Homelessness

The proposed plan for emergency winter shelter and housing for the homeless includes the use of the former Golden Lion Hotel in Midtown and Sullivan Arena.

Bronson administration officials on Wednesday said the administration wants to hear from residents in a “robust public process” before the mayor weighs in on a final decision.

The GuestHouse purchase is the second major piece of a multi-part plan to address homelessness in Anchorage that has come to fruition, which Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration and the Assembly agreed to almost one year ago.

The Anchorage Assembly called on the community task force to quickly draft plans for sheltering hundreds of homeless residents this winter.

Assembly members, skeptical or outright opposed, are again balking at increasing costs, the rushed timeline and the lack of information from the Bronson administration.

Alexis Johnson, Mayor Dave Bronson’s chief of staff, is becoming the city’s new homeless coordinator, while the city’s director of economic and community development will become chief of staff.

The mayor cited “concerns from the public and Assembly members” when he announced the decision at a Tuesday Anchorage Assembly meeting.

The Aviator, a privately owned hotel, has been home to more than 500 people experiencing homelessness over the last two years. The city and the hotel’s owners are planning to incrementally phase out its use.

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration said it will offer transportation to the 200-plus people living unsheltered in Centennial Park Campground to two new emergency shelters that the city will open on Sept. 29.

Bronson’s plan includes sheltering residents in 20 portable buildings, city grants for organizations and churches that stand up shelters, continued use of rooms in the Aviator Hotel and, if needed, sheltering people at the Spenard and Fairview recreation centers.

Listen: What happened, why and what’s next in Anchorage’s ongoing and changing homelessness crisis.

The Assembly restored all federal COVID-19 relief funding for projects related to homelessness, including millions for the purchase of a hotel or other buildings for low-income and supportive housing. The Assembly also reinstated a task force to come up with a plan to shelter people experiencing homelessness this winter.

This week, Mayor Dave Bronson said his administration is forming plans for emergency shelter in Anchorage this winter, but revealed few specifics.

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A converted hotel now shelters 83 medically fragile and elderly homeless residents, filling a critical need and pointing to a model for the city’s ongoing response.

Members of the Assembly’s Homelessness and Housing Committee had expected Bronson officials to present a cold-weather emergency shelter plan for single adults and discuss other pressing issues Wednesday. Instead, the administration sent the committee an email containing written statements from Municipal Manager Amy Demboski.

The city spending package, finalized Tuesday, comes as the city faces a crisis of unsheltered homelessness.

Grassroots efforts and aid groups have stepped in to fill gaps in services at the East Anchorage campground, but safety concerns and confusion over who’s in charge mean there often isn’t a clear path to help.

Service providers say hundreds more could need help this winter, and they — along with advocates and city officials — are all rushing to come up with quick solutions before cold weather hits.

Shelters and housing programs are largely full, with waitlists — and for the first time in years, there is no walk-in shelter available.

Some unsheltered people living at the campground were shaken by the exchange of gunfire that left one police officer and a suspect seriously injured. A few campers witnessed the entire incident. For many others at the encampment, life continues on as usual.

A project to build a 150-person shelter and navigation center in East Anchorage is currently estimated to be finished at the end of January, according to officials in Mayor Bronson’s administration.

It was the fifth bear killed recently by wildlife officials at Centennial Park Campground.

City officials, service providers and advocacy groups generally agree that the campground will remain the status quo until elected officials find more permanent housing and shelter options.

A man involved in a fight at Centennial Park was hit with a stun gun multiple times before being restrained, police said.