A few sprawling two-story encampments that have grown in the Northwood/Strawberry/Raspberry Road area of Anchorage are hidden from view, unless you have a drone camera. From above, the encampments can be seen in all their glory.
These are not the only ones. Around Anchorage, those who are living outdoors are increasingly building shelters, some quite elaborate. Others who are down on their luck but not as motivated simply curl up for the night in doorways in Alaska’s largest city.
Some recent photos and videos of Anchorage’s outdoor living community of vagrants, hobos, and criminals:
The location of these makeshift huts can be seen on this map:
The encampments around Anchorage feature destruction of public property, trash, and stolen property. The taxpayer cost of cleaning up these sites will likely run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Fire season started early this year, and several of the encampment fires have gotten out of control, including:
- A fire at a homeless encampment in Davis Park, Mountain View, on Feb. 17, which burned multiple structures.
- A significant fire on March 30, at an encampment on Northwood Dr. in Spenard, involving propane tank explosions.
- A fire on March 26, 2025, at the Campbell Creek Trail near Foxridge condominiums.
- A fire at Resolution Park near downtown, also in late March 2025.
The Anchorage Fire Department has not released a count of encampment fires for 2025 in the available data. However, in 2023, AFD reported 360 fires classified as “homeless encampments or homeless associated,” with 30 being wildland fires. In 2024, fires at encampments like those near Cuddy Park and Davis Park were frequent.
The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and the Municipality of Anchorage declared fire season starting on March 27, earlier than the usual April 1 start, due to low snowpack increasing wildfire risk.
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says that the city will abate camps on a case-by-case basis but she has provided no plan or leadership to solve the problem. The executive director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, Meg Zaletel, has recently announced her resignation following years of failure to reverse the growing problem. Anchorage had at least 47 outdoor deaths reported in 2024.
Meanwhile, in the past month, two people have been murdered in one of the larger encampments in Davis Park, in the Mountain View area.
Mayor (???) La France, her “homeless” administration, and existing Assembly members need to resign
immediately. They have failed at everything they have attempted and spent hundreds of millions of dollars.
There is no excuse for allowing encampments like this to exist.
He missed two camps within a 1000 yards. One to the north and the other to the northeast
Living … “rent-free and tax-free” with endless handouts. That must be a good feeling. Unless, of course, you’re the Taxpayer paying for it, year after year with no end in sight!
Don’t forget…. As word of mouth passes through the village. “ hey Joe, come to Anchorage. We get f’ed up every night. You pass out in the street. They’ll give you a warm place to spend the night and feed you.
A dry village will 200 hundred people you are related to in some way shape or form makes this sound very lucrative.
For every emergency crew tending a passed out vagrant is probably thousands of dollars an hour if you figure that every vehicle is 200 grand plus each.
The muni would rather go after a homeowner for taxes, expired plates, building permit violates, but never bad people committing crimes of wholesale garbage dumping, arson and they’er health hazard filth.
I drive through Davis park every morning on my way to work. Friday April 11th just before 8 am I called the fire department because there was a small fire next to the dumpster in Davis park with no one around it. The next Monday I noticed the dumpster looks like it was burned. I see dog fights, police, I stop for people hauling trees across the road, I see fires all the time, I watch MOA workers haul trash out, It just keeps building up. They cleaned up a little once and then they were all back. One person had a two story structure building with a power source. I used to stop at this park and walk my dog on my way home. I stopped going there years ago. Everyone needs help at some point. A helping hand for those who really need it, rehab for those who need it, mental facilities for those who need it. Everyone also has a duty to contribute to society. You don’t get to trash a park and live off the system because you don’t feel like contributing. Civics is the study of the civil rights of citizens AND OBLIGATIONS.
This erosion of our quality of life is so saddening. I think we need many people to come together for some class action discussions.
Hi Valerie, most of the “homeless” are actually guys who were released from prison and jail. Most of them are on parole and like not having a permanent address. They have parole officers trying to find them. You and I and everyone should be able to get these people out of the parks. The Mayor should actually go down at midnight by herself and talk to them. She would not like it, but doing that would let her experience the evil that’s conning the City. Make everyone receiving Social Services do Public Service. Nothing is for FREE! Free drug testing and mandatory drying out. Or no public services! Tough Love is the only way out of this. Right now the City is Loving them to death. If you live on the street odds are you will die on the street.
This morning (April 17th) we had city workers picking up trash again. Yesterday Anchorage Health was there giving services. What are the people living in Davis Park doing to give back or help themselves?
The current Mayor and her ilk ARE the evil that’s conning the city.
Don’t blame me I voted for Dave Bronson
Just look at the mess. Garbage everywhere, no sanitation facilities so I imagine we’ve got biological hazards. Much of the trash are plastics so once they catch fire, up they go with belching black smoke. Throw in some meth labs and now you have a superfund site.
If that was skirting your property or in an easement connected to your properly. The city would back charge you a fine of hundred plus a day until you cleaned it up.
I never had much compassion for the homeless until my sister passed away last August. She was homeless most of her adult life and an addict. She had many health issues and that is what took her life . For most of my life we never knew where she was unless she was in jail. I got close to her again last summer long distance when she lay in hospital beds dying or overdosed. My point of telling you this is, these homeless are humans, with big problems. I’m sure there is no solution . My sister lived in a tent , and was in fear for her life daily. If she left her ” home” unattended she was robbed blind. I was able to help her get a roof over her head and that she wouldn’t die alone in a tent . In our last conversation she expressed her desire to be free of drugs and come to Alaska. Both came true .. help when you can , but don’t forsake the least of these … thank you.
You are so right, these people do need help. However, the “help” our city is providing is obviously not the type of help they need as there are more and more falling into that lifestyle every year. So, whatever the Muni is doing is not working and it has to stop. Our laws have to be enforced, no one should be exempt, if we want to have our trails, parks and city back to enjoy without fear.
You’re right, an overnight sleep it off center is very expensive, they hire nurses. Give people a break before they get homeless, the care and feeding of street people is too expensive.
Boo Hoo.
My give a damn capacity is full.
Take another booster shot.
A lot of folks end up homeless or addicted due to severe losses that they don’t have the resources to address. We need mental wards. We need state run care. A lot of mental patients and people who have limited mental capacity are out fending for themselves.
I met a young man who was last month, out in front of Walmart asking for a dollar. I didn’t have any cash so I asked him if he wanted to get lunch. He smiles and says oh man of course, he thanks me and orders a small sandwich and nothing else. I make him get a coke and chips and stuff. I don’t want to pry that much but he looks really young, so I ask. He’s 16, and his mom is an addict, never met his dad. Her new boyfriend beat him up and kicked him out this summer, he sleeps in a tent in the ditch and eats out of the trash. He’s gotten and lost a few jobs, but he was very dirty and I don’t know who’d hire him. The Mission is full. He’s on a list for housing but he missed a meeting bc he didn’t have busfare and now is kicked to the end of the list. You can tell he’s losing hope, and it just breaks my heart that this is what our children with the least are reckoning with. No family in Alaska. No family elsewhere. Living in a ditch, a kid. In two years he’ll be arrested and enter the prison system.
Thank you for helping this kid….who knows what will become of him. Out here in the valley is My House for teens. I learned that 99% of these homeless teens have been abused by their own family. We can’t save them all but we can save one at a time.
What did she say when you offered to let her live with you?
It seems like we need some kind of transition center, nothing that would represent a permanent home, rather something that the homeless could come to and receive the help they need both physically and mentally. Somewhere centrally located would be nice, perhaps off Tudor. Hmmm, if only… Oh, I guess the cost of a structure to house something like that would be too great, it’s too bas the MOA doesn’t already have something they own that could be repurposed to work in this way.
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Hey wait a minute, didn’t Mayor Bronson have plans for just this? Doesn’t the MOA already own a structure like this that needs to be assembled?
The Anchorage Fire Dept. undoubtedly will blame landowners for fires caused by the bums and that landowners “should provide security” to prevent them. Oh wait, aren’t a lot of these bum camps on city property? Does that mean the city, and city taxpayers, will fix the problem? You tell me.
The leaders of our city, mostly the Anchorage assembly has stood in the way of stopping the homeless problem from being solved here in Anchorage. It has continuously grown over the last four administrations beginning with Mayor Sullivan. The assembly stopped him from arresting people for sleeping on the sidewalks in downtown Anchorage and it has grown ever since. It is obvious by some of the reporting that people on the assembly are making money off of the homeless problem so why would they want to solve it. Sometimes the simplest answer to a problem is the answer. We need to start arresting the people in these camps and cleaning them up one by one they either voluntarily go to a shelter or they go to jail. The money and quality of life we are losing in Anchorage because of this is unacceptable. Tourist no longer wish to visit Anchorage because it is losing its beauty and its safe environment. As a civilization, we have rules so that we can live together in a community that is safe and clean. It is the responsibility of our leaders to provide this to the citizens. Our leaders have failed. The people who voted these leaders back in office and the ones who don’t show up to vote to get them out of office are also a plane. Bad things happen when good men do nothing.
I find it ironic that these shelters can be built on public lands and the powers that be seem to turn a blind eye but if you build something on your own land, you have a whole list of codes that you have to follow. Aside from permits and everything else. It’s insanity to me.
You are absolutely correct. The people who abide by the law are the only ones held to the letter of the law. The constant posting of doorbell cams showing criminals stealing anything that isn’t nailed down is sickening. Moose antlers, propane bottles, Amazon packages, Christmas wreaths, hanging baskets… you name it. As soon as someone nails one of them in the butt with a Crosman pellet, they’ll be the ones to go to jail. As for Zaletel, you watch, she’ll jump on board with Begich and former Gov Bill Walker and grift off of the homeless plague. Why? Because there’s nothing to stop her when her former fellow Assembly members award her the contracts.
The city saved a lot of money not having to plow snow. How about using some of that money to abate these camps? And use the majority of it to fix our roads!
meanwhile, heaven forbid you build a nice little cabin in a remote part of Alaska….
Amen
You voted for this so accept the consequences
It will only get worse
Anchorage has really declined over the last 30 years
Agree about the declined part.
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Problem is we don’t know who voted for this. We know only what we were told.
Where is FELIX RIVERA, to help pick up the garbage left by the people he represents?? He created a law that the police and public, CAN’T do anything to the homeless people that destroy our state!! Please VOTE
What you reward you get more of.
The liberals all over the US, but especially on the West Coast (including the Anchorage Assembly), have rewarded the homeless, the mentally ill, and the addicted, for many decades.
Surprise!, they got more homeless, more mentally ill, and more addicted.
And Surprise!, there is more drug trafficking, worse drugs, human trafficking, and property crime. And a lower level of personal safety and plunging standard of life for the law abiding.
Of course, all we need to do is continue on the path, not hold criminals responsible for their actions, not lock up or treat the mentally ill and addicted who commit crimes, and continue to spend more and more tax monies on the Homeless Industrial Complex. Right, Meg? Everything will get better soon, right?
The Democrats will never allow this problem to be solved. They are making too much money off of it.
Jackpot
Problem might partially go away when the bums set fire to something near Someone Important.
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Until then, we suggest several fire extinguishers may be much more useful than the failure inhabiting the mayor’s office.
No camping in city limits, just like Texas did!
This problem is out-of-control. I’ve notice the presence on Ingra between Northern Lights and Debarr seems to be growing by the day. The tents and even storage containers are not cheap make shift kinds either. Just yesterday I went up Mountain View Drive around 5 PM and there was a mobile Anchorage Health Department truck. What is REALLY going on?
Tax free even Good job Anchorage voters
Too many homeless in the city.
Spend lots and lots of money on the problem.
End up with even MORE homeless.
Rinse and repeat….over and over.
SUGGESTION:
Fence in a large swath of land bordering city boundaries.
Set in motion a homeless camp base geared after a military base. Include ALL essential needs: counseling; emotional,mental, & remedial counseling/help (utilizing viable incentives), medical services, bunk housing, wash areas/rest areas , showers, laundry areas. Clean up services will be provided utilizing incentivized remedial homeless help.
In the back of this base have a separate/ fenced area for all homeless; still maintaining addictive lifestyles, choosing make shift tents.
Have Port-a-potties close enough to (hopefully) use, a wash room & a cafeteria close to the entrance.
Taxpayer funding will cover this costly complex, but the ongoing clean-up cost of messes left by the homeless spread throughout Anchorage streets, parks, public buildings not to mention all the ongoing problems the addictive homeless present,,, AND the FIRE 🔥hazards!! throughout Anchorage & it’s outlaying areas those fires started by the homeless amount to much more than the costs associated with a permanent homeless base.
It’s time a permanent HELPFUL solution is brought to the table. This nationwide epidemic of homelessness needs viable action. I’m certain ALL parties will find agreement for this societal need.
Thank you for attending to this dire need.
Marilyn Wick
The homeless have access to all of that. They like this sort of life because they will not stop drinking.
Homeless can’t be seen from the road, so the problem must be solved.
Good job Suzie!
I have all kinds of compassion for people who fall on hard times. I’ve been there. However, it seems to me that being “homeless” has increasingly become a lifestyle choice for some people, and somehow society is encouraging it. We need to have more access to substance abuse treatment, but what do we do with those who don’t want it, who are happier staying sick? What do we do about those who seriously need mental health treatment (when we are prevented from giving it by those who believe that the right to live and die under disgusting conditions trumps the right to receive compassionate care)? Why do we not only allow, but encourage, the building of shanty towns in areas owned by the general public, such that most of can no longer safely have access to such areas?
These traveling garbage dumps prove just how much Democrats really care about the “ Environment”.
Hard to believe that this photo is in All-American City Anchorage. It looks more like the backyard of Minto, or outskirts North Pole.
Nothing beats the Davis Park – actually on the other side of the road south of the Park – urban campsite. I view it as the center of real government in Anchorage. Mayor LaFrance and the Assembly should locate there, after all, most of the activities of the MOA depend upon the views of the “residents” of the encampment.
The municipality has a homeless camp report site to provide the public the illusion that something will be done. Nothing is ever done. I am sure there is a rule about how long a car can remain parked in a city park, like Davis Park. Those RVs have been stationary all winter. They grow blue tarps like moss or fungus. The area you identified would classify as a public health hazard if located on a residential lot. It is disgusting, the city is literally killing them with either apathy or neglect. In the bargain a large part of our property taxes enable these feral humans who evince no sense of responsibility for themselves or to the community. This is an object failure of government.
Liberal bull —-. Cut off the Drugs completely and 75% of the problem goes away in weeks. Provide mental institutions for the remaining 25% that are truly in need of help. Problem solved.
Drug testing every 14 days for welfare recipients, if you test positive you get no money.
The days that the hard working tax payers are getting ripped off by welfare leaches is over.
That would work if money motivated people on welfare but it doesn’t. They will just go further down into a pit of misery, preying on people’s compassion. However, if we put the homeless in shelters that have concrete block walls and concrete floors and a cot and security and didn’t allow them to leave except to pursue a path to recovery…
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says that the city will abate camps on a case-by-case basis but she has provided no plan or leadership to solve the problem. The executive director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, Meg Zaletel, has recently announced her resignation following years of failure to reverse the growing problem
La France is like Joe Biden. The folks behind door 2 call the shots. She has no original thought of her own, none. Neither did those that voted her in. Suffer anchorage you deserve it all.
I have the solution: a music festival!
Perhaps a native homeless village in eklutna instead of a casino. Completed with all the rehab feel good programs and education programs. All funded by the NATIVE corps.
STOP HOMELESSNESS, UNLOCK ALASKA OIL AND GAS, AND PROSPER ALL ALASKANS LIKE THEY DO IN TEXAS AND THE GULF OF AMERICA. DRILL BABY DRILL.