Motel is proposed as housing for homeless alcoholics

Supporters say it could provide a safe home for those who had all but given up on a regular life.

The vision for the Red Roof Inn is in early stages and nothing is set yet. A private agency that works with homeless alcoholics heard the motel, at Fifth Avenue and Karluk Street, was on the market at a low price. Now it's rushing to pull together funding and political support.

"We're trying to help the 50 most vulnerable individuals," said Melinda Freemon, director of RuralCAP's Anchorage division, including the Homeward Bound residential program.

If it happens, the project would be Anchorage's first large-scale effort to house chronically homeless alcoholics. It would be a form of Housing First, an innovation that makes getting a home -- not just a mat on a shelter floor -- first priority.

A team appointed by Mayor Dan Sullivan to work on the vexing problem of homelessness sees Housing First as one solution, and the Red Roof Inn as a possible place to start. The group is asking Sullivan to endorse the project.

"The concept is intriguing," Sullivan said Wednesday. "You are getting people out of public parks and camps and into secure housing. That sounds like a positive step, but really the devil's in the details."

The mayor said the location wasn't ideal -- the Red Roof is between busy Fifth and Sixth avenues. He said he needed more information about staffing, financing and remodeling, and he wanted to hear the specific recommendations from his homelessness leadership team. He is supposed to be briefed on the Red Roof and other preliminary ideas today.

Supporters are going ahead. Freemon, who's on the homelessness team, said RuralCAP is navigating three areas at once: crafting a grant proposal for funding, examining any municipal land-use restrictions, and evaluating the suitability of the property itself.

A CUT-RATE PRICE

It's easy to drive by the Red Roof Inn and never see it, even though it's on one of the gateways into Anchorage.

It consists of two low-key buildings, with red doors and of course, a red roof. It's still operating as a motel. Room rates in winter are under $50 a night, triple that in the summer. A few cars were parked there one recent afternoon. The lobby was clean. Guests get a free continental breakfast.

The Lucky Wishbone restaurant sits kitty-corner. Car dealerships are down the road. A couple of homes are close by and there's public housing a few blocks away.

The Red Roof franchise is owned by Charles Dan Aalfs, according to municipal property records. The city lists an address for him in Willow Creek, Calif. A message left there was not returned.

Anchorage Assembly member Dan Coffey said Aalfs wanted to sell the Red Roof to a nonprofit agency at a cut-rate price for a tax write-off.

The property, which includes two parcels, is assessed at $2.7 million for tax purposes. But the seller was asking $1.2 million if a nonprofit agency bought it, Freemon said. RuralCAP is in negotiations, she said. It will seek a state grant through the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.

The motel was renovated in 2004 and has sprinklers in every room. But there are issues to work out, such as the fact that the rooms in one building open to the outside. That might need to be reconfigured.

The buildings would be staffed 24-7 and employees would use video monitors to keep tabs on visitors as they come and go, Freemon said. There would be limits on the number of visitors a day, how many at one time, and how long they could stay. That's to prevent drug-dealing and to keep residents' rooms from becoming party destinations, Freemon said.

"That's one way to assist tenants in succeeding in staying there," she said.

Freemon said the facility would probably operate with 50 rooms for individuals. They want to serve meals on site -- people who eat well may drink less -- but haven't figured out how yet.

Residents could stay as long as they followed the rules. They would pay fair-market rent for a single room, typically through public housing assistance or disability or other benefits.

"This is just like if any of us rented an apartment, with extra staffing to ensure the safety of tenants and the neighborhood," Freemon said.

THE SEATTLE EXPERIENCE

The Anchorage project would be modeled on a Seattle program that has dramatically lowered costs for services such as jail, detoxification and medical treatment among chronically homeless alcoholics.

A study published last April in The Journal of the American Medical Association detailed average savings of nearly $2,500 per person a month for those who moved into Seattle's 1811 Eastlake, compared with those on a wait list. And that's including the cost of the housing.

Coffey, who is on the mayor's homelessness team, said he became a supporter after reading the JAMA study. While the Seattle project does not require residents to stop drinking, many chose to drink less, the study found.

"Right now I'm so fed up with the circular, enabling treadmill that we're on that, hey, even if it didn't save this much money, even if it cost us the same amount of money, it would be a better solution," Coffey said.

For the hard-core street alcoholics, "what we're doing now is a total waste of time, money, energy, everything," Coffey said. "Take them to the drunk tank, sober 'em up, let them drink again. Boom boom. Around and around and around we go."

Another member of the homelessness team, Trevor Storrs, was part of an Anchorage group that toured the Seattle program in December. He said this kind of housing could have a big impact and is supported by the Anchorage Coalition on Homelessness, which he co-chairs.

"These individuals, when nobody cares about them, they are not going to care about themselves," Storrs said. Drinking almost becomes a survival tool, a way to deal with cold and hunger, aches and pains.

Fourteen homeless people died in Anchorage public parks, camps and on the city streets during 2009, an unprecedented number. That should convince everyone that something needs to change, Coffey said.

THE VIEW FROM FAIRVIEW

Freemon says she believes the project can go forward without any zoning changes, as long as no treatment is offered on site. The Red Roof is in a commercial district, and dense housing is already allowed there, according to the city.

Coffey is drafting an ordinance to require a special permit with conditions for what he's calling "inebriate housing." He said he thought the Red Roof project would be covered by it.

City residents, especially those most affected by public inebriates, need a voice in the process, Coffey said. Maybe they would have some ideas on special restrictions.

Under the draft ordinance, inebriate housing wouldn't be allowed within 1,250 feet of a school or public park, and the operator would have to submit management and floor plans. The city Planning and Zoning Commission could require landscaping or other buffers.

It makes sense to go through a public process, especially since the property is in a part of town with large numbers of public inebriates as well as social services that cater to them, said Coffey and Assembly Chairman Patrick Flynn, another homelessness team member.

The community may accept the project if it gets inebriated people off the streets, said Flynn, whose Assembly district includes Fairview. The chance for a nonprofit to buy a motel at a decent price seems like a good opportunity. But the community of Fairview needs to be part of the discussion, he said.

Sharon Chamard is Fairview Community Council president and another member of the mayor's homelessness team. She said most council members learned about the project at the group's December meeting.

"In conversations with people afterwards, they are generally not supportive of the idea. We feel like we have too many of these facilities already in Fairview," she said. But, she said, she realizes that there's good evidence that "these types of facilities aren't as horrible as people expect they will be."

One issue, she said, concerns risks to walkers from traffic along busy Fifth and Sixth avenues.

Bob Kniefel, municipal traffic engineer, said homeless people already frequently walk along those streets, and there haven't been any pedestrian safety issues. He looked at the site and said curbs could be brought farther into the streets at intersections, to shorten the distance of the crosswalk and to slow traffic.

At any rate, Freemon said, the project could change lives.

"I would rather have them in safe and secure housing where they are treated with dignity and respect rather than living on the streets of Anchorage. That is no place to live. That is not a home. So this will be their home."

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Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.