The Municipality of Anchorage has announced it will abate the long-standing homeless encampment at Davis Park — again — on June 17, citing escalating safety concerns for both camp occupants and neighboring residents. The action is more political theater, one that will move around the city’s vagrant encampments to other neighborhoods, such as one in South Anchorage.
The Suzanne LaFrance Autonomous Zone (SLAZ) encampment at Davis Park has become a symbol of Anchorage’s struggle with chronic drug addiction and criminal vagrancy, especially in the Mountain View neighborhood. Residents have long complained of crime, open drug use, and unsafe public spaces that are filled with human waste.
The last abatement of the Davis Park homeless encampment in Anchorage was in April of 2024, with cleanup efforts continuing for nearly a week afterward due to the mountains of trash and debris. This year it could take longer, as the waste has only grown.
“Large encampments are dangerous — they’re not safe for the people living in them, and they’re not safe for people living nearby,” said Mayor Suzanne LaFrance.
In the name of equity, she is going to spread out the problem.
The city’s plan includes outreach services from the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, increased patrols from the Anchorage Police Department, and a full cleanup by Parks and Recreation following the sweep. “No Camping” signs will be posted, and the city promises shelter referrals and enforcement to prevent re-encampment.
But this pattern is all too familiar. In past abatements, displaced individuals simply migrated to other greenbelts, wooded areas, wildlife sanctuaries, trails, or commercial corners of the city — out of sight, at times, but never out of mind for the communities that absorb the fallout. And then they migrated back to Davis Park.
The LaFrance administration is already considering where those displaced by the June 17 sweep may go, and some South Anchorage residents are now on high alert.
One location under consideration for an organized car-based homeless site is a vacant municipal right-of-way between 104th and 106th Avenues, next to Target and Cabela’s in South Anchorage. The proposal would allow approximately 50 people who are living in vehicles to park overnight in two designated lots, with hours limited from 6 pm to 8 am and requirements for registration, vehicle operability, and compliance with behavioral rules.
The city says the lots would be supervised, equipped with portable toilets and waste disposal, and serve as gateways to social services, including job training and housing programs. The idea is not dissimilar to the navigation center proposed by former Mayor Dave Bronson, who wanted a social service navigation and shelter site established.
The only reason the public knows about this new proposed encampment in south Anchorage is because people are sharing about it on social media. There has been no public process. It was, for all intents and purposes, a secret.
This is especially rich considering Mayor LaFrance’s very vocal opposition to the Bronson administration’s navigation center, which was intended to house hundreds and connect individuals with wraparound care. That facility was to be built in East Anchorage near the Alaska Native Medical Center and was designed to replace the Sullivan Arena mass shelter, which closed in 2023.
As Assembly Chair, LaFrance led the charge to stall and ultimately defund the navigation center, citing lack of public process, poor contract management, and her preference for “scattered site” services. She argued that neighborhoods were not properly consulted and that the Bronson administration failed to follow procurement norms.
Now, as mayor, LaFrance is pursuing her own version of a response, contradicting her own standards. Unlike the lengthy public debates over the navigation center, the proposal to place a vehicle-based homeless site near Target and Cabela’s in South Anchorage has moved forward with little public input.
SLAZ South was a stealth operation by the LaFrance Administration until the public forced the matter into the light.
