Some background on the housing/homeless problem: in the 1980s, when property values were crashing all over town, the city decided to condemn and tear down extremely cheap housing in Anchorage. Each one deserved to be torn down, having black mold, leaking roofs, no insulation, etc. The result, though, was no cheap housing in town.
An unintended consequence was that not only were there fewer options for the down-and-out, but also nobody invited other homeless folks to stay at their place just because they were a friend or a relative or just someone they met in a bar. Renters with crappy apartments do that; renters with nice apartments don’t. This left a whole lot of the down-and-out wandering around with no place to go.
— Miriam Marsh
Anchorage
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