Winter shelters for Anchorage’s homeless residents are already full. Officials say they’re working to open more.

Anchorage’s emergency winter shelters have remained largely full since the city opened 200 beds in hotels at the end of October. City officials say they’re working to open more shelter beds in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, homeless residents across Anchorage are living outside amid a cold snap. The city’s year-round, walk-in mass shelter at 56th Avenue, which has 200 cots, has been at or near capacity on most nights since the city first opened it last fall.

Plans from Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration call for the city to open a total of 400 non-congregate shelter beds for the winter, in addition to those in use at the 56th Avenue shelter.

During a Wednesday meeting, the city’s contractor for third-party oversight of its shelters told Assembly members that they are “anxiously waiting” for more shelter beds and warming areas to open.

“We are basically maybe transitioning 10 people a day in between the shelters, which is just not enough. We desperately need, with this cold snap, more support,” said Cathleen McLaughlin, CEO of Restorative Reentry Services.

It’s not clear exactly how many people are currently staying in tents, makeshift structures, vehicles and on the streets. Last month, prior to hotel room shelters opening, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness estimated about 475 people were unsheltered. Municipal code requires the city to activate an emergency shelter plan for homeless persons when ambient temperatures drop to 45 degrees or below.

More shelter beds coming

The city Purchasing Department last week noticed its intent to award a $2.3 million contract to MASH Property Management to run additional “non-congregate” shelter beds, such as in hotels.

Farina Brown, the mayor’s special assistant in homelessness and health, told Assembly members that the city is “still wrapping up the confidential negotiation process” with MASH. The city will hold a special meeting Tuesday for the Assembly to review the contract, Brown said. She did not say where MASH’s shelter, or shelters, will be located, or exactly how many more beds would be opened.

Under a current city contract with local nonprofit Henning Inc., homeless residents are staying in rooms at the Henry House downtown, the Merrill Field Inn in Mountain View and the Alex Hotel in Spenard.

Those hotel rooms were full about one week after opening, McLaughlin said.

Because shelter beds are scarce, moving people between the shelters and into housing is key to getting more people indoors this winter, officials said. In an interview after the meeting, special assistant to the mayor Thea Agnew Bemben said the city aims to move people from the 56th Avenue mass shelter into hotel rooms or other programs to open up a few walk-in spots each day.

Still, people are regularly turned away, Bemben said.

In an interview after Wednesday’s meeting, Brown said it’s been difficult to capture data on how many people have sought shelter and were denied. It changes daily.

“On one given day, we had 16 individuals that were turned away, and that doesn’t include the individuals that we were trying to link to different resources. On another day, we had only five people that were turned away, and it doesn’t include those that we were able to link to other resources. And it doesn’t capture those that are using partner shelters — these are just the muni-operated shelters that we have the data for,” Brown said.

At this time last year, the city had around 524 shelter beds open, including those at the 56th Avenue shelter. The city currently has 400, but if the Assembly approves the proposed contract with MASH, the city could see 600 beds opened.

MASH is owned by Mark Begich, a former U.S. senator and Anchorage mayor, and Sheldon Fisher, a former state revenue commissioner. The company became involved in city homelessness operations early in the pandemic when the city began sheltering people in the former Aviator Hotel. MASH also manages three low-income housing complexes that were converted from hotels in recent years in projects between the city and community organizations.

Plans for warming areas

Plans for warming areas are still in the works. A warming area is a place anyone can go to get out of the cold, even for just a few hours. They are critical to keeping people alive and preventing serious cold injuries on the most frigid days of winter, including for those living outside who do not generally seek overnight shelter.

The city expects to put out its solicitation for bids from organizations in the next few days, Brown said.

Those plans were delayed by a holdup with the LaFrance administration’s first proposed shelter contract, Brown said after the meeting.

The LaFrance administration in September had initially proposed a multimillion-dollar contract with Henning to handle all 400 winter shelter beds, but Assembly members pushed back. They raised concerns about problems during the nonprofit’s previous management of city shelters, and the administration pivoted, halving the proposal.

That also delayed the opening of the 200 additional shelter beds, Brown said.

“We fully acknowledge that we had anticipated having warming stood up in November,” Brown said. If all goes according to plan, a warming center should open in mid-December, Brown said.

This year officials have prioritized moving more of the most vulnerable people into shelter first. The effort has been largely successful, officials said Wednesday.

Over the first three weeks, 325 people stayed in the 200 shelter beds, said Jessica Parks, chief operating officer of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Some use shelter just for a short period of time, while others stay much longer. Half of the 325 people had three or more disabling conditions when they went into shelter, she said. Just 37 people had no disabilities.

“We really did accomplish a goal of ensuring that people who were older and more vulnerable had access to that shelter,” Parks said. Prioritizing people on that list will also help create movement from shelter into housing, she said, because they are already on waitlists for housing vouchers and other resources.

Most of those who went into shelter — 220 people — had been living unsheltered, meaning they were staying in a place not meant for human habitation, like a tent, car or shed, she said. Another 81 people were moved into the hotel rooms from other shelters. A few others came from a hospital or from staying in a temporary situation such as couch surfing, she said.

“So we didn’t have people who were leaving housing to get a free hotel room. That’s not what happened,” Parks said.