Assembly to consider revised homeless property seizure ordinance

Tuesday night, the Anchorage Assembly will reconsider a long-festering public issue that has pitted the mayor's office against the American Civil Liberties Union, homeless rights advocates and the state courts. The ACLU sued over a municipal code enacted last year that gave Anchorage police authority to seize homeless people's property from "outlawed" camps across the city with as little as 12 hours notice, then destroy said property. Mayor Dan Sullivan has called the camps illegal and a "serious public safety issue." A superior court judge sided with the ACLU in deciding that the municipality had overreached in violation of the property rights of homeless people. Muni attorneys have returned a rewrite of the code, which authorizes police to seize homeless property no sooner than three days of notification. The rewrite also says that police must store the property instead of being authorized to destroy it. Tuesday's vote comes less than a week after a homeless man was found along the Chester Creek trail behind Mulcahy stadium southeast of downtown, allegedly strangled. Two suspects have been arrested in the murder.