What will a winter without a mass homeless shelter look like? We’re about to find out

Anchorage Daily News editorial board

On Wednesday, the Municipality of Anchorage administration rolled out its winter homelessness plan for 2023-2024, which — for better or for worse — is going to look starkly different from the past three years. The bottom line: In the absence of a mass shelter like the Sullivan Arena, it will be Anchorage’s first winter since early 2020 without such an option. The departure from the Sullivan was a long-overdue step, as it was a stopgap solution that never worked particularly well nor helped progress toward getting homeless residents onto healthier paths. But with nothing to take its place and obvious shortfalls in winter capacity, the toll when the snow flies could be brutal. There are a few avenues Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration is contemplating in order to mitigate the shortfall in shelter capacity this winter, and the first is a redefinition of when emergency shelter capacity is required. While city code reads that the emergency shelter plan will be activated “automatically, with no further action required by the department, when the outside temperature drops to 45 degrees Fahrenheit,” the administration is proposing that “the ambient temperature... be less than 45 degrees for three or more days prior to activation.” It may seem like a small change, but three days is a long time to wait outside when the temperature is near freezing.

The administration’s extension of the timeline for “plowing out” after a snowstorm, by comparison, was only an additional half-day (from 72 hours in 2020 to 84 in 2022), but we witnessed how consequential that cutback was last winter.

Login to continue reading article