Editor’s note: This post was written ahead of Tuesday’s vote, where the Anchorage Assembly approved the initiative 7-5, but slipped through the cracks with publishing. We’re publishing it now to document the attitudes heading into the ordinance’s passage.
The Anchorage Assembly is set to take up an ordinance Tuesday night that would criminalize homeless people camping or building structures near playgrounds, schools, trails and busy streets.
The measure, proposed by Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, drew several hours of public testimony at a special hearing on Friday, where some voiced support for the measure as they bemoaned camps along popular trails and parks, while others worried that with a stark lack of resources to actually get people off the streets that the measure will only make things worse in the long run.
That sort of push and pull defined much of the testimony on Friday, with many arguing that homeless camps around trails, schools and playgrounds have hurt the fabric of an outdoor recreation-focused city, while others argued that it was an affront to the dignity of people to criminalize the act of survival in harsh economic and environmental conditions.
At a worksession ahead of Friday’s hearing, LaFrance said that while the measure proposes instituting misdemeanor charges for camping or building structures within 500 feet of playgrounds, schools and daycares and 200 feet of trails, busy streets or railroads, the intent isn’t to use those powers broadly but to address camps in those areas more quickly.
“Some places are never safe to camp on or near schools, playgrounds, childcare centers, athletic fields, neighborhood rec centers, streets, sidewalks, bridges, paved trails, or high-speed roads.” She said. “Our version doesn’t criminalize camping everywhere. We can’t arrest our way out of homelessness. The version takes a balanced, targeted approach that accounts for limited resources and high-risk areas. The municipality has a core responsibility to make sure that public areas are safe, healthy and accessible for everyone.”
A full map of where camping would be prohibited under threat of a misdemeanor charge can be found here.
The city’s current code prohibits camping throughout the city, but it’s not a criminal offense. That means the city has to rely on a slower civil process that can take 10 days or longer to get rolling. The measure, if enacted, would allow police to clear camps in the specified areas with the threat of criminal penalties.
Much of the process has focused on discussions regarding the clearing of an entrenched camp in Mountain View’s Davis Park and its neighboring snow dump. The city conducted a civil abatement of the camps earlier this summer, but only a fraction of the people ultimately ended up in some sort of shelter or housing program. Most relocated themselves to other camps throughout the city.
Some Mountain View residents celebrated the abatement during the hearing, arguing that it felt like a new day in the neighborhood as they could resume using the park. They said that the homeless campers and the drug use among the camps made the area feel unsafe and unwelcoming.
“It feels like we finally have gotten our park back,” said one woman in support of the measure. “The snow dump in Davis Park was dire at its worst, the encampments became more organized with crime than anyone could ever have anticipated or imagined. Living there was like living in a war zone. No community in Anchorage should ever have to go through that.”
Others shared similar stories of the frustrating disruptions that homeless camps cause to recreation, businesses, and the community. Several supporters argued that the measure should be viewed as just one part of a larger effort to address homelessness, with some advocating for higher property taxes to fund treatment and shelter services.
The Assembly also heard from a few former residents of the Davis camp, who noted that for many years, the city had encouraged them to use the snow dump as one of the few designated places for camping. One man apologized for any trouble that his friends may have caused the neighborhood, but stressed that they were simply trying to survive.
“That’s where I’ve had my house for the past couple of years, where, during the winter, my friends and I would hang out and keep warm by the heater, and all that was just destroyed here last month,” said one man. “And now my friend here, he’s tired like me from walking around most of the night, and there’s already enough laws on the books. You don’t need any more laws to make what I do with my lifestyle that much more harder.”
Others stressed that for many homeless people, the decision to set up camps isn’t easy, but is frequently a move of last resort. They argued criminalizing camping while shelters are full, housing is scarce, and substance abuse treatment programs have lengthy wait lists, the criminal charges and penalties will only dig people deeper into holes of poverty.
“The goal of our homelessness policy should be to help people off the streets in a way that honors their humanity, and I don’t believe that any version of this ordinance meaningfully achieves that goal,” said an opponent to the measure. “Criminalizing something is ineffective unless people have alternatives to behaving in ways that would be considered criminal. The biological reality is that humans can’t not sleep, and there are not enough shelter beds or space in treatment programs for the hundreds of unhoused people in Anchorage. … It serves no purpose but to continually shuffle people among encampments as they are forced to move around and to punish unhoused people for simply existing.”
Many opponents also noted that the prohibitions contained in the legislation effectively make it impossible to camp throughout much of the city. They said that while the supporters of the measure have said that it doesn’t outlaw camping everywhere, that’s the effect when the buffers are so large.
Broadly, though, both sides recognized that there is a dire lack of meaningful resources to get people back on their feet and housed.
“If we are saying this is where you cannot be, then people need some place to be,” said Assemblymember Felix Rivera at the Wednesday work session, “and we know that our shelters are more or less at capacity.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
