The Anchorage Assembly and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance this week awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to Catholic Social Services to run the 200-cot mass homeless shelter on 56th Ave., situated in a building that once housed the some of the city’s Solid Waste Services functions. Mass shelter was moved to that location after former Mayor Dave Bronson returned the Sullivan Arena to its intended use as an event venue.
Henning, which had the contract to run the mass shelter, fell out of favor after some out-of-context text messages between Henning personnel and Bronson’s homeless coordinator were leaked to the Assembly and were seen as inappropriate, putting yet another knife into the effort by former Mayor Dave Bronson to reduce homelessness across the city. Henning did not submit a new bid for this year after the Assembly took a harsh stance toward it and members said it should not get another award.
As of Sunday, Oct. 12, the contract for that “low-barrier” shelter, where some of the most dangerous and difficult of the homeless can stay, will switch to the new management of Catholic Social Services, which already runs another low-barrier shelter, Brother Francis, as well as a network of safety-net programs, including a food pantry, refugee resettlement and assistance, Clare House shelter for women and children, and a homeless navigation center, where people can get referrals for various services.
Nighttime temperatures in Anchorage have dropped into the 30s, and next week will be in the low 20s, and the winter weather will only get colder, posing grave danger to those who are living in the rough.
The 56th Ave. shelter award is worth around $3.6 million for Catholic Social Service, which will have the contract through winter until April. That pencils out to about $18,000 per homeless person sleeping there this winter, rather than being in a tent or otherwise exposed to the elements in parks, greenbelts, on sidewalks and in doorways of Anchorage businesses. The people staying in the low-barrier shelters are not screened for drug and alcohol use or criminal background; many of them do poorly with structured situations and rules.
Henning was started after the March 2019 death of 25-year-old Shannon Henning, who died after being struck by a vehicle while she was trying to cross Third Ave. in Anchorage. Henning was chronically homeless and suffered from mental health problems and substance abuse. Henning Inc. was founded by Shawn Hays in 2020 to tackle chronic homelessness.
But because Henning had the support of former Mayor Bronson, the Assembly took an oppositional stance, and when the text messages between the city official and a Henning employee were leaked to the Assembly, some were horrified that staff were apparently joking about using cigarettes or bus passes to incentivize homeless clients to go vote. Assemblyman Daniel Volland expressed his opinion that Henning should never again be awarded a contract.
In addition, Henning upset the existing regime of the homeless industrial complex. The Anchorage Coalition to End Homeless is run by Anchorage Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel and that consortium already has its planetary system of nonprofits that work in the homelessness field. Henning was a newcomer and had cut into the business and grant-based income of the existing nonprofits competing for government contracts. It was largely shunned by the coalition as a usurper.
Henning still runs the supportive housing shelter at the former Golden Lion hotel on 36th Ave. That contract last year passed on a 10-1 vote, with Assemblywoman Zaletel the only “no” vote.
If Henning faced local political storms, Catholic Charities has troubles that stretch all the way to Congress. Catholic Charities USA and its partners and subsidiary groups receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars and use some of it to assist illegal immigrants get from the border to cities and towns across the country.
In Texas, that has been controversial. Catholic Charities of San Antonio was accused by lawmakers of using FEMA funds to transport illegals via commercial air carriers, while Catholic Charities argues that it’s within FEMA’s rules associated with the federal agency’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.
“Accusations that the Church is betraying the United States, violating its tax-exempt status, or seeking new members through its ministries serving newcomers are nothing new,” says a statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Anti-Catholic bias, political motivations, and misinformation have long undergirded these claims. Assisting newcomers, however, is one of the corporal works of mercy and integral to Catholic identity.”
