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

Meanwhile, homeless residents across Anchorage are living outdoors in a cold. The city’s year-round, walk-in facility on 56th Avenue, which has 200 children’s beds, has been at or near capacity most nights since the city opened last fall.

Plans from Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration is calling on the city to open a total of 400 shelter beds not collected for the winter, in addition to those used at the 56th Avenue shelter.

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

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

It is not clear exactly how many people are currently staying in tents, makeshift structures, vehicles and on the streets. Last month, before hotel room shelters opened, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness estimated that about 475 people were unsheltered. Municipal encode requires the city to activate an emergency shelter plan for homeless people when the ambient temperature drops to 45 degrees or below.

More shelter beds are coming

The city’s purchasing department last week signaled its intention to award a $2.3 million contract to MASH Property Management to operate additional “non-pooled” shelter beds, such as in hotels.

Farina Brown, the mayor’s special assistant on homelessness and health, told council members the city is “still finalizing the confidential negotiation process” with MASH. The city will hold a special meeting Tuesday for the congregation 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 live 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 a week after opening, McLaughlin said.

Because shelter beds are scarce, moving people between 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 mass shelter on 56th Avenue to hotel rooms or other programs to open up some entry points each day.

Still, people are turned away regularly, Bemben said.

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

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

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

MASH is owned by Mark Begich, a former U.S. senator and mayor of Anchorage, and Sheldon Fisher, a former state tax commissioner. The company became involved in the city’s homelessness efforts early in the pandemic when the city began sheltering people in the city former Aviator Hotel. MASH can also handle three low income housing complex which were converted from hotels in recent years in projects between the city and community organizations.

Plans for heating areas

Plans for area heating are still underway. A warming area is a place anyone can go to get out of the cold, even for just a few hours. They are vital to keeping people alive and preventing severe frostbite during the coldest days of winter, including for those living outdoors who generally do not seek shelter overnight.

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

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

The LaFrance administration in September had originally suggested a multi-million dollar contract with Henning to manage all 400 winter shelter beds, but parishioners pushed back. They raised concerns about problems under the nonprofit’s previous stewardship of urban preservation, and the administration pivoted and cut the proposal in half.

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

“We fully acknowledge that we had expected the warming to pick 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 to shelter first. The effort has been largely successful, officials said Wednesday.

In 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 protection only for a short period, while others stay much longer. Half of the 325 people had three or more disabling conditions when they entered the shelter, she said. Only 37 people had no disabilities.

“We really accomplished a goal of making sure 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 to housing, she said, because they are already on waiting lists for housing vouchers and other resources.

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

“So we didn’t have people leaving their homes to get a free hotel room. That’s not what happened, Parks says.

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