Anchorage

Anchorage’s first summer homeless count in years suggests that fewer are on the street

At dawn Wednesday, near the start of Anchorage's first summer homeless count in years, two staffers from Covenant House drove around looking for teenagers who had spent the night outside.

They checked the Northway Mall, streets near downtown and the woods near Sullivan Arena. But no teens turned up, and only a few adults.

The early-morning city census was aimed at building off a federally required count in January. At that time, the city counted 200 homeless adults and children and also began to rank adults based on their vulnerability. City homeless coordinator Nancy Burke said she organized the summer count to bolster winter statistics on the assumption that more people camp outside in summer.

On Wednesday, volunteers found fewer homeless people on street corners and in camps than expected, Burke said. She said the focus of the search was shifting to the downtown shelters, where service providers have reported overflowing numbers amid a city crackdown on camps.

"I think what's happened is we've driven most down that direction," Burke said.

So far this year, police have posted eviction notices on 833 illegal camps, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

That exceeds, by five camps, the total closed in all of 2015. In 2013, police ordered 364 camps closed.

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A "camp" is counted by geographic location, not individual shelters, said police spokesperson Renee Oistad. A tent at Fourth Avenue and Gambell Street would count as one camp; four tents together at the same location would also count as one camp, Oistad said.

Just 190 camps were ordered closed in 2010. That was the same year the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska sued to stop Anchorage police from clearing camps with as little as a 12-hour notice. Last month, the ACLU asked the city to stop eviction notices while the city's shelters were full, but Mayor Ethan Berkowitz dismissed the request.

Data show the most evictions occurred in May and June, about 175 in each month. On June 29, the city began to collect citizen reports of camps on its website.

"When you think about it, the entire city is watching and reporting camps," said Alison Kear, executive director of Covenant House.

Finding adults and children who spend the night outside is one piece of a broader series of initiatives to move people from camps and shelters into housing and link them with services for mental health or substance abuse treatment. The city has created an informal list of names of homeless people that is reviewed each week with social services providers.

Starting Thursday, the city will begin entering names, medical information and other survey data into a system shared by social services agencies. The so-called "Homeless Management Information System" is deployed in other U.S. cities and is part of the federal government's effort to tackle homelessness.

Burke said Wednesday's summer count marked "the last big push" before the uploading of the survey data officially begins. As volunteers administered surveys, they also handed out permission forms. Each homeless person has to consent to being included on the roster shared with agencies.

For staff at Covenant House, it's routine to head out early in the morning to find teens who spent the night on the street. Three times a week, starting at 6 a.m., teams walk around downtown looking for homeless youth to encourage them to come to the shelter for breakfast and other services.

It's more difficult to count teenagers than adults, said Josh Louwerse, youth coordinator for Covenant House. The young homeless tend to be more mobile, and couch-surfing doesn't fall under the federal definition of homelessness.

Recently, Covenant House created its own roster ranking vulnerable homeless youth, just as the city has been doing for homeless adults. The list has 33 names so far. The agency enlisted a local hot dog vendor to set up shop on the Delaney Park Strip and give out free hot dogs to teenagers in exchange for completed surveys, said Kear, the executive director.

Around 6:30 a.m., Louwerse and Kear jumped into an agency-owned SUV, armed with two dozen breakfast burritos as another method of encouragement for completing surveys.

They didn't see any sleeping teens on the streets. But they saw adults.

Next to the Mountain View library branch, a man slept with a trash bag over his head and a blue Providence Imaging Center jacket over his waist and hands. Another man slept on a pile of leaves on the edge of a warehouse parking lot near the Mush Inn.

Near Bean's Cafe and Brother Francis Shelter on Third Avenue, where hot breakfast was being served, dozens of people stood in the parking lot. People were also packed into the sheltered entryway of Brother Francis.

"That's what camps look like," Kear said from the backseat of the car, referring to people sleeping in front of the shelter. "All we did was move people."

A little while later, Louwerse parked the car in the parking lot of Sullivan Arena. He and Kear walked into the nearby woods. They'd heard from the Anchorage School District that homeless teens were camping in the area.

School was in session by then. No teens were anywhere to be found. But Kear and Louwerse collected three surveys from adults in tents.

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In one tent, a couple said layoffs forced them into homelessness within the past few years. Both were applying to jobs. The woman, who only wanted to be identified as Angela, said she's applied for housing through a case manager at Bean's Cafe but has been told 100 people were ahead of her.

They were also trying to avoid police. Their tent received an eviction notice in July on the south side of the Chester Creek Trail. They moved to the north side of the trail.

Randy Williams, Angela's boyfriend, said he noticed more people going to the downtown shelter, and more tension there. He said he preferred being in the woods.

In this part of the Chester Creek Trail, he said, it feels safe. Campers are like family.

The couple also heard gunshots late Saturday night down the trail, around the time that two men were killed in Valley of the Moon Park.

As the survey group moved on, Angela called out from her tent: "You guys be careful out there."

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly was an ADN staff reporter.

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