Exasperated Anchorage residents packed into City Hall on May 14, hoping to engage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance about her administration’s handling of the city’s chronic and growing homeless crisis.
While a small handful of people were permitted to ask questions, others walked away exacerbated and angry that the meeting was cut off with many questions unasked and unanswered.
Of the few attendees who were allowed to speak, many complained of ongoing theft, trespassing, human feces being dumped into the streams, filthy and sprawling homeless encampments that have taken over once-beloved city parks, and guns being brandished in their store.
The problem is not new, but it has grown noticeably worse under the hard-leftist management of the Anchorage Assembly – which for many years included now-Mayor LaFrance.
Alaska Rants podcast filmed Mayor LaFrance’s 42-minute meeting with the media and the public. Throughout, she was flanked by Police Chief Sean Case and Homelessness Special Assistant Farina Brown. The trio defended the administration’s work to address mounting crisis, while acknowledging that citizens are frustrated.
“It’s going to take some time,” LaFrance told the audience. “Thank you for being here.”
She noted that her team is planning to spend another $5.5 million in federal taxpayer funds to address the issue, while police are sending out teams to “engage” people in high traffic areas to try and remove or at least shrink chronic homeless camps across the city.
She claimed the city has abated 23 camps since she took office last July, and that there is now a year-round tax-payer funded shelter program serving up to 250 homeless people, along with several hotel rooms. All of this is now funded in the city’s annual operating budget.
While LaFrance emphasized that she has no plans to criminalize homelessness, she said police are preparing to abate two large, crime infested camps at Davis Park and the city’s snow dump site. She also noted that the city has hired 13 “community service officers” to assist police with ongoing homeless problems.
LaFrance admitted there are concerning amounts of criminal behavior in the camps, and said police will be “stepping up enforcement” to hold people accountable for drug dealing, assault, theft and trespassing, but homelessness, itself, will not be criminalized, she reiterated.
She claimed her team has made “tremendous progress” in picking up garbage in the parks, while also acknowledging that the homeless problem remains the number one issue she’s asked about by area residents.
“You guys keep saying ‘complex’ and it’s ‘complicated,’” the woman shot back. “Just figure it out … We’re paying you guys to figure it out.”
Police Chief Case told the crowd that some of the homeless simply set up in alternative sites, after police abate their encampments. He said law enforcement continues to mitigate these sites with repeated efforts to keep the camps closed. As for those who persist in camping in public spaces, he said “straight prosecution” is not the right answer in every case.
Case later explained that the police department will soon be setting up surveillance cameras in the popular Town Square to monitor potential criminal behavior. Apart from cameras located on police property, the Town Square surveillance plan will be the first time in Anchorage’s history that law enforcement officials are able to monitor the wider public remotely, he said.
The meeting was set up so that the mayor fielded questions from the media first, spending 24 minutes with the press, before allotting just 10 minutes and 42 seconds for the packed room of citizens to ask their questions and raise concerns.
During the citizen Q&A, which grew testy at times, Brown explained that the city was moving away from the large, single-site homeless shelters for a new “scatter site” model that creates smaller city-run shelters stationed in multiple communities. That way, the burden of dealing with the homeless is spread around, she noted.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
One man asked what the city plans to do about the hundreds of “honey buckets” being dumped into the streams, and he questioned why so many of these receptacles are left behind in officially “abated” campsites.
A downtown small business owner then recalled the numerous break-ins his storefront has endured, which has included $14,000 in damages. He said the police seemed to have “turned their back on me” – providing little help as criminals destroy his business, livelihood and property. At one point, he said a man even pulled a gun on him.
“This whole crisis has been allowed to go on for far too long,” a woman from the crowd chimed in. “We want the city back. We pay way too much in taxes to let this continue.”
If the homeless persist in trespassing they should be arrested, she added, adding that local stores now must lock up merchandise to keep thieves from stealing off the shelves.
LaFrance responded by saying homelessness is “a complex problem.”
“You guys keep saying ‘complex’ and it’s ‘complicated,’” the woman shot back. “Just figure it out … We’re paying you guys to figure it out.”
At that point LaFrance and her team tried to shut down the meeting, but not before another woman stood up to express exasperation with the administration’s handling of the issue.
“How much more is this going to cost us, and when is transparency on the fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of this community going to come into play?” she asked. “We want fiscal responsibility!”
LaFrance, again, tried to end the meeting, thanking the attendees and saying there would be additional opportunities to ask questions at future town halls.
Undaunted, the woman broke in, again.
“Well we can’t because you limit us, the people who elected you. You are limiting us to the information and these questions,” she said. “There’s a full packed room and you should be opening the floor a little bit longer to the taxpayers who elected you.”
“Anyone else want to have more questions,” the woman turned and asked her fellow attendees. Many responded in the affirmative.
“This is what we elected,” the woman added. “They’re shutting us down. They’re taking our voice again.”
54 Comments
bring back Bronson
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thank you
Looks like America has gotten it’s spirit back. God bless the citizenry!
Pretending that our elections are legitimate is what caused this problem. Our election system is completely fraudulent and these people were put in place to destroy everything. People that keep thinking these “leaders” are legitimate are the problem.
Agree. It is stunning to me that there apparently are not enough sensible people in Anchorage who could push through a ballot measure to at least get rid of the cheat by mail, foisted upon the gullible citizenry during Covid and now seemingly entrenched.
If you will recall, the repeal of Rank Choice Voting was winning by 5,000 votes with only one day left to count. Amazingly, it ended up losing when 6,000 no votes showed up. Hmmmm….
Proposition 2 was also winning in 2020 until that last dump of votes giving us the magical 50% that we’re seeing around the world in “elections”, including Trump’s bare 50% of the popular vote that no one wants to talk about – he obviously won, but they kept counting until K had about 1% less than him – to give her legitimacy? And then they stole so many down ballots like the repeal RCV here. Joe Oltman recently showed how they stole some of these initiative votes in 2024. When the people who are in power because of the fraudulent elections are the ones who ultimately are required to fix them, we’re never going to get them fixed.
https://rumble.com/v6tf7p7-lockstep-motion-impossible-sos-forged-a-new-cast-vote-record.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
so true. I laugh at these people who some how keep a straight face while they openly deceive this whole community. it should be criminal and I believe when time passes, these issues where having now will be brought to light, in the hopes of a less corrupt assembly in tue future.
spot on
Anchorage, you get what you voted in, why is this so hard to comprehend? Vote left, go left, vote right, go right. It’s not going to take time to fix this crisis, and it is certainly not a complex problem as Lafrance says, it takes action from a real leader that should be swift, something that Bronson tried to do but was blocked by a liberal assembly, morons!
We have no idea what was “voted in”.
.
We know only what unelected officials, who work for the very Assembly members running for re-election, told us what was “voted in”.
spot on
Absolutely true. Recall her or vote her out. Voting her and her ilk out takes time, but recalling is a shorter road to the end you want, Anchorage. Take charge citizens!
“………Police Chief Case told the crowd that some of the homeless simply set up in alternative sites, after police abate their encampments. He said law enforcement continues to mitigate these sites with repeated efforts to keep the camps closed. As for those who persist in camping in public spaces, he said “straight prosecution” is not the right answer in every case………”
What is “straight prosecution”? Is there a roundabout type? Is that or another type of prosecution being considered?
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled that local governments can enforce generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property without violating the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, even if they lack sufficient shelter space for the unhoused population. The court’s decision effectively allows cities to criminalize sleeping and camping on public property. Apparently the Anchorage municipal government still hasn’t gotten the memo. Maybe a class action suit by the citizenry against the muni is in order?
Right! Since they need a place to sleep put them in jail rather than in hotels. We pay for the jails anyway so why double the cost by putting them in hotels at taxpayer cost???
Here’s the million dollar question. Where will the homeless go when their campsites are cleared out? I’ll wait……………………..
(stepping up enforcement” to hold people accountable for drug dealing, assault, theft and trespassing, but homelessness, itself, will not be criminalized, she reiterated.)
But Homelessness is not a crime, aren’t all of these things above the crimes these homeless are committing.
Mayor LaFrance what a joke, I’ve said before Anchorage is a cesspool of a city. So glad I don’t live there anymore, it use to be an awesome city. Now it just stinks of leftist and homelessness.
Where are they going? They have been certainly coming to the Kenai Peninsula. The ones who have the wherewithal are getting out of Anchorage. Hitchhike down here or maybe buy a barely-driveable clunker with their drug money. After all, homeless encampments aren’t safe and commit crimes against themselves. So now with summer weather, they get out of town to “spread the love”. I watched one, just this week, sit right in the middle of a ditch in the late afternoon, maybe 10 feet off the roadway inside the Kenai city limits with the Spur Hwy filled with “going home traffic”. He was in the midst of a mess of self-created litter, tipping back a bottle of something. The audacity and flaunting of this was shocking. This was right after the “spring clean-up” of our roadways. Then a few days ago, another had pulled off the Spur into a subdivision — in the middle of the afternoon — to sleep. His car was a hopeless mess, with 2 dogs inside, and completely peeled of paint, with patchwork spray paint. He parked at a weird angle and blocked a postal cluster box. I honked and told him to move the car, and said I would call the cops. That got him out. Folks in Anchorage worry about fires, but if these homeless continue to trickle down here, we will have another Lahaina. And we thought dip-netters were a problem, dropping their salmon carcasses around our neighborhoods.
Here’s a bigger question: where did they come from? These don’t appear to be the natives from the villages we used to deal with in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Who are these people and how did they end up in Alaska? Where are they getting money to buy their drugs, gas, and food? Society does not owe anyone anything – sure, people can come upon hard times but that is a path created by a series of choices. People learn from consequences of their actions as well as observing what happens to others who make bad decisions. No one is letting these people reap what they sow and society is degrading because of it.
“……..Where are they going? They have been certainly coming to the Kenai Peninsula………”
That’s a noteworthy observation. Those of us from the Peninsula and Mat-Su actually have a debt of gratitude to Anchorage for hosting this problem. Maybe we should support the Anchorage Homeless Industry so the problem doesn’t come our way?
“………….. I’ll wait……………………..”
Like everybody else is waiting for something to happen? Here’s a clue: Were you around when the Brothers Francis Shelter was built in Homeless Crisis 1.0? There’s your answer. Built it, and if they don’t come, deliver them there.
They will just move to the next available location. I’m seeing the little wooded pockets around Anchorage rapidly get destroyed/trashed. The issues within the homeless community appear to be riddled with mental health, drug, Alcohol & financial issues.
employment agency
It’s not funny but the saying “it’s funny” is what we have. Democrats lied and cheated to get and hold the Anch Assembly. As another says goes you get what you ask for. Now, Bronson might not have been doing so bad and by reading some of these posts others think the same. Well. come next RCV vote will you vote democrat again or change to let real people with a plan get the job done? I cant wait yo hear the results!
What was the turn out? You all voted to legalize marijuana, and enjoy having liquor stores everywhere. People are addicted to all sorts of substances. It’s what you get when people do vote the right way.
Anchorage just keeps voting for this. Its that simple.
Exacerbated. Really? How about exasperated?
More money isn’t always the solution,but it is in this case.
Lots of talk. No solutions. Seriously, what should we actually do?
Put them in jail? Fine them? It is a disgrace, it is nothing but the results of a drug problem. But at this point what do we actually do with them?
Nobody wants to say this, but the majority of homeless, drug and alcohol addicted individuals in Anchorage are Native. The Native Corporations certainly have the capital to build and maintain drug rehab and alcohol treatment facilities, and they should, even if it’s just for Natives, like the hospital. If the burden were placed upon them, they’d come up with resources and approaches real quick to get these people off the streets permanently.
OK. Last I googled, 43% of unhoused in Anchorage are Native. Not a majority, but still very high. I don’t think the ANCSA corporations are responsible to pay for the homeless situation but it seems beneficial to all Alaskans if they increased their already great programs to maintain and advance their individual cultures. But same for White culture, whatever that is.
I’ve tried twice to tell a solution but for whatever reason it’s not posting it
You and your liberal buddies have had years to address this at the assembly level and choose to do nothing. With a Democrat mayor, nothing was said or done except waste money on programs you are or were part of with absolutely nothing to show positive results. With a Republican mayor, you did nothing but argue and fight and turn down and reject any attempts to address it. Get off your high horse and that you know everything and are better than everyone. You were tasked with this problem as an assembly member and now as mayor. You have had years to formulate a plan. This problem is not new and under your leadership, Anchorage is no better than Portland now. Do the job you were elected to do.
Liberal assembly, liberal mayor, liberal judges gets you a liberal city with all the inherent liberal problems. One day the people who vote for this stupidity may realize their vote is what facilitated this mess. One day the people who didn’t vote will vote after they have had enough of this crap.
In the meantime the rest of us are moving. We are unwilling to pay increasingly highway robbery taxes towards something that offers us less. Less safety, less protection, less of our own hard earned money. Everyone keeps asking where will they go who will pay for their departure and of course it’s the people who are already working hard, the people who are already abiding by the law, the people who already pay their taxes who end up with no backing by their own municipality and their own police force who they’ve been loyal to and who they have been funding. The people who have been funding this insanity and getting nothing good in return are moving out. Let the homeless stay at this point and it will protect all the other communities we are all moving to. The liberals living off of the government, social media likes and hormone blockers can deal with it.
Lots of comments here, no actual solutions. Other than finger pointing, does anyone have any ideas of what to actually do about the homeless situation? At this point, how do we solve the problem?
1) Provide increased dormitory shelter like we did with the Brother Francis Shelter over 30 years ago. No “private rooms”, no apartments. For example, the Northway Center sat empty for years and was for sale cheap. The muni has spent many times more on this goat rope than the facility was recently bought for. It was yet another opportunity lost.
2) Put an end to illegal camping. If the violator repeatedly violates, put him her in jail
3) That’s it. This is no different than illegal immigration. Just enforce the law.
I agree.
And close the darn hotels for homeless “housing” which require security guards who in turn require “services” from homeless women to keep them “safe.” There’s a sick racket going on. People preying on vulnerable persons and facilitating their dependency so they can continue their cycle of use and abuse. LaFrance and the Assembly are in on the game. We won’t make serious strides toward the goal of saving our city unless we run conservative Assembly candidates as a block, with the expressed intention of taking back the ENTIRE Assembly, one election at a time. We need a long game strategy to prosper, not a flash in the pan!
Turn up the heat, Anchorage! Don’t let LaFrance and the Assembly sleaze bags destroy our city!
In Los Angeles, business owners pointed loud speakers at a homeless camp playing “Baby Shark” 24/7. …interesting idea…
I’m surprised the LAPD didn’t charge the businesses broadcasting the noise with disturbing the peace.
Talking to the Anchorage Mayor is akin to staring at a pile of bovine scat.
This comment is what I came here for.
One thing that needs to be done is that the biblical principle needs to be applied to the homeless, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10
For example, on Sept. 10, 1608 when John Smith became the leader of Jamestown he applied this principle because the 30-40 men were taking care of 150 “loiterers” and devastation was happening to the colony. The result? “People grudgingly went to work, the death rate dropped, supply ships arrived, a well was dug, crops were grown, and the colony began to slowly establish a foothold.”
Also, a radio program that was addressing the homeless issue on a national scale said that over 80% of homeless people are mentally ill. Wasn’t it under President Clinton that the facilitates that took care of the mentally ill were dumped out and closed because it was considered inhumane treatment?
An entire juvenile psychiatric hospital in Juneau dumped their charges into the streets for federal $$ during the Covid re set debacle.
Oh! I know that there were jails who let their “petty” criminals out as well during the plandemic. A CA Highway Patrolman friend told about it. The sheriff where he worked wasn’t going along with it and the ACLU was sueing the sheriff. ACLU is really the American Communists Lawyers Union.
I am also concerned about how do these people afford property and a home when the cost of those things has escalated. I am very concerned for our young hard working families as well as the homeless. How are they supposed to get ahead? I blame greed and selfishness in that case but the excuse I hear that it’s justifiable because “everybody else is doing it.”
We need to go back to the biblical principle: “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” 1 Thessalonians 3:10 On September 10, 1608 Captain John Smith became the leader of the Jamestown colony. He saw that 30-40 men were doing the work for 150 “loiterers.” He applied this principle and the result? “People grudgingly went to work, the death rate dropped, supply ships arrived, a well was dug, crops were grown, and the colony began to establish a foothold.”
I THOUGHT WE HAD A GOVERNOR?
My solutions to the homeless problem is to make the Native corporations spend their own money helping their people. 2. Make it a crime to live on public grounds. Start arresting and sentencing homeless people for the crimes they commit. 3. Create an independent task force to deal with the homeless problem – one that isn’t under the control of the mayor or assembly and has real power to act. Make it so the mayor or assembly has no say in what the task force does. All monies going to the homeless now goes to the task force. 4. Offer help to those that want it. Those that don’t can have a one-way ticket to anywhere they want to go other than in Alaska with the understanding they are never to return. 5. Hold the Mayor, assembly and any other organization, like the ACLU, accountable if they impede the actions of the task force.