As apocalyptic mega-camp grows, Anchorage Assembly has plans for homeless in a neighborhood near you

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The homeless mega-camp at 3rd and Ingra has all kinds of equipment and vehicles on it, including a surpluses fire truck.

The 3rd Avenue and Ingra Street homeless mega-encampment continues to expand, with more box trucks, boats, and now even a surplused fire truck parked on the property.

“This is the stuff currently being accumulated by reportedly one individual in the parking lot of the 3rd and Ingra mega camp. The old airport fire truck is a new addition as of yesterday. We are told one individual owns the fire truck as well as all of the box vans and the boats and the old people mover bus,” according to the Facebook page “3rd Ave. Radicals.” That’s a group of property owners in the area that are suffering from the lawlessness around them due to Anchorage’s inability to enforce laws.

Third and Ingra homeless camp photos, from “3rd Avenue Radicals”

Meanwhile residents in south Anchorage area may be blissfully unaware of a “new” Anchorage homeless plan, now that the liberal majority in the Assembly has shot down Mayor Dave Bronson’s homeless navigation center, which was designed to get each specific homeless or vagrant client the help he or she needed.

The Assembly plan is to put a shelter in every district in Anchorage. The new plan is just like the old plan, the one the Assembly was working on before Mayor Dave Bronson tried to get a navigation center up and running.

Assemblyman Felix Rivera, said last week that he is restarting what he calls his “clean slate” program, a plan he announced back in March, as the Assembly majority was completing its double-cross of the mayor, who had negotiated in good faith with the assembly.

Mayor Bronson and Rivera had signed off on a plan a year ago that came out of the mediation group put together. The Assembly got everything it wanted in that mediation group (homeless hotels across the city including the Sockeye Inn and the Golden Lion), and then pulled the rug out from under the mayor’s navigation center.

After stalling on action for weeks, Rivera’s clean-slate plan is now in front of the Assembly, even as fall approaches and the municipality has run out of money. Part of that plan, as originally announced, was to open at least one permanent year-round low-barrier shelter by Nov. 1.

Oceanview and Klatt Road residents and businesses are being surveyed by the community councils to get the taxpayers’ views on record before the Assembly finalizes the plans of putting low-barrier shelters in the more suburban parts of the city, such as Rabbit Creek, Abbott Loop, Oeanview, and Hillside.

Low-barrier shelters are those that cater to chronic inebriates and drug users.

A fentanyl overdose is handled by medics near the 3rd and Ingra mega-camp on Wednesday.

The Assembly is even considering changing the ordinances so that churches could provide low-barrier shelters, effectively making them drug magnets.

The surveys people are seeing in their various South Anchorage neighborhoods are modeled after one that has been used by the Hillside Community Council. Community councils are asking people to get engaged with the process or they may end up with one of these low-barrier shelters in their neighborhoods.

Anchorage is already spending $12 million on homelessness operations and is now re-entering the emergency sheltering season, which starts when ambient temperatures average around 45 degrees.

The Assembly has appropriated all available money to external partners and the Mayor’s Office is now at a fiscal cliff that may require the mayor to declare a state of emergency.

91 COMMENTS

  1. Amazing how progressives versions of utopia involve such extreme levels of human suffering and degradation.

    Ah, the “compassion”.

    Not a day goes by I’m not glad I bolted that sinking ship for Juneau.

  2. I like better the “Clean Plate” plan for the homeless as it involves Felix Rivera: slather every Anchorage homeless person with barbecue sauce, and introduce them to Felix. The homeless problem would magically and very quickly disappear.

    • My word, Anchorage! When are you going to wake up and throw this Assembly out! If you don’t you will be another Seattle, Portland, L.A., Chicago, Detroit, New York City, etc., etc., etc.

  3. As a kid living here in the 60s, we only had 200K people or so in the whole state and 65K in Anchorage.
    Housing shortages are due to more people than the city can accommodate, so why are they here? Dividend checks perhaps? Over crowded city’s in the lower 48 have caused a northern migration?
    Homeless do have the right to live any where they want.

    • How many live in your yard? Your home? It’s a very generous, progressive stance, when it’s not your personal issue.

      The Alaska I lived in in the 60s, these people would have been forcibly removed.

    • “……….Homeless do have the right to live any where they want.”
      Then I have the right to camp anywhere I want and for as long as I wish. If they don’t have to obey the law, neither do you or I. The 14 day limit on camping on public lands needs to be universally ignored.

    • 3rd gen, One has the right to live anywhere one wants, however that right is conditional upon one providing for oneself and not claiming the rights and or property of others. BTW, are you channeling Malthus?

    • Not in my yard… And if the city forces them to a location that decreases my property value, the city is liable. 3rd, you should go talk to some homeless and listen to their stories – the PFD has nothing to do with it.

    • People aren’t coming here for $1300 checks a year, and food and gas prices that far eclipse the lower 48, or the largely substandard and super expensive medical insurance. They came here for construction booms or perceived slope jobs because of the lingering stories of the 70’s when people drove up and got a job the same week making 2X their wages in the lower 48.

      Most of the homeless seem to be from the villages (at least in the downtown area), they come to Anchorage for ANMC or whatever and just stay because booze and drugs are cheaper and easier to get here. You are right about homeless being able to go where they want, however we should actively enforce the laws on the books, being homeless doesn’t give a person the right to be a public problem or steal, vandalize or hurt others. Most homeless people are homeless because they want to be and don’t want to get better or change their situation. They love the handouts

    • So if homeless have the RIGHT to live anywhere they want (which is ridiculous, but for the sake of discussion…), then the city/property owner has the right to charge them property taxes/rent. There clearly are funds here, as these trucks, busses and structures don’t fall from the sky. Tag a bill on the side of every camper, tent, cardboard shack or bus and collect. If they do not pay, haul it off and sell it. Isn’t that what they do if you or I do not pay our property taxes. Wouldn’t that be just equitable???

  4. A community’s churches aren’t shelters for us nor are they social service providers. Its supposed to be God’s House a place of worship, prayer, and study of God’s Word. Remember the Peoples in Jesus’ days they turned God’s House into a convenient marketplace and how Jesus responded he flipped the money-changers tables over.

    • Matthew 25:40-45.

      I really, really want to be there when you come face to face with God. I’ll have popcorn.

      In your long and very sad history of biblical illiteracy, comparing housing homeless with Jesus confronting the money changers in the temple is…impressively stupid.

      And glaringly ignorant. Impressively so.

      You really should publish your version of the Bible. Especially the Book of Jen.

    • Not exactly the truth but close. The money lenders were making a profit and not helping the people (Jerry Prevo as an example). In fact IF you read and believe your bible YOUR assembly is suppose to reach out and take care of the poor, the sick, the downtrodden. Thats sorta what the whole “follow me” message of Jesus is about. Now I’m all for helping people in need but they NEED to be looking for a hand UP not a hand OUT. Problem is many of these churches are run by leadership that doesn’t actually care about their own congregation let alone the homeless on the street or the people in need. If they did you would have less Prevo style churches and more soup kitchens, AA meetings, and outreach programs.

    • Jen, it would be nice if you actually practiced what you preach. Oh and look up Interfaith Hospitality Network. A network of churches hosting homeless families, providing shelter and meals, while the organization assists them to find permanent housing, jobs and childcare. If you can not differentiate between base commerce and opening the door to those who need help, then your brand of religion isn’t any better than that of the Pharisees of old, who put rules above all and themselves as the most pious….sad!

  5. “The Assembly has appropriated all available money to external partners”

    What does this actually mean? To whom, exactly, has the Assembly appropriated all available money?

    Show us where the Assembly is sending our money, please.

    Also, do you realize how many schools are found in Rabbit Creek, Abbott Loop, Oeanview, and Hillside?!?! Not the right locations for “low barrier” anything!!!

    I hope people will come out en mass to let the Assembly know which way the wind blows.

  6. Every assembly member who votes for this should have the first “shelter” in their district placed across the street from their house. If that cannot be done, it should occupy the park or public use land closest to their house.
    .
    If having homeless camps in every district is so fabulous, they should get to enjoy them before the rest of the district.

    • I like that. Equality is the buzz word. I’ll even chip in for tents if needed if I can be promised they will be erected in or across from Felix’s front yard.

      • Former assembly members should not be spared either. LaFrance was a HUGE advocate for spreading the homeless around. Her neighborhood should get it first.

    • Better hurry up with that Eaglexit, lest you end up with a legion of new “voters” planted in your neighborhoods that will vote against it.

    • Chrissy gotta californicate everything he touches. His commie minions like feeelix and meggy go along for the thrill of hurting people.
      When are the ifiots of this town gonna stop voting them in? Time to clean up voter roles, get voter id and truly see how the actul CITIZENS OF ANCHORAGE feel.
      Voter role cleanup first…..

  7. Stupid people vote for stupid people. Just trying to push them further from our glorious downtown for tourist not to see. Also since they do not have a physical address they should not be receiving anything, pfd, medicaid, eligible to vote etc. It’s only a matter of time when we will have a real disaster fire started by these bums. Pray for Hawaii. They got 95 million Ukraine got 250 more million. Also get ready for another scamdemic, do not comply fight back. It is bs and will destroy what little we have gained since the last scam. Billions of dollars are missing that’s tax dollars. Just say no. One last thing quit babying them by giving them everything. I see food trucks from beans at davis park and the trash in the woods is really bad. Do what we do with bothersome bears fly them out to the boonies and then let them decide if they want to be part of society or not with out the freebies. Hell the bears don’t even go near them must be they are vaxed or diseased.

    • What, in your comment, is the difference between stupid people and toddlers?
      .
      Seriously, if you compare the decision making process of a five year old, and an Anchorage Assembly member, you would not see too many differences.

  8. All those tents in the woods I’ve been seeing are way better than the mayors “tent in the woods” eh Frank? Now we can have tents in the woods all over town AND close to the schools. Can we charter some of your “airships” to transport the indigent across the inlet?

    • Can you name one felony a homeless person has committed on a school child? The Bronson Navigation Center is nothing more than a mass shelter that will not get homeless into permanent housing

      • If the homeless want permanent housing they should ohhhhhhh I don’t know…..work for it! A person at least has to want to get better, however if the freebies keep coming why would any bum want to spend their day being sober and working when you could spend it high or drunk and dozing on a pile of rocks.
        Also, homeless people cause problems on or near school grounds all the time. However the ASD spends a ton of money settling out of court so as to keep the stories out of the news. Don’t believe me? Look into it. How do you think the budget gets to 900 million and the schools are still no better?
        I’ve literally seen drug deals happening in school parking lots between adults who were commuting on foot or crappy old bmx bikes. I’m pretty sure they were homeless….I’m pretty sure drugs on school campuses can be charged as a felony, depending.
        The Bronson shelter is exactly what you say “ a mass shelter” what’s the problem with that? It’s a place to get these miserable repubates some help instead of them being strung out all over the city ruining every neighborhood. Why are you against it?

      • Oh “Frank”…

        I’m always amused by two things the left does here:
        -show “compassion” by leaving derelict people on the streets.
        -ignoring the fact the homeless are already causing major societal distruption.

        You’re almost clever here, but not quite.

        It’s very hard to list of unsavory activities of homeless when the local government refuses to prosecute them, or even register them.

        Bronson wanted to try to get them off the streets and back into life.

      • Not my job to get the homeless into permanent housing. Nor is it yours, nor is it the responsibility of the taxpayer.
        The person responsible for getting the homeless into housing are… the homeless. Mayor Bronson’s navigation center would have gotten them off drugs, training, therapy, etc… allowing them to get their own permanent housing.
        .
        Just giving them somewhere to live is not helping.

  9. What did we spend 12 million on?
    I would like to see camps on the assembly’s members supporting this street. Every assembly member voting for them should put up or get out of the way.

    • Same old story , the larger the city government , larger Houseless population ! It’s all connected to administrated funds by city officials !

      Put the Houseless issue under the state fish and game management! This would be a great solution !

      Interior moose population has been literally wiped out because of Fish and Game mismanagement ! Same group could wipe out Houseless population ! Worked for the moose and it’ll work for the hobos !

  10. I think we should buy a house in the assembly’s neighborhood, and donate it into homeless shelters for 12 million.

    • City of SF has spent literally billions of dollars on 7,200 Houseless on the streets of San Fransisco ! City received $2B alone during Covid for Houseless issue ! Money all disappeared in city mismanagement of funds ! Still have worsening issues and commercial buildings in downtown have plummeted in value . Some have recently sold at 20% of accessed value ! These huge buildings have lost 80% of value in 4 years ! We not seen the bottom yet ! It’s going to be tough to pay all the city officials wages with out tax collected on building values ! It’s really starting to unwind and bottom of the values in not in site ! Hotels are sitting empty ! Coming home to roost !

      • They don’t care. Zaletel is making bank on this gig. The last time I checked, Zaletel had purchased and accumulated four homes between 2009 & now, three in Anchorage and one in Hope. The assembly members have options that many of us don’t.

  11. What’s up with this guy on 3rd street? And he’s homeless? But can buy! All these vehicles? And ? I think there is a problem there? Move your stuff onto someone else’s land? Isn’t the trespassing laws in ? Then! Mr Felix! Instead of spending money on one navigational center! You want to spend more money and more complaints to the city about this? Because, you know people will fight you on their neighborhoods! Btw they pay taxes on this!

  12. Thankfully I can be fairly sure this will not affect my neighborhood, as I live next door to a very left-wing Assembly member.

  13. This is exactly what ANC wants.
    The liberal assembly was voted in by a landslide, not even one close race.
    So the assembly is going to do what the people want.
    Votes matter.

    • Gerrymandering of the districts helped as well. And, let’s not forget the mail in voting. That benefits the incumbent.
      And, votes matter only if you can be sure they are counted correctly. Frankly, I think I voted in the last assembly elections. I have zero confidence my vote was counted correctly.

      • Yep, I received my mail-in ballot, and 2 others for the previous tenants who now live out of state. Could have filled out all 3 but I turned the extra 2 into the voting center. I wonder how much this happens.

  14. The left believes people are no more than animals, well lots of animals live outside. So what’s the fuss all about. Some animals do drugs, some drink, some steal. So what? They are animals, get over it Meggy. Get over Felix.

  15. I was told once that property was laden with asbestos and couldn’t be used without remediation. Now the Lefty’s have made homeless villa’s out of it? Go figure. Their human kindness knows no bound!

  16. That’s awesome. The guy has a boat, a bus, box vans, a gas stove at the ready, and that monstrous fire truck. This camp is getting a real “Mad Max” look to it.

  17. Would it be wrong it I set up a “Air B & B” but make it for RVs and tents? Could be the next big thing. “Come to Alaska folks, live the way “true Alaskans” live for awhile! BRYT…Bring your own tarp.

  18. If it’s already gone this far, it’s too late. They won big in the last election, coupled with successfully gerrymandering the city. The citizens didn’t file petitions to recall their assembly members at that time, did they? No. District 4 voters WANT THIS. They have continued to elect Rivera and Zalatel. Whichever district Dunbarr’s in… and Constant… those voters also WANT THIS. Check it out: Bayshore/Klatt is in West Anchorage now. So when we elected Randy Sulte, the Assembly simply erased our representation and diluted us into ANOTHER district in Anchorage that would elect another gut-wrenching liberal… that gal is so sickly sweet I don’t even care to remember her name. It makes me sick that she voted on my behalf. But here we are. Folks who value their privacy, security, property value, and quality of living… get comfortable with the fact that we can’t stop it. It should have been stopped in the last two assembly elections (last 4 years). It wasn’t. Now you know where this problem is rooted: in the citizens. If you don’t want to live through our collective and willfully selected demise, leave. ASAP.

    • DC, I enjoy your comments immensely however there is one term I wish you would not use in describing the fascist on the Anchorage Assembly, Liberal. Liberal in a historic contexts describes one who is tolerant of others opinions despite them being different from their own. Liberals have long championed individual rights and a free enterprise system. Many of our Nations Founders were Liberals or Classical Liberals. The gang of tyrants who run Anchorage are not Liberal. We cannot allow these illiberal people to co-opt our language any further, look what they have already done to Gay and Lady! Let us draw a line in the verbal sand and call a spade a spade forevermore!
      Thanks Dee-Cee

      • Thank you for pointing this out. One of the hallmarks of Marxism is the hijacking of language to prevent “inconvenient” truths from being expressed, and the redefinition of “liberal” in American politics is an excellent example of this. Call them leftists, Marxists, socialists, totalitarians or whatever, but DON’T call them liberals. After all, the word “liberal” is rooted in “liberty” which is something for which 9 of our Assembly members have a particular disdain.

    • I don’t think so. Did you look at how much money was collected from out of state to defeat the recall efforts of the midtown residents? Have you studied the mail-in voting the assembly voted for and the way they tightened controls for their clerk to call all the shots? Eighteen thousand mailed out ballots collected at the P.O. as undeliverable in just one race. People reported receiving multiple ballots for others no longer living there. Ballots were observed piled up at appartment complexes and on the ground under mailboxes. Many received ballots out of state years after they had moved. People were hired from out of state to go door to door to collect ballots. People who observed problems in the vote counting were kicked out. Conservatives nominated to boards including for voting oversight were rejected for having witnessed problems in the preivious election count.

  19. Im all for placing them in the distinctive neighborhoods, we’ll see how fast the navigation center gets built then, I mean c’mon, buying property willy nilly and pissing everyone off by degrading neighborhoods is a reflection of common sense, right? I whole heartedly support Bronson and his plans.

  20. The mayor can’t declare a state of emergency just because the assembly has misappropriated all the money they received from all the various tax payer, state, and federal money. The assembly incompetence isn’t an emergency, it is a criminal enterprise.

    • You got it Rubey ! Larger the city Govt , larger the homeless issue is ! Just look to SF ! Most of the houseless I see around downtown Anc are villagers coming into Anchorage to live off of the land ! The fruits of the land , cheap cigarettes , booze and drugs !

      You have ask the question , is this what the voters wanted ? I don’t think so ! Time to check the accounting of the administrated funds for the homeless ! You’ll be surprised to learn how it’s administrated, black hole !

  21. I sure would like to see the assembly come out and clean up some of the trash that is constantly left behind in the wake of homelessness. The filth keeps growing and there is nary a city worker anywhere doing any grounds keeping.

    Another testament to failed government.

  22. I support spreading the pain to ALL Anchorage voter neighborhoods. The more visible and destructive to the neighborhood, the better. That way the morons who keep putting these left wing assembly idiots in charge can enjoy the full fruits of their decisions. I would therefore say to Felix, “You go GIRL!”

  23. The pathetic Liberal Left-Wing Anchorage Ass(embly) is a gang of idiots who blame the entire homeless problem on Mayor Bronson instead of taking responsibility for this current nightmare and vetoing everything our Mayor has tried to do to solve this sad situation. Wake up Anchorage and dump these Liberal Democrats!

  24. I scream. I got a good piece of data for you. The most expensive property in the mat su is in the butte. We ran most of our homeless crack heads off 2 years ago. A simple neighborhood mob that was tired of thefts and morons walking down the center line at midnight. Our jim creek problem is ass wipe anchorage scum degrading our place.

  25. Wanna help with the homeless population? Make rent and living expenses more reasonable! Once the price of rent went up so did the homeless population

    • The problem is not with housing. The problem is with addiction, and the enabling this city does for those addicts. They hit what you or I would consider rock bottom and go back for more. They will not stop until they have to, and sometimes not even then, but they need to stop doing so in our neighborhoods. They will continue to be enabled so long as the Assembly keeps giving cash to those who make money off of them. Felix, Chris, and Meg all benefit financially from more addicts. The conflict of interest is awful, but who has stepped up to stop them?

  26. Why not preach the gospel to them so they can be saved and transformed. Wait till I make my way there, I’ll do what I can to help. Be part of the solution. With God you have absolution.

  27. I agree with DeeCee’s statement about the citizens being more the cause of this. We are all complicit in this. Some of these posts are complaints about someone elses post, which is not the issue at hand. Everyone keeps saying whats wrong. No one is saying what’s right.
    Therein lies confusion.
    There is no collectively agreed decision on what the roots of these issues are, so you will struggle to find the solution, because nobody is working together. Divided we fall, remember?
    The politicians and leaders that are supposed to be responsible for city infrastructure do not work with the actual public to identify the real needs of people. They play us like a sim game. They have boundaries they dare not cross, but some maybe they should for humanitarian reasons. But they won’t.
    It removes the burden of guilt, and compassion to these unhoused that everyone fear.
    The regular citizens seem to be walking around with their hands up, like they can’t do anything; trying to not touch anything as to not get involved. I understand that and I don’t know what to do either, but if common people don’t act, they’re allowing themselves to be encroached on.
    The unhoused are playing everyday by day. Its hard to plan a day and move forward when you dont know where you’re allowed to be, and have to think about moving your clothes miles at a time to avoid getting robbed. If you’ve never experienced having to live hour by hour, then you just plain cant understand what its like even if someone explained it to you. The rest of the world shuns and misjudges street people. Won’t give them a chance anyway, so many assimilate with the unhoused because “higher society” will not accept them, and lonliness is death.
    Three separate thought processes with their own intentions and ideas of how life works does not work together nicely. And Im speaking generally.
    There needs to be preventative maintenance and forward restructuring within our communities to help grow Alaskans, instead of giving up on people. We are all in this together, hopefully we will get out of it together, because if we don’t we will explode and then they’ll just cover up what once happened here and start some other civilization. This mutual social destruction is getting childish.

    Thank you.

    -R
    Kenai, AK

    • Humanism got us in this mess. Each person repenting and going back to God and studying his Word will get us out of it, or at least make each one individually more impactful being used to changing the people around us from our family and friends, neighbors, and co workers. Nice post “R” I hope beside sharing your wisdom here I hope in real life online you another brother or sister impacting peoples lives around in Kenai cause I know Kenai if the Christians there don’t get going then their community not like Anchorage will become more like Wasilla before it becomes like Anchorage. In my everyday life here on Anchorage I have work projects I been committed to leave a lasting impression on the people I am around including my family. I know there are more Anchorites whom I came across doing good quiet work too impacting their work, social, and family relationships for God. There always room for more helpers especially men that us women need more men helpers to reach other men better than a woman.

    • You cannot help people who refused to be helped. There are programs to help people get sober. There are programs to help people get clothes, shelter, food. There are programs for anyone who is willing to lift a finger, but these addicts just want more drugs and booze. Nobody can fix that part, but they could start by sending these miscreants back to where they came from and stop giving them everything they need to be able to continue to lived blitzed.

    • One more thing. The unhoused or chronically constantly unemployed they don’t give themselves a chance and they give up too easily especially when they run into employment conflicts like they get tired of serving thinking wrong thoughts that they are being treated as an unpaid servant when they are getting paid and they forget their coworkers or employers also have problems. Each job duty they do is being recorded by God most high and are serving him as well as the work they do here trains them for the future work we will do in heaven. They think they only working for self. Jesus said we be faithful to complete the little things we do here and Jesus will give us more work beyond this life. The homeless, the addicts only think of self. My earlier comment is if Alaskans want to see us being more like Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio then change begins within each person in that God-shaped void in our heart that we so easily try filling up with everything and everyone else that doesn’t fit that space. And People ask how come they aren’t see a change about themselves. It’s because they looking to everything and everyone else around except toward God the one who made us and the one who knows our pasts and the one who knows how to get through to us individually. Its the same for homeless and addicted. The recovered crowd all say this. Until men and women still homeless and addicted truly seek God and study his word and faithfully fellowship in a church group, they will remain stuck clutching their shackles and chains until death takes them.

  28. The “homeless “ appear to be the only smart ones. When you don’t own anything on paper, you magically become exempt from all laws and can do whatever you please. How clever is that? I want lots of cool surplus stuff, but laws prohibit me from stacking it in my yard. Don’t really desire to poop on the sidewalk but could learn.

  29. We do need the Navigation Center Mayor Bronson proposes, to help Homeless people one on one to get the treatment programs , housing and services they need. We have local foundations and non-profits to help with funding and expertise. Shouldn’t we beware of conflicts of interest on the Anchorage Assembly in for profit treatment programs? Is it fair to our community to make Sullivan Arena a Homeless Shelter each winter?

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