEH provides data about people experiencing homelessness to assist policymakers and the government, as well as to inform the public through our dashboard,” the statement read. “We advise that policy be based on data, previous year’s utilization of services and best practices.
“We believe that this is the best way to allocate a limited resource, and to identify an accurate need for shelter beds, as well as how to prioritize bed placement,” a coalition spokesperson said.
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