Two years after introducing the concept, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s proposal for a mass shelter and navigation center combination at Tudor and Elmore continues to struggle with lack of planning, inadequate funding and permitting issues.
At a work session Friday, the Assembly sought more information from Bronson’s administration as they contemplated allowing the now-approximately $20 million plan to move forward. The decision will be made in a vote during Tuesday’s Assembly meeting.
“The math is not working in favor of the feasibility of this project to get built, let alone how we pay for operations,” Assembly member Anna Brawley told the Current.
During the worksession, the administration provided a revised estimate for the funds needed to complete Bronson’s proposed mass shelter and navigation center, which came in at $12,397,000, if constructed over the winter. This price does not include completing the interior or buying items like beds and furnishings. The estimate also does not take into account $2,455,352 settlement to Hickel Construction for work that was completed without authorization or $2 million spent on a Sprung Structure, which is currently in storage, with parts spread out in Utah and Canada.
Previous estimates for the mass shelter and navigation center range from $9 million to $22 million.
The administration also prepared a document proposing $10.8 million in funding for the shelter, which comes about $1.5 million short of completing the building itself. Additionally, the administration does not address where they will obtain the funding for beds, furnishings, or operating costs, which are estimated at $8 million per year.
Some of the funding proposed by the administration would pull funds allocated for projects like spruce beetle kill mitigation to reduce wildfire risk on the Anchorage Hillside and Stuckagain Heights areas, cleaning and security for Anchorage-area parks, installing WiFi at community centers, and upgrading an Anchorage Police Department’s training center.
Assembly Chair Chris Constant and Vice Chair Meg Zaletel expressed concern over the source of the funding during the meeting.
“Mayor Bronson’s proposal today takes funding away from critical municipal services, including wildfire mitigation, to build his shelter,” Constant stated in a press release. “Additionally, he has no funding identified for shelter operations, so what we have before us is a request for a multi-million-dollar tent with no plan for how to use it and no staff to run it.”
Further complicating Bronson’s proposal are six separate issues holding up permitting for the structure. One of these has to do with wind, snow and seismic loading. Municipal code only permits steel structures, but the tent structure ordered by Bronson has aluminum structural components.
“It’s surprising to me that we have already purchased a structure that doesn’t meet our building codes,” Brawley said.
Engineer Greg Soule of the Municipality’s Development Services Department told the Assembly that Sprung Structures is working to propose alternative ways of determining whether the tent will withstand wind, snow and seismic loading.
Constant, along with other Assembly members, remain skeptical of the embattled project ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
“As we heard this week from the Mayor’s own staff, who are working earnestly to address this crisis, creating new affordable and supportive housing is the best way to help people permanently beat the cycle of homelessness,” Constant wrote in the press release. “And yet, the Mayor continues to fixate on a strategy of concentrating and deporting people.”
Other members expressed frustration with Bronson’s lack of action on homelessness, as well as crime, while he pushes for a massive shelter without clear funding or an operations plan.
“The lack of response to the problems in our parks is frustrating and unsafe,” Assembly member Karen Bronga said. “On a tour of Chanshtnu Park with the Mayor in late July, every code violation that was pointed out, including a vehicle driven on park trails, trash piles and structures being built was met with ‘Give me my shelter and we can take care of this.’ It feels like the mayor is ignoring the city’s lawlessness in hopes of forcing a vote for the navigation center.”
