Homeless camps along city greenbelts, in parks and in empty woods have been flourishing during the nearly nine months that Anchorage police and other city workers have been barred by court order from clearing them out, police say.
Now the Sullivan administration is proposing a new measure to clear out the camps as nuisances while protecting the property rights of people who made their homes in them. Many are alcoholics or mentally ill and need more time than the city earlier allowed to collect their belongings and move on, an Anchorage judge ruled in January.
The camps can be dangerous and unsanitary places. Last week, a homeless man was strangled in a tent on the Chester Creek greenbelt near the Ben Boeke Ice Arena after drinking and arguing with a man and woman who lived in the tent, police say. They are jailed on murder charges.
The proposed ordinance being introduced at tonight's Assembly meeting provides options:
• The city generally would give homeless people three days' notice to clear off public land. If they didn't do so, the city would then be required to store their belongings for at least 30 days, and the homeless could retrieve their stuff during that time. The proposal specifies that tents, sleeping bags, tarps, clothing, medicine, books, cooking equipment and personal papers and photos are among the items that should be considered "valuable and eligible for storage." But anything contaminated with human waste, spoiled or mildewed "shall not be stored and may be disposed of summarily," the proposal says.
• The city could give 15 days' notice and throw away whatever is left at the camp as garbage. During that window, if the targeted campers told the city in writing they wanted their stuff, the 15-day period would begin at that point.
• The city could handle the matter like a landlord-tenant eviction and let a judge determine what should happen to the property.
Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said his latest proposal follows the guidelines of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, which last year challenged the city's efforts to clear out the camps. The city is still working on a storage facility and on getting a nonprofit group to operate it, Sullivan said.
Individuals could appeal in court, under the proposal.
Jeffrey Mittman, ACLU executive director, said he had not yet reviewed the proposed law. But "it looks like we are headed in the right direction."
LAWSUIT
The ACLU sued the city on behalf of a homeless veteran, Dale Engle, and other homeless people. Engle said he lost everything he owned including his tent, sleeping bag and military ribbons when his camp was cleared out in 2009. Under the state and U.S. constitutions, people have the right to "life, liberty and property."
The city has struggled for years with how to give homeless people enough time to clear out without allowing them to linger on public lands and scaring away other city residents who want to enjoy the trails and parks. Both Sullivan and the ACLU say that any effort to shut down a camp should include a team offering social and health services.
12 HOURS' NOTICE
In July 2009, the Anchorage Assembly approved a law that gave campers just 12 hours' notice to pack up before their tents, sleeping bags, clothes, food and other items were tossed.
After the ACLU sued, the Assembly changed the notice period to five days. That still wasn't enough. A ruling by Superior Court Judge Mark Rindner in July put the law on hold, and in January, the judge struck it down altogether, saying it violated individual property rights.
Even with the court rulings, police can go into the camps to investigate alleged crimes, usually disturbances, said Lt. Garry Gilliam, commander of the city's Community Action Policing team, which deals with homeless camp issues and other community problems.
Dozens of tents have mushroomed up around the city since the initial court ruling put the law on hold last July. Some camps are elaborate.
One homeless man in the Chester Creek area had a tent for living quarters and what Gilliam called an attached garage structure where he repaired bikes. The city Parks and Recreation Department recently had success in dismantling a different camp in the Campbell Creek area. It was "a massive structure" with a wood stove inside and was illegally erected in a park without a permit, Gilliam said. A few years ago, a homeless man became an entrepreneur and erected a dozen tents to rent to other street people.
"Quite frankly if you talk to them, they're emboldened," the lieutenant said. When police go to the camps to address reported crime, homeless residents aware of the lawsuit may tell them "you can't be here."
That's just wrong, police say. "You cannot misbehave just because we can't remove your camp. We may remove you, just not your camp," Gilliam said.
Back when police could freely shut down the camps, a few tents would typically pop up at a popular spot near Third Avenue and Ingra Street before police moved them out. Last fall, he counted 26 tent sites in that area. With more people in bigger camps staying longer, he said, tensions escalate.
"We should never allow it to get to the point where it's gotten now," Gilliam said.
And with the warming weather, more of the city's homeless will come out of the shelters and into the woods where they create whole communities just out of sight.
The ACLU last year tried to negotiate a camp shut-down procedure similar to what the city now proposes, Mittman said. But the city wasn't willing then.
Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson, who has been working on homeless camp problems in her Midtown district for years, said the city wasted money by fighting in court. Rindner ordered the city to pay the ACLU about $93,500 in legal fees and costs.
Sullivan said the legal issues needed to be aired.
"Our goal is to make it so we can move quickly and efficiently and provide safe public spaces. We now have the parameters on how to do that. We'll be moving ahead aggressively this summer."
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.
By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com