In an attempt to curtail widespread camping throughout the city, Anchorage might soon have a sanctioned campsite for the homeless.
The Anchorage Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday evening asking the Bronson administration to pilot one “allowed” campsite, whittled down from five originally recommended by a community-run sanctioned camp task force. The site would offer a combination of tent spaces, parking spaces, and small shelter buildings.
The original resolution called for a sanctioned camp in each Assembly district except Eagle River. It included Centennial Campground, a highly controversial location used last summer which proved unsafe.
The substitute version, brought by Assembly member Felix Rivera, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, proposes a site next to Cuddy Park at 40th Avenue and Denali Street, as an allowed camp. The camp would operate from July 17, 2023, until Sept. 1, 2024, and be run as a low-barrier location for 30 to 60 single adults.
Assembly member Anna Brawley said sanctioned camping is only the beginning of a wider conversation that would need to include treatment, shelter, housing and code changes.
“We are here right now … because of our long history of saying no as a community,” Brawley said. “I’ve witnessed that, at least while I’ve been a part of the community, we’ve said no to shelter. We’ve said no to projects. We’ve said no to land use and code changes that have the potential to increase our housing supply.”
Rivera stressed that the pared down resolution would be a pilot program to see what does and doesn’t work and set the table for more sanctioned camping areas in 2024 and beyond.
“What we have before us is baby steps that will allow us to stand up something that is realistic, feasible and timely,” Rivera said, “In a perfectly healthy system, I think we would already have these allowed encampments up and running.”
Assembly member Randy Sulte said that he hopes that the municipality uses the pilot program to plan ahead for next summer so that people would be able to set up camps in designated locations instead of throughout parks and green spaces.
Sanctioned camping areas will allow the city to clear camps outside of designated areas, for example in parks or alongside trails, and divert people to a more concentrated camping site. While that idea was ultimately supported by the Assembly, some members voiced concerns.
“Abatement is traumatic,” Brawley said. “Abatement as a policy is costly and harmful and is contrary to the goal of helping people stabilize so that they can focus beyond today.”
The Bronson administration said that they supported the resolution to pilot the initial camp, but would have to see if any money was available to take action on it.
