I had a dream last night that I made a commitment to help three people get out of homelessness this year, so I was not surprised when I saw the headline in the April 13 Anchorage Daily News: “Assembly outlines plan to close winter homeless shelters.”
Fantastic. Once again, another year and months have passed with zero visible progress on an action plan to house our homeless population. We have failed miserably to take care of our human brothers and sisters, many of whom are forced to live on the streets. Shame on all of us! This is beyond embarrassing and humiliating.
When the present mayor took office, I was super excited to see that he had a plan and set homeless members of our community as a top priority, appointing an individual dedicated to helping solve this social challenge. The Assembly immediately tossed out his proposal to resurrect a 450-bed navigation center, complaining that it was too large and would concentrate too many people in one area. Why did moderate and progressive Democrats do this? Because it wasn’t their idea? Because it was more important to have their way then to remember who they are in service to others?
Assembly member Felix Rivera, who chairs the Committee on Housing and Homelessness, responded to the fact that 600 people will be released from shelters in two weeks with, “I just want to be super clear — I don’t think we will be able to mitigate 100% of those impacts. We just don’t have the resources to do that.”
Really, what has happened to all the money Rasmuson Foundation and their collaborators have contributed, along with pots of federal, state, and other municipal discretionary funds? Now the Assembly wants to study the feasibility of tiny houses. That may be a great plan for some, yet in the meanwhile, what happened to the plan for use of the Golden Lion Hotel — didn’t the city buy that years ago, a plan even the mayor who was initially opposed ended up favoring? And the recreation center and the 150-bed navigation center that was started spending millions and now sits unfinished.
It seems there is no perfect solution, no action that all citizens will endorse — so I beg the Assembly, on behalf of our homeless population, to be courageous enough to develop, institute and follow some action plan, any action plan, with the understanding that the good for any one member of society equates to the good for all. And the hurt of one is the hurt of all. I know I hurt when I see a human brother or sister, out in the cold suffering and at risk — don’t you?
— Marianne Rolland
Anchorage
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