Thank you for your extensive coverage in the ADN July 25 edition on the critical problems with the Anchorage homeless situation.It is sad and tragic this major problem has existed for so many years in Anchorage and unfortunately, there is still no long-term solution. It really is a management problem between the administration and the Assembly.
However, I would strongly recommend for the Municipality of Anchorage and the industry to appoint an executive committee consisting of top executives of all major businesses, as well as nonprofit organizations, to work together to find a solution. Please review the major crisis that exists right now in San Francisco, where the homeless situation is so bad that in the downtown area, many businesses have to shut down because the residents and visitors will no longer go there and tolerate this filthy mess.This homeless problem is getting worse in Anchorage. Just look around the old City Hall and Fourth Avenue, where the MOA even had to remove the benches because the homeless were sleeping on them.
Our visitor industry, as well as Native corporations, oil and gas industry, Anchorage Economic Development Corp. and other major stakeholders should work with the city of Anchorage to fund the homeless shelters before we reach the same critical situation like San Francisco.
The mayor’s suggestion to buy the homeless airplane tickets and send them out of town might work for some, but certainly will not solve the problem for the majority. Maybe we should buy the mayor a one-way ticket to San Francisco, too.
— Chris von Imhof
Girdwood
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