Abatement: You Don’t Have a Home, but You Can’t Stay Here
The conversation at Wednesday’s Anchorage Assembly Committee on Housing and Homelessness meeting largely centered on whether the city can resume abating camps.
The administration began to clear out the Centennial Campground on Thursday, despite concerns from the Assembly about whether there were enough empty shelter beds to legally abate. A 2019 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Martin v. Boise, determined it to be illegal to abate camps if there are no available shelter beds.
Regardless, Anchorage Parks & Recreation Department employees began clearing the campground around noon on Thursday, under the watchful eye of several police in their vehicles. The abatement took place in the cold rain, with campers scrambling to salvage their belongings before the abatement crew reached them.
The Sullivan was at full capacity, with all 150 beds occupied. While the administration wanted to increase capacity at the Sullivan by 50 beds, more than 90 people remained at Centennial, meaning there were more campers than beds, even if capacity was increased. Fifty Muni-leased rooms in the Alex Hotel were not yet operational, but the administration alleged that they would be by the next day.
Abatement continued into Friday, with the municipality’s shelter dashboard showing the Sullivan was completely full and did not yet show the Alex Hotel as operational. You can read more about this here.
Golden Lion Remains in Limbo
Use of the Golden Lion Hotel, whether for substance use disorder treatment or to shelter the houseless, remains a constant discussion with no solution.
The building was purchased nearly two years ago to fill a requirement in the Municipal Light and Power utility, which was to use proceeds to open a treatment facility. However, Mayor Dave Bronson’s donors have long been opposed to a treatment facility, and Bronson campaigned on selling the hotel.
Meanwhile, it sits empty while the city struggles to find housing for people experiencing homelessness.
During this meeting, Chief of Staff Adam Trombley, in continued attempts to slow or stop the use of the Golden Lion Hotel, claimed that the administration had not yet started moving forward on a plan for using the Golden Lion Hotel for housing.
“What I don’t want to do is presume to know what the Assembly wants,” Trombley said. It’s odd, because the Assembly passed a resolution on Oct. 13 clearly stating they wanted to use the Golden Lion for housing. Trombley then proceeded to demand the Assembly identify exactly what use classification they wanted, an obstacle Assembly member Forrest Dunbar quickly surmounted in a short exchange:
Dunbar: “What’s the use classification of the Guest House?”
Trombley: “rooming house.”
Dunbar: “I want to do what the guest house is doing. […] Make it like the guest house.”
Phew. Was that so difficult?
AMATS Meeting: Will Bronson Ever Learn to Get the Facts First?
In last week’s Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) meeting, we learned that the Golden Lion Hotel is not slated to be condemned or “taken away” by the State as Mayor Bronson stated in a press release sent out on Sept. 8. As it turns out, he misinterpreted some technical language in a letter from Wolfgang Junge with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to mean that the building would be “taken away.” In actuality, DOT was relaying that there are some very surmountable obstacles with regards to parking spaces.
It is unfortunate that Mayor Bronson chose to release propaganda in his continuing attempts to fulfill a campaign promise to not utilize the building, instead of ensuring that the information he was providing was accurate.
Navigation Center Site Walkthrough: Walking Through Football Fields of Rebar
On Friday, Assembly members joined the administration for a walk through of the Tudor and Elmore Navigation Center site. During this walk through, members learned that the total amount currently owed to contractors by the municipality was about $3 million, rather than the $4.9 million previously stated by the administration.
The discrepancy came from the administration giving an estimate based on completion of the foundation work, rather than its current state, after a stop work order was given. This sudden $1.9 million change in estimate of money owed is another classic example of the Bronson Administration not providing accurate information.
Although winter construction can involve higher expenses, the administration had asked during the Sept. 13 Assembly meeting to continue the project quickly, in part due to higher expenses to remove and redo a “football field” of rebar that had already been laid. Saxton Shearer, Director of Maintenance and Operations, admitted during the walkthrough that the rebar would only cost $16,000 to replace if it rusted over the winter. That would likely be far less than increased construction costs of moving forward with the project in the winter.
Lawsuits A-coming?
The second of two 5-hour municipal budget work sessions took place on Friday. At the first one, the administration proposed moving the Mental Health Crisis Team to the Anchorage Police Department once again.
The administration also proposed adding $250,000 to the mayor’s budget for “potential legal services.”
One concern brought up by Municipal Manager Amy Demboski in the administration’s request for a larger legal budget was “differences of interpretation between the two branches of government.”
Mayor Bronson has at many points over the past year complained about what he sees as an issue with the “separation of powers” between the Assembly and the mayor’s office. At one point, he issued a memo cutting off all communication between the Assembly or Assembly staff and any administrative staff with the exception of Demboski, whom all communication was to go through.
Mario Bird, whose confirmation for Municipal Attorney was denied by the Assembly, has been hired by the administration as an assistant attorney. He has previously brought lawsuits against the municipality, including representing Alaskans for Open Meetings in a lawsuit against the Assembly for moving to virtual meetings during the pandemic, and has testified at Assembly meetings on behalf of Mayor Bronson’s “separation of powers” complaints.
It’s hard to take Mayor Bronson’s “separation of powers” complaints seriously considering he has spent $3 million on a construction project without the necessary Assembly approval in complete violation of the separation of powers between the two branches of government. In fact, it suggests the possibility that when he says “separation of powers,” what he really means is “the powers I want.”
If you have any tips, corrections, or if you just want to get in touch, please feel free to email me at yarrow@thealaskacurrent.com.
