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.
Not only that, LaFrance cancelled that navigation center after the assembly approved the funding, costing us taxpayers a lot of money! That’s not good stewardship!
But, it was good politics, well… for her and her leftist cronies on the Assembly.
The 907 Initiative made damned sure everyone in Anchorage knew the navigation center proved Bronson was incompetent. Anything to get into, and retain power. That is the leftist way.
Unfortunately they’re already here. Bring back the asylums.
That’s not a bad place for a car park, it will have security and facilities. It is one solution to help people. There are many good ideas. We need to start somewhere. Does everything need to be criticized?
If it is ineffective and costs taxpayers for the ineffectiveness, then yes it merits criticism. More of the same.
Couldn’t we use that same arguement about Bronson’s initial solution?
Give them another $160,000,000.00 of tax payer funds to piss away on the houseless . What a joke , that’s how munch money the city of Anchorage has received in the last five years . Bigger the city govt the bigger the homeless population . Funny as one of the hobos has fire trucks and box vans in the encampment . Time to put them in jail or send them to Adak . Including the crooked mayor and her administrators
No we cannot say the same of Bronson.
One of the problems here (a very big problem) is that they didn’t present it to the public at all. Our own assemblyman didn’t know anything about it til he started hearing from his constituents. It was done under the radar. So not ok. And guess who got the bid for this – Mark Begich. And guess how much for – Almost $12,000,000. Nothing about this is ok.
When a politician chooses to do the same thing that has failed repeatedly, both in Anchorage, and cities across the nation, but somehow they expect it to work this time, yes… It does need to be criticized.
A sanctioned shanty town is worthy of criticism, especially when the assembly and mayor have seen a better idea with a complete proposal that was supported by the public and they slapped it out of hand just out of spite. The time for your response was then.
“……..where will the vagrants go next?…….”
I suggest transporting them to the Point MacKenzie Correctional Farm. Put them to work building barracks and vegetable farming.
Reggie, you misspelled Amchitka.
LOL!…….
Until the problem of socially dysfunctional and economically unsustainable Alaskan Native villages using Anchorage as the dumping ground for their mentally ill and substance-abusing human trash is finally addressed, this homeless problem will never go away.
I suggest sending them to Suzanne LeFrance’s neighborhood.
SLF is horrendous
Put a camp here sign in La France’s front yard.
Forget camping. Have them all go straight into LaFrance’s home and find a spot. LaFrance loves these homeless people.
Bring back the State Hospitals, or if you want to call it”Asylums” and get these chronic drug users off the streets. They (homeless drug users)are just like cancer and if you don’t seek treatment it just gets worse. More will follow in their footsteps and multiply. Drug dealers pray on these people for money and if they are off the streets then they have no customers.
Chronic drug use, criminal vagrancy and bum life are Alaska’s current cancer and the last thing we need is for someone that’s not a clear thinker – that would be the non-strategic reactionist that said; “large encampments are dangerous”, to determine that the best thing for Anchorage would be to encourage the cancer to metastasize.
Fix the problem, La France. Yours are the efforts of an enabler. Fix it or resign. This problem appears to be beyond your ability. You and everyone else realize you’re not going to suddenly grow a spine and that someone else would be able to better make decisions that are apparently troublesome for you. Hire Bronson back, ask him to fix the problem and then purposefully avoid him. Instruct your nancy boy buddies on the Anchorage Assembly to shut their pie holes and be supportive of a fix as well. So far they’ve sucked as badly as have you.
Keep growing the homeless problem, certain people are making a lot of money from it. I cannot believe how Anchorage has deteriorated since I moved here in 79. Thanks dims!
For all the money that has already been spent, especially putting people up in hotels for the winter, Anchorage could already have a facility (Like Bronson’s navigation center). It was far more important to LaFrance and the others to oppose literally every move Bronson made than it was to help the homeless. The only real, lasting solution is to adopt a zero tolerance policy for vagrancy. When facilities reach max, send them outside. In the end, this would amount to much less heartbreak for everyone.
Spot on.
Leftists have to create the problem, blame the opposition for it, claim they have the solution, and make the problem worse. It is the only way they can get and keep power.
That Cabela’s / Target location was conceived by someone that isn’t much of a reader.
Imagine Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath with encampments for the destitute that eventually lead to bullying and reasonably good people being wanted for murder. Now instead of down on their luck and well intentioned hard working families like the Joads, add in drug use, drug sales, prostitution, the degradation of two widely popular businesses, the inevitable trash and more. Don’t forget the burned out car. Got to have that.
Now stir.
This will turn out predictably and is not a possible solution. It is instead the seed from which Anchorage’s Skid Row will form.
The Mayor and Assembly members that are little more than an ass in a seat knowingly incapable of fixing the issues they stumped for should be held personally responsible for not vacating the position once it’s been established that they’re an impediment to progress.
Any statements from the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness are empty. Zalatel et al make money osmotically from the bum community and have proven themselves inept. Who thinks that Zalatel genuinely wants to end her NGO gravy train?
NIMBY, by golly.
Got that right. If they had any kind of plan rather than to turn them loose in your back yard and maybe have some conversation, things might go better. But not to just slide it in hoping no one will know till it’s too late. None of this is ok. Not on my back yard or yours.
It is the democrat’s way, shuffle the problem around so no one can keep track of it until all the money is spent. Then leave office and blame everyone before and after you
Just wondering, is it against the law to pay someone to put up a tent on a specific private property? Asking for a friend.
She’s playing Oprah with her ” scattered sites” ” you get a homeless! And YOU get a homeless! And YOU get a homeless!” Put them all over the place, away from services she has no intention of providing( she’ll just pocket the funding, naturally) get them out of downtown, so the ” elite” dont have to see or deal with them on their way to morning fu fucoffee or their luncheon meetings wouldn’t want them spoiling our appetites, after all
Rexann, here’s the deal, every single homeless camp has turned into a massive dump! There has been thefts, murders, drugs, sexual assaults, and fires!!! The public has had it!!! Show us one, yes, show us just one encampment that has not been a disaster. It seems to be easy for some people to sit back and make comments about giving all these vagrant’s a safe and comfortable place to camp. I can assure you that if these camps found there way onto your block, you would raise hell!
How about each of the Liberal and facilitating assembly members, along with the numerous non-profits, profiting off of the homeless individual complex, invite/ allow 3-4 car campers to park in their private driveways from 6 pm to 8 am nightly to experience their fair share of the homeless redistribution effort…
Reggie and DK both have excellent ideas. Too bad you can’t give them a one-way ticket to Seattle like the old days.
Simply moving people around at taxpayer expense, consuming resources and time is not a solution. Bronson’s navigation center, providing centralized resources and routing people to what might best help them get out of their situation made sense. It is sad the arrogant power and control assembly would have none of it as it came from the despised, by them, mayor. Fast forward to the current mayor, draining resources and making no improvement. There needs to be incentive for increased mental health and addiction services. Laws need to be enforced and vagrancy not allowed. Nor panhandling. Those living a homeless lifestyle are a mix of mentally ill, addicted, disabled, and plain old nefarious or lazy. Herding them around the city like sheep is not accomplishing anything.
Put a camp up in La France’s neighborhood and a camp each of the 12 Anchorage Assembly members’ neighborhoods. That will “spread out the problem” and see how they like it.
Try “Suzanne LaFrance Enduring Autonomous Zone Encampments” or SLEAZE. Her administration has brought sleaze to Anchorage.
If you make people comfortable they have no reason to change.
When you don’t bother to vote, you get what “they” voted for.
Elizabeth Henry is exactly correct.
Well, the south side Cabela’s and Target will have to lock up all their merchandise and put locks on the toilets now. Passing that cost on to the consumers, I am sure.
Let’s see… compare the midtown Home Depot to the Abbot Home Depot. Toilets locked, versus unlocked. Significantly more merchandise requires an employee to unlock and carry to the register at the Tudor location.
.
Gee…. I wonder why? Oh, that’s right. The Assembly though encamping them next door to it was a great idea.
The bums are already on the move. Last night a truck stopped at Jacobson Park near College Village and began offloading tents, propane tanks and tons of detritus. Cars were coming in and out of the neighborhood all night, including a U-Haul truck. Cops have been called but don’t expect anything under the LaFrance admin. They love the bums more than they love taxpayers. Expect theft in the neighborhood to explode 1000%. The open space and trees will be filled with bike parts that the bums steal from nearby. That’s what happened 2 years ago. And the Alaska Civil Liberties Union will be out in force to defend these bums as always.
The Muni Central Party just spent $14 mil on building a gravel pit on top of a swamp – the new snow dump site west of Minnesota and Raspberry – I don’t know if it’s fenced all the way around – but should be, to protect the swamp. No amenities, which always get trashed anyway. Stick em there.
Worthwhile to remember that Anchorage’s vagrants did not come here from the L48. They were already in Alaska and distributed around the state. They came to Anchorage because of progressive policies that facilitated the homeless, vagrant criminal lifestyle. Anchorage tolerates, no encourages, vagrant camping on public property and parks. Virtually every item in those illegal campsites has been stolen. And worst of all our mayor and assemble do nothing about it. They ignore the lawless behavior. But if you or I park our autos in the wrong place we will receive a summons, ot worse get towed.
Plus, Anchorage has mild winters. Don’t see too much of that up north. Free tickets to Anchorage.
Democrats, kick the can down the road a little more and it’ll be ok, so predictable.
This idea is perfectly cromulent. Though I do not believe these people sleep at night.
A lot of good points made here, especially the one(s) referring to those that do not vote. Without our world view being represented, this will continue until even the grifters will be nauseated by their own behavior (Mark Begich, Bill Walker, our Assembly… well, maybe not). Any empathy residents “had” with the homeless has evaporated long ago as law-abiding, working citizen’s property taxes, along with sin taxation, is used to wipe the collective ass-s of those the Assembly and our current Mayor are enabling. On this post and previous ones, MustRead followers have accurately observed that if nothing is expected, no behavioral change will occur. AKA: Behavior accepted is behavior repeated. There’s another age old adage: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” It’s come time to pull the plug on all aid, funding, coddling and grifting and let the chips fall where they may. When individuals post “It’s one solution to help people; does everything need to be criticized?” Yes! When it’s wrong, unhelpful to your neighbors who work hard and, does not – nor will it ever – solve the problem. THIS is the one thing that hasn’t been tried.
Thousands of people fly into Anchorage every summer. But they have hotel reservations and are safe and secure at night. So if people come to Anchorage with no plans, how much should the city give them?
The best solution I have heard to date, well not solution, but the best way to help the most amount of people and mitigate this problem, is the navigation center. And this assembly and mayor would have even agreed to it if it came out of the left, but because it was Bronson’s idea, they will do everything to avoid anything resembling the navigation center just out of spite…. ugggh.
A 5 million navigation center compared to 20 million to evaluate the problem, re-evaluate the problem, create “task forces” that come up with bad proposals, pass the problem down the road, and do diddly squat except maybe house 50 people, at the most… in theory if it actually happens.
When Jesus said help the meek and the poor he didn’t mean pay more taxes and make the Romans do it. The city should just foster charities to grow, promote protection and development for landlords with lower income property so there is less risk with investments and bad tenants, and just stick to law enforcement.
Whoa… using logic and reason is dangerous these days.