Community Voices: Unhoused Need More Complex Support Than Building Giant Facility and Herding Them Into it
Mayor Bronson, and Assembly Members,
Please do not support the building of the proposed shelter, "Site 27" near Tudor Rd and Elmore Rd in East Anchorage.
I have attended two Anchorage Assembly Committee meetings. Both meetings the mayor's Homeless Coordinator, John Morris showed he is out of touch and lacking the connection needed to truly support our chronic homeless population. There has yet to be insight as to how the mayor and his team will staff the proposed mass shelter. This is despite his comments of touring another city’s shelter in Reno.
-Staffing for the massive shelter is a problem-
Currently, $3 million to $12 million dollars has been proposed to use for staffing of the massive shelter and will come from the Alcohol Tax Funds. Use of the fund will completely tap the revenue stream dry, which is currently a total of $12 million dollars. Without the fund, the city would not be able to support needed salaries for child abuse and sexual assault prosecutions and clerks in the Municipal Attorney's office, public safety and first responders, mental health and substance use rehabilitation services throughout the city. Where staff/operation funds come from is critical because of the loss of previously mentioned services and the realistic staff needed to support the mass shelter.
The certified and trained staff ratio is typically 1 staff for every 4 to 6 patients in clinical facilities. It is necessary to have clinical staff on hand to admit homeless who seek shelter for wounds, illnesses, rape, assault, detox, etc...With that stated, clinical and non-clinical staff for the proposed ‘cattle house,’ a 400-person facility, with a ratio of 1 to 4, would require 100 staff.
For a 1,000-person facility, 250 staff would be needed for the same ratio. The staff numbers would double to 400 staff for a shelter open 24-hours and housing 1,000 homeless. The 400 staff for a 24-hour 1,000-person capacity shelter does not account for security staff that will be needed to prevent theft, fights, drug use, and drug overdose. In a city that already experiences extreme shortages of behavioral health and substance use treatment professionals, how will this demand be possibly met?
Facilities that currently serve the homeless population find it challenging to keep positions filled and typically operate understaffed for months. So, where in the mayor’s proposal will he and his team aim to find a minimum of 250 trained and certified staff? Does the mayor and John Morris plan to overwhelm the city’s Human Resource department or hire an outside firm? If an outside firm is contracted how much will it cost taxpayers in addition to the $15 and $12 million quoted price tags? The previously stated matters because a half-staffed ‘cattle house’ is not a plan it’s an idea! An idea that will affect Anchorage taxpayers in years to come and more importantly the poor quality of care the homeless will receive as a result.
As an advocate for homelessness, the support they need is more complex than building a giant facility and herding them into it. The majority of those displaced are chronically homeless. As defined as without a home for at least a year – or repeatedly – while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability. They need long-term care and long-term housing which the mayor’s proposal does not include a plan for. John Morris has done a good job of dodging why long-term housing and wrap-around services are not an option when questioned. A mass ‘cattle house’ shelter is short-term.
Temporary housing leads those displaced to short-term recovery for housing, employment, substance use, and mental health. However, many in recovery do not qualify for housing due to criminal history, credit history, or lack of or short employment history. If they do not have safe and supportive family or friends, they can live with their only option is homelessness again. A person who does not want to go back to the mayor's proposed 'cattle house' shelter would be seen as a “vagrant” and in his words would be subject to arrest and imprisonment. The likelihood of the stated scenario occurring is high and a lose-lose for the homeless population over and over again.
The approach more suitable to effectively and efficiently support the homeless is to fragment the population based on their needs and provide specialized services. A few examples of specialized needs can be categorized as non - ambulatory medical needs, psychiatric or substance use treatment, transitional-age youth that are 18 to 24 years of age, families/women/children, and men ages 26 - 38 years of age. A smaller specialized staff will provide a higher quality of care to accommodate those they serve. The city of Houston in Texas has reduced its population by 50 percent with long-term housing and wrap-around services. Why isn’t John Morris only using Reno’s shelter as the only model? He should visit other cities like Houston since he is inclined to steal other successful shelter ideas. As he stated in the July 6th Assembly meeting, “if someone else has funding and comes up with something better, have at it, and if it’s better than what we come up with, we’ll go over and steal it.”
The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness dashboard shows a 4.2 percent difference between Alaska Native or American Indian and White homelessness. We as a city should work to share the responsibility of our homeless, and the mayor stated the majority of people displaced are Alaskan Native and being located near the Alaska Native Medical Center campus would save money. His statement is plain disrespectful, and frankly, the mayor lacks empathy for those in need of care. Skin color or ethnicity has no bearing on homelessness. From one veteran to another, I expect more from you! After we leave the military, we continue to serve those in need with care as we did while active duty. Consolidating homeless people as though they are segregated animals into one area is careless.
Roughly one-third of our homeless population in Anchorage are transients from the Wasilla and Palmer areas because there are not efficient shelter facilities with the capacity to house them in those towns. As a result, they make their way to Anchorage, where there are facilities to take them in. Is it unreasonable to ask mayor Bronson, his team, and the assembly to work with the valley mayor and municipality to use funds from both cities to build and staff a shelter of larger capacity to help the homeless that have left the valley?
If the mayor's means to an end is to imprison "vagrants," as he referred to them, work to change the law and use the 15 million dollars to add on to or build a new prison. Both, your proposed cattle house and a new prison will be a waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars that will lead to a future city filled with more crime and drugs than we are currently dealing with.
Funding should go towards a real solution to support the homeless and not a dying desire to have the luxury of a sports arena for the Anchorage Wolverines, Tier 2 junior hockey team. I propose the money be put towards permanent supportive housing with specialized services. The Sullivan arena will remain our city's primary shelter for now, along with other supporting smaller shelters until scattered "navigation centers" are built around the city and potentially Mat-Su Valley.
Sheltering individuals or families are still not housing them. Until we get people into long-term housing, this problem will not be fixed. As the mayor said, "let's keep people from freezing to death" doing so means providing them a higher quality of care and supportive services through sites scattered throughout our city.
Jason DeLozier
