By DAN FAGAN
The Anchorage Assembly is swelling its lavish spending spree to make life easier for street people in Anchorage. The Assembly wants to spend $13 million on a facility sitting on 17 acres in the heart of midtown and turn it into a homeless shelter.
A local church, Faith Christian Community, is selling the property, known by many residents as the Arctic Recreation Center.
The Assembly also wants to spend an additional $12 million on low-income housing near the property.
Assembly members, most of whom are openly antagonistic of Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, approved in the past the funding of a facility located in East Anchorage known as the “navigation center.”
City taxpayers have already spent $3 million on the navigation center. But the project now lies dormant, and the Assembly has refused to approve the funds to finish it.
The navigation center will cost far less to finish than the $25 million project the Assembly now proposes.
The Arctic Recreation Center is surrounded by a large neighborhood to the west of Arctic, including multiple churches, an elementary school, a charter school, dozens of businesses, hotels, and thousands of residents who call the area home.
So why has the Assembly abandoned the mayor’s navigation center after first approving its funding, and why does it now favor a less desirable and more expensive project?
Some say it’s politics. They say the Bronson Administration made a technical error when it came to getting funding for the project. The Assembly, dominated by Left-leaning members, saw the mistake as an opportunity to embarrass the conservative mayor. Critics says it’s obvious Assembly members care more about embarrassing and humiliating Bronson than helping the homeless or wisely spending taxpayer dollars.
Assemblyman Felix Rivera is leading the charge to spend the $25 million on the new midtown homeless center, which would be in his district. Assemblywoman Meg Zalatel also represents the area; she is the executive director for the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, where she takes home a six-figure salary, some of which is paid for by taxpayers.
Critics say Zalatel, sometimes known as the Anchorage homeless czar, has a financial incentive to grow Anchorage’s vagrant problem.
Taxpayers spent $62 million last year alone on the Anchorage vagrancy problem. They’ve spent $161 million in the past three years.
If the Assembly goes through with its new $25 million midtown facility, it will need to undergo significant zoning and code rewrites to make it usable as a homeless shelter.
There is a distinct difference between the Mayor and Assembly’s vision for solving the city’s vagrant problem.
Bronson would rather complete the centralized navigation center, close to medical facilities and away from neighborhoods. That center would get people who are living on the streets the kind of services that will help them most — medical, drug and alcohol recovery, jobs, and shelter.
The Assembly however leans toward multiple shelters, evidenced by the body’s desire to buy the Golden Lion Hotel, the former Alaska Club on Tudor, and now the Arctic Recreation Center in midtown.
The Arctic Recreation Center would be a low barrier shelter. That means residents can show up drunk or high and still hang out on the property and have a place to stay.
Anchorage’s homeless population has increased considerably after former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz began to significantly increase the taxpayer money spent on the problem year after year. The more Anchorage spends, the faster the homeless population grows. Rivera and Zalatel are clearly doubling down on the strategy.
Dan Fagan is a reporter for Must Read Alaska. Email him at [email protected].
