Past Initiatives
Prohibiting Unsafe Encampments on Public Land
On July 15, 2025, the Anchorage Assembly approved AO 2025-74 (S-2), As Amended after a two-hour long debate. The ordinance makes it a criminal offense to camp in certain areas, such as schools, playgrounds, on trails or on the edge of high speed roads, and allows police to clear those areas immediately, without the notices previously required. The proposal was originally brought forward by Members Goecker, McCormick, and Myers and the version that ultimately passed was brought forward by Mayor LaFrance with Assembly Members Johnson, Silvers, and Volland.
Versions
Review the original and substitute (S) versions of AO 2025-74.
- AO 2025-74 - Sponsored by Assembly Members Goecker, McCormick, and Myers
- RESCINDED AO_2025-74 (S) - Sponsored by Assembly Chair Constant
- AO 2025-74 (S-1) - Sponsored by Mayor LaFrance with Assembly Members Johnson, Silvers, and Volland
- Read the Memo
- Read the Mayor's Press Release
- Interactive Map
- AO 2025-74 (S-2) - Sponsored by Mayor LaFrance with Assembly Members Johnson, Silvers, and Volland
- Additional Documents
- AIM - AK State Department of Health Letter
2024-2025 Emergency Shelter
Per AMC 16.120.020A., when temperatures drop below 45 degrees, the Municipality activates Emergency Cold Weather Shelter. Guided by the Mayor's Homelessness & Health Strategy, 2024-2025 Emergency Cold Weather Shelter operations began on October 15, 2024.
56th Ave Shelter
At the June Housing & Homelessness Committee meeting, Anchorage Health Department Director Kim Rash briefed the committee on an upcoming contract extension with Catholic Social Services, the organization currently operating the Municipality’s low-barrier shelter on 56th Ave.
Opened in November 2023, the 56th Ave shelter serves as many as 200 individuals and 20 animals in a decommissioned administrative building owned by Solid Waste Services. Approved at the June 24 Regular Assembly Meeting, the contract extension with Catholic Social Services pushes the contract end date from June 30 to August 31 as the Administration finalizes a proposal to open smaller shelters across the Municipality.
Third Party Oversight
Restorative Re-entry Services (RSS) provides third-party oversight to the shelter operations funded by the Municipality. To request copies of the reports submitted to the Assembly Housing & Homelessness Committee, please contact the Municipal Clerk's Office at wwmasmc@anchorageak.gov.
Summit on Anchorage's Coordinated Response to Homelessness
The
Summit on Anchorage's Coordinated Response to Homelessness was held in March 2025 by the Mayor's Office, Assembly Housing & Homelessness Committee, and the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness to discuss the progress, challenges, and strategies the Municipality and its partners are using to address homelessness in our community. Over two days, more than 300 participants came together to strengthen the network of service providers, policy makers, and community members engaged in the work to end homelessness.
This event was livestreamed and recorded on the MOA Meetings Youtube channel. Meeting information, presentation materials, and speaker biographies are
available online, along with a report published by the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness answering audience questions received during the event.
LEARN MORE
Complex Behavioral Health Community Task Force
The Behavioral Health Task Force was created by the Assembly and charged with identifying immediate needs and evaluating and presenting mid-to-long-term solutions to Municipal and State agencies to support individuals in our community who have complex behavioral health needs. Between May and September 2023, health care providers, advocates, public servants, and community members collaborated to identify priorities and hurdles to address the needs of people with complex behavioral health issues in Anchorage who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
Following a leadership summit on August 29, 2023 (meeting
agenda and
presentation), the Task Force submitted
its final report recommending solutions to policy makers and it was accepted by the Anchorage Assembly at the September 12, 2023 Regular Meeting. The findings were also shared with the Governor, statewide leaders and Anchorage legislators.
Complex Behavioral Health Task Force Final Report
Allowed Camps Community Task Force
The Sanctioned Camps Task Force was charged with evaluating and presenting recommendations to the Anchorage Assembly and Municipal Administration regarding the feasibility of sheltering community options including allowed camps, pallet shelters, modular buildings and relocatable temporary buildings.
The group evaluated the feasibility of dignified, temporary sheltering options to make recommendations to the Assembly in alignment with AR 2023-167, As Amended, which declared a policy of dispersed placement of services and programs for homeless persons across the Anchorage Bowl.
At the May 17, 2023 AHD Homelessness Coordinator Michael Hughes presented his research on models for sanctioned camping from across the country to the Sanctioned Camp Community Task Force. Review the presentation.
On Monday, May 22, the Sanctioned Camp Community Task Force announced recommendations for locating, developing and supplying sanctioned camps across the Municipality to address immediate needs. On Tuesday, June
6, the Assembly adopted
an amended version of the Task Force's immediate needs recommendations.
The task force's final recommendations for allowed camps and other sheltering community options were finalized by their July 6, 2023 due date and accepted into the record at the July 11 Regular Assembly Meeting.
Allowed Camps Task Force Final Recommendations
Forest Park Trailer Park
The Forest Park Trailer Park suffered significant damage to its infrastructure during the 2018 earthquake and its water well sources, water distribution and teatment system and sewage infrastructure are in a state of disrepair. An AR laid on the table at the April 25, 2023 Regular Assembly Meeting charged the Housing &
Homelessness Committee with reporting back to the full Assembly on the feasible short-term remediation options and the long-term solutions to resolve the current crisis at Forest Park.
The committee's final Forest Park Mobile Home Park Report was issued on May 25, 2023.
Forest Park Final Report
Clean Slate Strategy
On March 22, 2023 the Assembly approved
AR 2023-97, As Amended, a resolution adopting the “Clean Slate Strategy.” The Clean Slate Strategy developed a process for the Assembly to solve the problem that plagued the Municipality of Anchorage since 2020:
Where will we put a new permanent year-round low-barrier shelter? From the 2022 Gap Analysis done by the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, it was identified that Anchorage needs an additional 200 shelter beds in the Municipality, of which 150 are for single adults. The Clean Slate Strategy was done under the umbrella of the Anchored Home Plan, Anchorage's plan to meet these needs and to solve homelessness.
The process began by looking at community assumptions of
shelter, trying to get a sense of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and, most importantly, what shelter could be in our community. To learn more and gather feedback, the Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness hosted town halls to discuss what well-run shelters could look like in the Municipality of Anchorage, including discussions on shelter licensing, neighborhood mitigation, and examples of well-run shelters throughout the country (Town Hall Presentation and Town Hall Recording).
After a lengthy public input process, the Assembly Housing & Homelessness Committee proposes site selection criteria for new permanent year-round low-barrier municipally owned shelter. The criteria was adopted by the Assembly as AR 2023-211 on July 11, 2023. That site selection criteria has been a guiding document through the Municipality's ongoing work to identify shelter options.
Tudor Navigation Center & Shelter
The Navigation Center and Shelter at Tudor and Elmore was originally proposed by incoming Mayor Bronson in June 2021 and eventually became a component of the
Homeless to Stably Housed project, a product of a facilitated workgroup with several Anchorage Assembly members, the Bronson administration, and community partners. The facilitated workgroup convened from August 2021 to June 2022 to develop solutions to transition away from mass care at sites like the Sullivan Arena, toward an integrated client and community-centered approach (
AO 2021-116(S), As Amended and
AR 2021-350). The vision that the facilitated working group put forward for the Tudor/Elmore Navigation Center and Shelter was to create a place to serve as a point of entry to treatment programs, specialized shelters and permanent supportive housing all across Anchorage and through a welcoming facility, staffed by competent navigators whose connect clients to income, benefits, health care and housing. Ultimately, the Navigation Center did not move forward, but several other components of the
Homeless to Stably Housed projects were completed and continue to serve the community.
The
Homeless to Stably Housed project was based on the broader
Anchored Home homeless prevention and response plan, which is supported by over 40 service providers and community partners working together with the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. The project included five components:
- A Complex Care Shelter (formerly Sockeye Inn, opened June 2022)
- A Navigation Center & Shelter (E. 56th Ave Shelter opened in fall 2023)
- Substance Misuse Residential Treatment (Alaska Center for Treatment – in progress as of 2026)
- Workforce & Supportive Housing (formerly The Guest House)
- Housing for Special Populations (couples, elders, women, & LGBTQ+)