Emily Goodykoontz

Bronson said he plans to close the campground Friday, locking the gate and the bathrooms and shutting off electricity and water. The city hasn’t yet said where people there will go.

It’s up to Mayor Dave Bronson to implement the $2.4 million plan, and he has so far declined to say whether he will.

The proposed plan for emergency winter shelter and housing for the homeless includes the use of the former Golden Lion Hotel in Midtown and Sullivan Arena.

Bronson administration officials on Wednesday said the administration wants to hear from residents in a “robust public process” before the mayor weighs in on a final decision.

The GuestHouse purchase is the second major piece of a multi-part plan to address homelessness in Anchorage that has come to fruition, which Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration and the Assembly agreed to almost one year ago.

The Anchorage Assembly called on the community task force to quickly draft plans for sheltering hundreds of homeless residents this winter.

Assembly members, skeptical or outright opposed, are again balking at increasing costs, the rushed timeline and the lack of information from the Bronson administration.

Alexis Johnson, Mayor Dave Bronson’s chief of staff, is becoming the city’s new homeless coordinator, while the city’s director of economic and community development will become chief of staff.

Members did not discuss their reasons for rejecting Mario Bird, an outspoken conservative lawyer who represented a group of residents in a lawsuit against the Assembly over meeting rules during the pandemic.

The mayor cited “concerns from the public and Assembly members” when he announced the decision at a Tuesday Anchorage Assembly meeting.

The Aviator, a privately owned hotel, has been home to more than 500 people experiencing homelessness over the last two years. The city and the hotel’s owners are planning to incrementally phase out its use.

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration said it will offer transportation to the 200-plus people living unsheltered in Centennial Park Campground to two new emergency shelters that the city will open on Sept. 29.

With Monday the deadline to withdraw from the race, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III each ignored a call from the other to drop out in order to improve Republican chances against Democrat Mary Peltola.

Bronson’s plan includes sheltering residents in 20 portable buildings, city grants for organizations and churches that stand up shelters, continued use of rooms in the Aviator Hotel and, if needed, sheltering people at the Spenard and Fairview recreation centers.

The Assembly restored all federal COVID-19 relief funding for projects related to homelessness, including millions for the purchase of a hotel or other buildings for low-income and supportive housing. The Assembly also reinstated a task force to come up with a plan to shelter people experiencing homelessness this winter.