The Anchorage Assembly will meet Tuesday evening at the Loussac Library’s Assembly Chambers. Based on the hostility the Assembly has shown to Mayor Dave Bronson since he took office in 2021, the liberal majority is expected to deny the funds needed for the homeless navigation center, which began construction last month after initial approvals were received by the Mayor’s Office.
The Assembly had once appropriated $6.2 million for the project, and then approved $800,000 for design work. Assemblyman Felix Rivera directed the Alaska Community Foundation, a partner in the homeless project, to cut a check to buy the structure, made out to Roger Hickel Contracting, and the Assembly had made every indication that it would go through with it.
Must Read Alaska predicted the Assembly was engaged in a bad-faith negotiation in this news report in May, 2022:
As predicted in May, it appears the Assembly majority was only faking cooperation so they could get the Mayor’s Office to approve the purchase of the Sockeye Inn, to house medically fragile homeless people. Once that purchase was complete, the Assembly leadership pulled its support for the navigation center, which is a “housing first” low-barrier service-enriched shelter to help chronically homeless people get back on their feet.
At today’s meeting, the Assembly, after stalling the project for 18 months, is going to likely deny the funds to pay the bill, which will trigger a lawsuit from Roger Hickel Contracting to get paid for the work that has been done on the foundation.
Assembly hardliners who oppose the mayor may want to postpone the work so there can be no navigation center this winter, and to embarrass the mayor and use it as a weapon against him in the event he decides to run for reelection in 2023. Since the Assembly has delayed the work, the mayor has been forced to reopen the Sullivan Arena for housing of the homeless population during the winter months.
The Assembly meeting starts at 5 pm; the agenda is at this link.
