The Municipality of Anchorage aims to provide 300 housing units for homeless people within the next three years, Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced Tuesday.
The housing will provide "safety and security, and importantly, dignity, for all of Anchorage," Berkowitz said Tuesday morning.
But specifics as to what shape those 300 housing units will take -- or exactly how they might be funded -- were not fully formed Tuesday.
The conference was held in a room at Sitka Place, which this summer opened 56 new housing units for the homeless and other vulnerable people, and was attended by employees from social service organizations, some formerly homeless Anchorage residents and members of the media.
There are 300 to 400 "chronic homeless" people in Anchorage, Berkowitz said. A person is chronically homeless if she or he has been homeless for more than a year or multiple times in the past two years, according to city homelessness coordinator Nancy Burke.
The target of 300 new housing units was chosen because it seems achievable, Berkowitz said.
"It's important as a measure of our moral strength to provide housing for those who need it," Berkowitz said.
Beyond that, housing homeless people "makes fiscal sense," Berkowitz said.
"It's cheaper to provide services to people once they're in housing than provide emergency services" on the street, he said.
Berkowitz said the city hopes to partner with nonprofits, businesses, landlords, the state and the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to look at building new housing structures, modifying old structures and housing people in existing facilities.
When asked where the funding will come from, Berkowitz said the funding already exists in various state and private entities, but those organizations are not spending that money in conjunction with one another. It probably won't be as much funding as they'd like, he said.
"But is it enough to get us started?" he asked. "Absolutely."
Leo Tondreault, 60, spoke up from the back of the room during the conference, saying the mayor's increased focus on homelessness is the reason he has housing at Sitka Place today. Tondreault had been on and off the streets since 2011, he said.
After the event, Tondreault said he spoke up "because more people in the community need to know" about chronic homelessness.
Annette Spivey, another Sitka Place resident, also attended Tuesday's event. Spivey said she was homeless for three years and was first housed in Karluk Manor before moving to Sitka Place in March.
Coming into housing off the streets, "it was hard to adjust, but I'm overcoming it," Spivey said. "Things are getting better."
She said housing is important because "you feel more safe, you feel more independent."
Beyond housing, the administration plans to increase outreach, "particularly for people who are staying in camps," Berkowitz said, as well as providing better vocational and treatment options.
Asked how this plan differs from its predecessors, given that homelessness has been a chronic issue for years in Anchorage, Berkowitz said the new proposed plan will have "follow-through" and builds on previous plans.
The announcement is a continuation of the administration's focus on homelessness. This summer Berkowitz appointed Burke as a homelessness coordinator, a position that had been vacant since 2012. Burke said before the conference that she had just completed a 60-day action plan and she is looking to streamline the existing resources to provide better care for homeless people.
One of the first steps, Burke said, is to narrow down a more specific number of the city's homeless population, which will take place in January in conjunction with the "Point in Time" homeless count.