A new documentary by Jeff Landfield and Scott Jensen of the Alaska Landmine shows the underbelly of Anchorage in all its wasted glory. Landfield takes viewers through the encampments around Alaska’s largest city on foot and by drone, going into places where many citizens would not feel safe treading.
It’s the third documentary on the topic he had done in five years. In those years, the problem has only gotten worse.
The hobo encampments have spread from the greenbelts and parks to encampments on streets and sidewalks. Since his latest documentary, released in late August, Landfield says he has been contacted by Anchorage business owners who say they’re dealing with vagrants’ vandalism at their businesses, with everything from broken windows to abandoned items.
But the big message from the permanent campers featured in the video is that they want to live that way. They don’t want to be in shelters. These are people who can’t easily be housed because they are dealing with serious mental illness, drug or alcohol addiction, or a strong need to be outside of society in general.
Over 22,000 people have now viewed the video on YouTube, and more on Facebook and Twitter, Landfield said.
Watch the video at here:
As fall closes in on Alaska, the temperatures will drop and Anchorage will again open mass shelters and use taxpayer money to pay for hotel rooms for those who can’t camp all winter in the outdoors.
Although the filmmaker offers no solutions for the problem that plagues Anchorage and other major cities, recent rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court now give local communities more authority to deal with the growing problem of vagrancy — if they have the political will to do so.
Vagrants create strong public sector unions. Strong public sector unions create weak societies. Weak societies create vagrants. The circle of life.
You give naturally lazy people all the food they want, all the free medical care they need, all the clothing they need, all the shelter they need, and socialists droids give them money when the beg for it at stoplights, socialist blackrobes running kangaroo courts kick them out for the “crime” of shoplifting junk food instead of actually incarcerating them like they should…..what do you expect naturally lazy people to do? They go where they can get a free ride: Anchorage.
If they want to live that way carve out a chunk on land put them on it and tell them to live here.
We taxpayers could save money as the motor and assembly want new tax revenue to spend.
We don’t need millions of dollars to go to people who want to live this way.
I’d suggest they go carve out their own piece of land just as everybody else does every day. The day we stop, is the day we join them.
Thank you Jeff Landfield- this us important work— keep it up! The more views, the more pressure on mayor and assembly to exercise their political will to take back tax payer funded trails and parks.
There is no lack of compassion from most of Anchorage’s citizens and certainly no lack of services. Simply a lack of political will to enforce existing law. Keep the documentaries coming, Jeff! Nice work.
“……..But the big message from the permanent campers featured in the video is that they want to live that way……….”
This is part of the solution. Simply keep them there, and provide them with food, water, and tents. Society refuses to build modern prisons, so go back to the prison camp model.
It’s a quick fix… Just keep raising property taxes until everyone who can escape ANC leaves… Then house the homeless in the empty buildings… Simple as that… +++