As residents move out of Eagle Crest Transitional Housing in downtown Anchorage, the beds will remain empty as the building is renovated in the summer.
The housing opened in 1985 and the interior has not been renovated in over 20 years, said Duke Markham, secretary of the Alaska division of the Salvation Army.
Eagle Crest provides transitional housing at low cost to adults 19 years and older. The facility is alcohol-free and staffed 24 hours a day, according to the program's website. Clients can stay there for up to two years.
The facility has 76 beds, about 50 of which are currently in use, Markham said.
As tenants cycle out of the housing, they won't be replaced, Markham said. The plan is to begin renovations as soon as some of the beds are empty. "Nobody will be asked to leave that place until there's a plan" for permanent housing, Markham said.
The inside will have new flooring, paint, heaters and furniture, Markham said, "just (for) meeting code and making sure it's safe and clean and neat."
Once the renovations begin, they will take only a few weeks, Markham said.
Manuel Lazado, who has been living at the facility since July, was frustrated about the decision.
"This was really out of the blue," Lazado said.
Lazado learned of the facility's plan to shut down temporarily through a staffer at the facility, he said, not through a formal notice, which he found frustrating and confusing. "Everybody's pretty upset," he said.
Markham confirmed there was no official notice for the move, because the Salvation Army doesn't intend to evict anyone from the facility or put a timeline on their move.
"We are not evicting all the tenants and we are not shutting down Eagle Crest. That's never going to happen as long as I'm on watch here," Markham said.
Markham said he hopes, though, that all beds at Eagle Crest will be empty by the summer for the renovations.