OPINION: Maintain our parks for their intended use

The Anchorage Assembly and City Hall are again considering establishing summer homeless camps in our local parks. This would negatively impact the unhoused and the residents who recreate in our parks.

First, encampments in our parks are unsafe for the residents living in them. The summer 2022 fiasco in Centennial Park illustrated the risk of shuttling our unhoused residents onto parkland. Some of the individuals were disabled; many were ill-equipped for the torrential rains. Flooding, bears, theft, physical assaults and inadequate access to basic services placed scores of people in jeopardy.

The unsheltered are safer in open areas rather than in isolated park settings, where they are more vulnerable to crime. Additionally, they are more likely to receive timely emergency medical treatment when sheltered in visible locations.

Second, park encampments displace families, children, and sports teams from the parks they rely upon. Anchorage residents living in apartments or subsidized housing seldom have outdoor play areas. For these families, Anchorage’s parks serve as their backyards. We’ve all observed the group picnics, crowded playgrounds and lively volleyball games that bring vibrancy to our parks on sunny days. Moving homeless camps into parks could prevent our most needy families from gathering outdoors.

Finally, locating the unhoused in our parks impacts park funding. The Anchorage Parks and Recreation budget, as paltry as it is, is not the appropriate funding mechanism to pay for damage caused by homeless camps. This includes litter, human waste and needle collection, landscape restoration, stream clean-up and tree repairs.

For many years, Anchorage park bonds failed at the ballot box. More recently, our town has grown up and now recognizes the value of parks. Voter sentiment could change again if our parks become a holding area for the unhoused. Additionally, many of our parks benefit from government and nonprofit grants and volunteer work crews. These resources could likewise disappear if parks get repurposed for unintended uses.

I applaud the Assembly for its Herculean efforts to solve a problem caused not only by insufficient housing, but also by inadequate mental health care, addiction treatment, job training, and counseling. Homelessness is a complex challenge that will not be resolved quickly. For this reason, allowing encampments in parks, even temporarily, could establish a precedent. If that happens, the character and use of our parks will be permanently altered for the foreseeable future.

Please help protect our unhoused residents and our green space. Send a clear message to our Assembly and City Hall that we should not erect camps of any size in our parks.

Thomas Pease was born in Anchorage and lives on Government Hill.

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