ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The delay for the Sullivan Arena mass congregate shelter to increase capacity has ended after some confusion between Mayor Dave Bronson and the Anchorage Assembly.
A letter from Anchorage Assembly leadership was sent to members of the media requesting that a five-day waiting period be waived, just over an hour before Bronson’s letter in response, which said that the capacity would be increased immediately.
Committee on Housing and Homelessness Chair Felix Rivera and Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance issued their letter asking Bronson to open the beds immediately at 10:22 a.m. The letter notes that the assembly’s AR 2022-411 passed as amended on Tuesday, allowing for an increase in capacity at the Sullivan Arena to 360 people until Jan. 27, 2023.
“It is clear that the increase is needed. The Administration has no reason to wait to implement this policy,” Rivera said. “I call on the administration to implement this life-saving policy without delay and stop playing politics with the life of our neighbors.”
The correspondence from LaFrance and Rivera also notes that Bronson is “required to present findings and justifications for any requested extension of this policy at the Assembly’s Committee for Housing and Homelessness Meeting” on Jan. 18 of 2023.
Additionally, LaFrance sent her own letter to Bronson, Chief of Staff Adam Trombley, Homelessness Coordinator Alexis Johnson, and other municipal staff.
“I wanted to contact you immediately to let you know that you do not need to wait five days and the resolution as passed allows you to open 160 additional beds immediately,” LaFrance wrote. “We, too, would like to see everyone currently in the warming area have access to a warm bed before Christmas.”
In Bronson’s letter — sent just over an hour later at 11:31 a.m. — he notes that there may have been some confusion over language included in an amendment to AR 2022-411 which passed on Tuesday. Bronson’s letter quotes Rivera’s amendment #2, which said in part:
“The Assembly hereby approves the census of the Sullivan Arena to be up to 150 [360] clients when it is activated as an emergency shelter, and an additional 50 client capacity when there is a sustained capacity of 90% utilization for 5 days at the Sullivan Arena and all other low barrier facilities are full, and at such times that all other cold weather sheltering location options approved under AR 2022-293, As Amended, are exhausted.”
“As you know, both the Assembly and the Administration want to comply with the law,” Bronson wrote. “After conferring with the Department of Law, there was confusion whether these 5 days have been fulfilled. If the Assembly believes the administration can legally and immediately surge, and that was the intent of the resolution, we are happy to implement it. We will notify the Assembly and appropriate community councils. Effective immediately, the Administration will surge capacity at the Sullivan Arena to 360 beds.”
The Sullivan Arena was used as a mass congregate shelter in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lasted until July, when it was closed and hundreds of homeless Anchorage residents were bused to the Centennial Park campground where bear encounters and an officer-involved shooting took place. As winter fell, the Sullivan Arena was reopened as a shelter, and the capacity of the Sullivan shelter became a crux of the conflict between Bronson and former Municipal Manager Amy Demboski.
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