The Anchorage Assembly has assigned over $10 million more in public funds to meet the needs of the homeless in Alaska’s largest city. This, in addition to a $2.8 million override of the mayor’s veto of a homeless appropriation the Assembly hopes will be reimbursed by FEMA, but will probably be billed to Anchorage property owners.
The total of $12.8 million means $30,000 will be spent on behalf of every one of the 350 people that the Assembly says are homeless in Anchorage. This, of course, is a fraction of the expenditures, since untold millions are already granted to nonprofit providers in Anchorage that serve the homeless in varying capacities.
For that amount, the Assembly could have simply rented a luxury apartment for each of the homeless persons, and given them a gift card to Walmart for all their food and sundry needs.
Instead, yet more commercial buildings will be taken off the property tax roles and converted into nonprofit use.
The appropriations for sheltering will come from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and from the relatively new alcohol tax in Anchorage.
One of the biggest expenditures is $4.2 million from the alcohol tax to remodel rental units that can be used to house the homeless. During the first year of collection of the new 5% alcohol tax, Anchorage raised nearly $14 million.
Another $3.4 million was made as a grant to the First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage to help the church buy the downtown Guest House hotel, which the Assembly wants to be turned into a shelter.
First Presbyterian Church, a downtown entity that is often politically involved with social justice causes, has no relevant experience in the shelter services arena and has not even filled out an application for the grant that it was awarded last night by the Assembly. But under the leadership of Pastor Matt Schultz, it is politically aligned with the leftist Assembly majority.
The price for the Guest House is $7.7 million, and the municipality won’t be assigned a second spot on the mortgage, under the terms of the grant. In addition, the Guesthouse is zoned for hotels, not as a homeless shelter, and it’s uncertain how quickly the hotel can be converted for the use of homeless people, since First Presbyterian is new in the homelessness business. The sideboards on the grant are weak.
The appropriations also included:
- $500,000 for the United Way to re-grant to another organization to remodel 60 units somewhere in Anchorage. The terms are vague but the program will take 60 units off of the existing rental market, putting further pressure on working class renters and driving up rental prices in Anchorage.
- $433,000 grant for the Brother Francis shelter, run by Catholic Social Services, to expand its bed capacity from 75 to 120.
- $350,000 grant to Christian Health Associates for a shelter for families.
- $1.7 million grant for the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, which has recently refused to help the homeless at the Centennial Campground because its the coalition’s director, Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, does not approve of the campground as a temporary solution. The coalition is a homelessness industrial complex that provides few solutions, has no solid accomplishments, but skims public money and has lots of meetings.
- $1.2 million for the Anchorage Health Department to re-award via competitive bid to an organization that provides adult emergency shelter. The health department will be required to develop an emergency shelter plan and have it approved by the Assembly.
Already, the Assembly has authorized purchase of other buildings, such as the still-vacant Golden Lion hotel on 36th Ave., which the Bronson Administration has not wanted to use for the drug rehabilitation center that the Ethan Berkowitz Administration had purchased it for, and the Sockeye Inn on C Street, which is being used as a shelter and is completely full of homeless people.
