The Anchorage Assembly majority has a plan: Reclaim the Sullivan Arena for housing the homeless and put homeless in the Golden Lion Hotel near the preschool run by the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska, which has objected to the plan of putting homeless people near children.
The Assembly backroom deals to create a large and spread-out homeless industrial complex is evident in its latest proposal:
- Increase of capacity at Brother Francis Shelter of 20 individuals
- Increase of capacity at Covenant House of 25 individuals
- Semi-congregate sheltering at Bean’s Café of 40 individuals
- Non-congregate use of the former Golden Lion as housing of 120 individuals
- Congregate sheltering at the Sullivan Arena of 150 individuals
This Assembly leftist majority will have the plans available for the public by Friday, and has scheduled a special meeting for Monday from 6-8 pm in the Assembly Chambers, when the majority has pre-arranged to have the votes to pass the plan. Go to www.muni.org/Assembly for the agenda and meeting information.
“I look forward to the Assembly approving this plan on Monday. After that, it will be up to the Mayor to officially sign off on and quickly implement the plan. I was glad to see representation from the Administration at today’s meeting. They said loud and clear that they want to hear from the public before making final decisions, so I encourage people to review our plan and give your feedback to the Mayor before next Monday’s meeting,” said Assemblyman Felix Rivera in a letter.
Mayor Dave Bronson said he awaits to hear from the public about the plan the Assembly has devised.
But Reclaim Midtown, a group of neighbors in Anchorage, says the Assembly promised in 2020 that the Golden Lion would never be used as a homeless shelter. Reclaim Midtown produced a letter from Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who wrote that the hotel, purchased by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, was only for drug rehabilitation and that information being spread that said otherwise was inaccurate:
In 2020, Zaletel also wrote, “Felix and I have an amendment that would prevent this facility from ever being used as a homeless shelter while owned by the municipality.”
