OPINION: There’s cause for optimism about Anchorage’s small-shelter approach

I’ve volunteered at a variety of homeless services in Anchorage over the past several years, trying to understand this very human problem that grips Anchorage so tenaciously. Often it can feel hard to find light or progress.

But here is a start.

At least three facilities offering shelter and short-term housing — that chose to keep their client numbers low — have been able to develop positive relationships with their neighbors. They are Brother Francis Shelter on 3rd Avenue (with Fairview Community Council), Complex Care on Fireweed Lane (with North Star Community Council), and the former Golden Lion on 36th Avenue (with Rogers Park Community Council.)

North Star and Fairview have signed a “Good Neighbor Agreement” with shelter operator Catholic Social Services. The agreement identifies ways community members and shelter providers can work together to address concerns that arise. I learned about the agreement while volunteering with Catholic Social Services. Rogers Park has a similar “good neighbor” relationship with Golden Lion, run by Henning Inc.

Here is what community council leaders told me in phone conversations about their experience having a smaller shelter in their neighborhood:

Matt Johnson, president of North Star Community Council, working with Complex Care, which houses about 80 medically fragile men and women:

“We are adjacent to the Sullivan Arena, and when it was used for mass housing, it was a nightmare. It’s just not a good model. Housing so many people together can attract other elements that want to take advantage — selling drugs and sex trafficking. When you disperse the people who need help, you disperse that other element as well.”

Johnson also discovered their new shelter neighbors had the same concerns North Star residents have: Fireweed Lane loses its sidewalks to snow every winter, making for very unsafe foot traffic. “We see mothers pushing baby carriages in the street, kids walking to school in the street,” he says. “And now we see shelter residents, also struggling to navigate these same conditions in wheelchairs and walkers.” He hopes this shared neighborhood concern can bring safer pedestrian pathways along Fireweed soon.

Allen Kemplen, president of Fairview Community Council, working with Brother Francis Shelter:

His take on the Good Neighbor Agreement also is positive, but nuanced. The agreement has helped with communication, Kemplen says. And he has a good example.

Right now, Brother Francis houses 120 men and women, including 10 respite beds for those recently released from the hospital. This compares to a pre-pandemic number of nearly 250 people, plus overflow at Bean’s Café and nearby streets, before the Sullivan Arena opened. It once was the only cold weather low-barrier shelter in town.

Recently the city asked Brother Francis to increase its capacity. Because of its Good Neighbor Agreement, the shelter first consulted with the council, which said no to the increase. So, the shelter declined to add any more beds.

Actions like that help build trust, Kemplen says. But the Good Neighbor Agreement can’t solve the toughest problem he sees, which is when disruptive clients are forced to leave the shelter with no place to go. “They linger in the neighborhood,” Kemplen says. “And the Good Neighbor Agreement doesn’t cover that. It only covers on-site problems.”

In Kemplen’s view, this is the toughest homeless subset to help. With concurrence from several northern Anchorage community councils, he’s raised the idea of “Neighborhood Guardians,” a hybrid public safety and social service-based foot patrol that could walk the streets and parks and — with empathy and persistence — direct lingering homeless individuals to relevant services. He hopes the Assembly and administration can find the necessary resources to fund a pilot project.

Smaller shelters around the city are a key piece of the solution, Kemplen says. “If you group them all together in large numbers, it’s just crisis management.”

Scott McMurren, president of Rogers Park Community Council, working with Golden Lion:

“Shawn Hays of Golden Lion has made a commitment to be at all of our community council meetings,” McMurren says. “They have their own ‘good neighbor commitment,’ and it appears to be very transparent… Anchorage needs about 15 more Golden Lions.”

Like Fairview, Rogers Park has experienced issues with lingering homeless individuals at nearby Jacobson Park. But McMurren does not see how Golden Lion has any jurisdiction over that area. APD also attended their council meetings, he says, taking notes and paying close attention. “Where is the accountability” for that issue, he wonders.

In his view, smaller shelters are the answer. “Otherwise, you’re just warehousing people,” where “the unrich and the unwell are made to pay for their ‘crimes’… You cannot criminalize being poor.”

I was struck by all three council presidents’ compassion and energy to keep after this community challenge and to do their part to shoulder the burden.

“We can do better,” Fairview’s Kemplen insists. “It’s within our power to develop new approaches.”

And North Star’s Johnson: “It’s right that these folks find a warm place off the streets. They are our neighbors. We’re Alaskans, and when times get tough, we help each other out.”

I was moved to share their perspectives because they illustrate a compassionate step forward in an unrelenting struggle. The solution lies in cooperation and support, not in ignoring or demonizing the “other.” Together, we’ll figure this out.

Kathleen McCoy formerly worked as a writer and editor at the Anchorage Daily News and hosted the community radio program “Hometown Alaska” on Alaska Public Media.

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