According to a recent press release from Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant, Anchorage has eliminated major homeless encampments in the city for the first time in over a decade.
Chair Constant stated that he personally drove to the once long-standing homeless encampment sites to verify for himself whether or not they had been cleared. He stated: “I drove the Bowl myself. I went to the sites that, for years, defined our homelessness crisis. What I found was amazing: the large, entrenched encampments are gone.”
The press release lists 17 sites where large encampments used to be, but which have been cleared. According to Chair Constant, “Visible, entrenched encampments no longer define our parks and public lands.” He highlighted the following actions that helped achieve this long overdue clean-up:
- Expansion of year-round shelter capacity
- Hotel-to-housing conversions recognized nationally by HUD
- Opening of facilities such as 56th Avenue and Linda’s Place
- Development of recovery housing at Willow Commons
- Deployment of Healthy Spaces teams for rapid response
- Expansion of AFD and APD mobile behavioral health intervention units
- Strengthened by-name coordination through the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness
- Major behavioral health investment by Southcentral Foundation
- $4 million investment by the Alaska State Legislature for homeless shelters
Come summertime, Must Read Alaska will visit the 17 sites and follow-up on their conditions. Are Alaskan taxpayers funding a lasting solution or merely a band-aid?
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