Residents in a homeless encampment in Juneau are facing a new deadline to vacate a downtown property.
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority has notified the city that it wants its property cleared of trespassers in two weeks.
About a dozen campsites sprang up this summer at the former sub-port property off Egan Drive. The Trust Authority says the property needs to be cleared of trespassers by September 5.
“We have a growing number of complaints about impacts of the homeless camp and it’s not just on the mental health trust property right there, it has expanded,” Wyn Menefee, deputy director of the Trust Land Office, said Friday. “But we also are trying to help these people transition to a different location.”
The Trust Land Office manages land owned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust.
The Trust Authority has reached out to the city and social care agencies about relocating people in advance of the deadline.
“We have been working up to this transition,” Menefee said. “But we’re trying to do it in a way that it gives the people that are residing at the homeless camp the ability to move in a dignified fashion over to something else.”
The city estimates about a dozen people have been living on the 2-acre parcel. The Trust Authority is in talks to sell an adjacent parcel and wants the area cleaned up.
“We recognize that folks are camped out there and our goal would be to connect them in with other services available in the community,” Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said Friday.
Cosgrove added the city is considering extending operation of the city-run campground south of downtown that normally closes in mid-October due to avalanche danger.
“We still have space available in the Thane Campground,” Cosgrove said. “In terms of a like-environment, that also exists.”
Social care agencies have said the lack of transport to the Thane Campground, which lies two miles down an unlit road, makes it unsuitable for homeless people suffering from disabilities.
Shelter space is also at a premium.
The Glory Hole, a downtown shelter and soup kitchen, has been running above capacity. The shelter counted 46 people overnight Thursday in the 40-bed facility.
“It’s not unusual in the winter for us to sleep, you know, over capacity,” Executive Director Mariya Lovishchuk said. “Definitely it’s very unusual this time of year. It definitely creates a pretty stressful atmosphere.”
Clearing the camp will likely increase pressure on the shelter.
“We would certainly not turn anybody due to lack of space, but it will be pretty hard to house more people,” Lovishchuk said.
Earlier this year the Juneau Assembly passed an ordinance prohibiting camping on private property in the downtown core.
After some homeless people moved onto public property including Marine Park, Juneau police officers began enforcing park hours.
There may be some relief to Juneau’s homelessness crisis.
The 32-bed Housing First apartment complex, which is designed to house Juneau’s most vulnerable homeless residents, is due to open next month.
Jacob Resneck is CoastAlaska's regional news director in Juneau.
