During a Friday Zoom teleconference briefing on homelessness, Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson took to task the supporters of Mayor-elect Dave Bronson. She believes their words about the homelessness and vagrancy situation in Anchorage are “divisive.”
“Homelessness is challenging issue. As it can be a polarizing issue. But we also know it is a solvable issue,” Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson said. “During the mayoral campaign we heard a lot of divisive words around homelessness and people experiencing it.”
She brought campaigning into her introduction about the plan she has for solving homelessness in Anchorage.
“We heard a wide range of ideas and proposed proposals for tackling it, some more feasible than others,” she said. “Like with many things, campaigning about homelessness and solving homelessness are two different things,” she said, another shot at the Mayor-elect Bronson. “The good news, is that we know what the solutions are and we are here to talk about a path forward.”
Quinn-Davidson will be acting mayor for 40 more days. But meanwhile, she said the city is on the cusp of “significantly reducing homelessness.” She said her administration has created a plan to hand over to the next administration.
Many supporters of Mayor-elect Bronson have made the distinction between those who fall into homelessness and those who are criminal street elements, sometimes called vagrants, who live the hobo lifestyle. They voted for Bronson because they want their streets and neighborhoods safe again and they lack faith in the current administration’s ability to take the correct actions.
Bronson has a plan to address the homelessness situation in Anchorage, details of which have yet to be released. It’s not clear, nor likely, that he will simply adopt the outgoing acting mayor’s plan.
