OPINION: Anchorage government should take these actions on homelessness

At YWCA Alaska, we are on a mission to end racism, empower women and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. We know our city’s ongoing housing crisis disproportionately affects women and people of color. With this in mind, we recently held a community housing forum with various community leaders from the Assembly, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s office, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Legislature. Together, we listened to our neighbors who have experienced houselessness and/or unstable housing. While we are continuing to sift through the large amount of valuable feedback we received, some clear patterns have emerged.

Our neighbors love their neighborhoods. We did not see a big desire of people to move from one part of town to another, and our neighbors had a long list of things they love about their neighborhoods.

Our neighbors want attainable housing choices in the parts of town they live in.

Our neighbors want safe transportation alternatives where they can easily and safely walk, bike, or roll to and from stores and other basic services as well as easily catch a bus.

Our neighbors want a website or office dedicated to helping people who are unhoused or unstably housed find and understand the resources available to them.

To that end, we call upon the Assembly and Mayor LaFrance to take the following actions:

1. Stand up a website and/or office where people can easily access and understand the resources they need to be more stably housed.

2. Make it easier to construct convenient, dense, walkable mixed-use neighborhoods — town centers and transit-supportive development corridors — as envisioned in the Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan.

3. Legalize corner stores in select areas without retail or commercial services to reduce vehicle dependence and the occurrence of “food deserts.”

4. Make Anchorage safer to walk, bike and roll through by committing to transportation equity in ways that make non-vehicular travel safe, enjoyable, desirable and efficient. Pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists must be given equal consideration in all transportation investments.

One quote from our conversations really paints the picture we all must work to change: “Everything in this city works together to create the housing crisis.” The aforementioned items are feasible recommendations and attainable goals to address this very comment.

We are happy to lend our voice to this important conversation. We look forward to continuing to advocate for our neighbors and their desire to see affordable, available, desirable housing choice at all income levels throughout Anchorage.

Jessie Lavoie is the CEO of YWCA Alaska.

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