Mayor-elect Dave Bronson today announced that Dr. John Morris will lead the homeless transition plan for his new administration, and Cheryl Frasca will lead the Office of Management and Budget transition team.
Frasca was OMB director for Anchorage in past administrations. She also worked in the Murkowski Administration as the director of the State Office of Management and Budget.
Morris is an anesthesiologist who has been working on homelessness in Anchorage for the past few years. Morris is asked to reimagine a homeless program to reduce the number of people living in homeless camps in the city. He said he will be consulting people from all segments of the community and stakeholders as he and his team develop a path forward.
Expectations! Have expectations for the homeless. Give them shelter, especially the kids, but have expectations for them to live civilly and take care of their domicile generously provided by others. As a condition, enroll them in classes to teach life skills which most lack (something like the boot camp program), to show up clean and on time for a job, to be respectful of all and especially authorities, and to be grateful for generosity and to return it to others. Treat them like fellow civil humans but also hold them to standards, and for those who fail, generously give them a blue tarp and ride to Fire Island where they can watch their fellow humanity live civilly from a distance where they are no longer a burden.
And outlaw panhandling, with stiff jail sentences.
This is a terrific start. Frasca is sharp and has the experience. Very happy about your choices Mayor Bronson and I support you. Putting a medical professional in charge of the helping to reimagine he homelessness and what it takes to address it is away and beyond better than a group of kids uneducated in what it takes to make a change.. This assembly does not understand that you don’t place an opioid and alcohol treatment center next to the largest liquor store in town and pithing mere blocks of an elementary school and neighborhood full of young people.
Please, clean up this city.
Thank You!
For winning this, Mayor’s election.
Alaska started as tent cities & many folks are fine living in tents the majority of the year…it would be a good idea to set aside a parcel of land for camping with toilets and washing facilities.
Run it like a park campground & have hosts to monitor activities.
Charge a nominal fee or allow those without money a chance to work off their camping fees through work projects around the facility.
It won’t cost the city much & it will get homeless folks out of the woods & away from the trail system.
Camping “out of bounds” would be illegal just like in most State Parks throughout America.
Adak.
Pass laws to criminalize homeless encampments on public property and run them out. If private property owners want to host homeless then that is their business. It is not the responsibility of government to “solve” homelessness. It IS the responsibility of government to safeguard and properly manage public property and allowing homeless to squat on public property is not proper management.
The people running this city are running a very tiny city and it doesn’t include most of us. It’s like they are a cloister of elites and our requirements don’t register. So glad we have a different Mayor. Right now the tax office is passive aggressively slow about depositing the funds people are paying. Ms Frasca should “pop in” inquire, and advise to save herself hidden havoc. What ever the slow rate tiny elite hamlet pace is being enjoyed needs to be urged to pick up the pace to be even reasonably business like.
If I was Ms. Frasca I’d ask the new Mayor for early hire of my bookkeeping staff. Just know they have long been languid and understaffed and accustomed to it. I’d get temps in there to get the internal controls functioning and deposits run four times a day. It’s that slow.
We don’t have time to be miffed. Time is money.
It’s ok to embroider that onto little pillows and sell them out of the muni gift shop.
Steve Stine, very nice thoughts but sadly most of these people are lawless and degenerate. They are the type who poop on the floor next to the toilet (actual experience of a business owner trying to provide sanitary service). If they tried to be at all functional there are many services for them. Sadly they care nothing for civility and should be treated as such after the first strike-the Sullivan Arena which they trashed.
Vagrancy is against the law.
Enforce the law.
There. Fixed it.
DAY one. Fire the homeless coordinator. First hour, first min.
It’s far out there but you know the decadadent mayoral shower should still be returned to a broom closet.
Good luck Mr. Mayor with Ms. Frasca advising you on budgetary matters. Her assistance with Governor Murkowski was fascinating, to say the least. Frank the Bank went from electoral success to non-competitive in short order, in no small part because he listened to Ms Frasca’s recommendations. Maybe things will work out this time around but it could easily turn into a financial dumpster fire situation.
Time will tell.
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