On Friday, Ted Eischeid, Democratic candidate for House District 22, tweeted that his campaign received a cease and desist letter from Republican challenger Stanley Wright’s attorneys, stating a campaign door hanger claiming Wright is working on the Municipality of Anchorage’s homelessness response is false and defamatory.
This week my campaign received a cease-and-desist letter from my opponent, Stanley Wright. His lawyers claim he “has no engagement with homelessness in his role as an employee of the Municipality of Anchorage.” (1/4) #AKElect pic.twitter.com/Abi3QvIRju
— Ted Eischeid (@TedForAlaska) October 28, 2022
Despite cease and desist letters being more or less meaningless, this one was especially
ridiculous because the press release announcing Wright’s hire as the Anchorage Health Department’s Community Systems program manager literally includes six uses of the word “housing” and three uses of “homelessness,” including that Wright will coordinate with Housing and Homelessness Services.
As the Community Systems program manager, Wright is also responsible for HUD grants, including grants to fund emergency homelessness shelters. Public record shows Wright attended a Housing, Homeless and Neighborhood Development Advisory Commission meeting on July 6. Eischeid stated this on Twitter and pointed out that Wright attended a meeting on housing and homelessness on July 6.
Despite that, Wright’s attorneys claim in their letter that campaign material stating Wright worked on homelessness “was false because our client has no engagement with homelessness in his role as an employee of the Municipality of Anchorage.”
Further, the 907 Initiative added that a text message they received through a public records request also indicates Wright is working on the city’s homelessness response.
On June 12, Wright received a text from Cesar Ramirez, Director of 99 Plus 1, who was contracted at the time to manage the city’s emergency homelessness shelter at the Sullivan Arena.
Ramirez texted Wright, referencing a conversation the two had about grants, and said 99 Plus 1 is trying to line up grant funding for when the Sullivan closes. Ramirez asks Wright about how much funding he can request, and if Wright could point him to available grants to apply for.
Five days later, Wright responded to say he would look into it and email some information, which would be a pretty strange thing to say if he weren’t in fact “[had] no engagement with homelessness in his role as an employee of the Municipality of Anchorage” as the letter from his attorneys states.
On June 30, the city shut down the Sullivan and bussed people to the Centennial Campground, only to ask them to come back to the Sullivan a few months later.
So, it seems pretty clear that Wright worked for the Municipality of Anchorage, engaging directly with homelessness as of at least June 17. Whomever is running the city’s homelessness response plan, Wright or not, might want to try a little harder.
