Legislators, restore funding to homeless aid

In May 1983, with rising deaths in the homeless population and unsafe conditions, Archbishop Francis Hurley worked with two of the Servant Brothers, named Brother Bob and Brother Dave, to find a safe place for unhoused communities: the Rose Garden on the Delaney Park Strip. Anchorage’s new mayor, Tony Knowles, as well as the head of the police and fire departments, worked to help find a more permanent solution. And so Brother Francis Shelter was founded.

The Brother Francis Shelter protest is the starting point for the snowball effect of a budget cut for the state of Alaska if this Legislature does not act.

Camp Here: Occupy to Overcome is just a glimpse of what the future of these cuts will mean to Alaska as a whole.

Throughout this camp display, gracious volunteers have served: two-parent families, single working-parent and single student-parent families, the working handicapped, mentally handicapped, working disabled, mentally disabled, scholars of all ages, pre-school through master’s degree studies, as well as couples and singles all across the board.

Legislators: To sit back and do nothing without exercising your right to represent your people and families that had voted you into office will lead to the snowball effect of a total “economic genocide."

You, as legislators, will have a member or several members of your immediate and extended families affected by your choice not to exercise your right to represent those you elected to serve.

We from Camp Here: Occupy to Overcome ask you, our chosen representatives, to look at your photo albums, Facebook pages, friends and family pictures and take a moment to reflect on the effects of this economic genocide.

Now take a moment to ask yourselves, “Will I represent not only myself, but my friends and family as a whole?”

The courts and correctional systems already have a heavy burden to bear on a day-to-day basis, as well as those who have chosen to wear fire and police badges.

Now take a moment to realize that if these budget cuts take place, the entire Park Strip will be filled with tents occupied by your family and friends that you were elected to serve.

Not only will the Park Strip and other parks within Anchorage be filled with those who will be struggling, but parks and parking lots within your communities and regions which you serve as legislators.

Qaay’aq Qaay’aq Steven Moses, originally of Bethel, is a currently unhoused resident of Anchorage.

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