The Anchorage Assembly leadership is formally condemning racist public testimony made during last week’s Assembly meeting.
Last Tuesday, a man named David Lazer testified on an ordinance that would have designated the former Golden Lion hotel as a temporary emergency shelter. Lazer said he’d traveled from Hatcher Pass — well beyond the municipality’s boundaries — and claimed the city’s homelessness problem is being driven by Alaska Native people.
“Why should we be paying for a Native problem? Send them home,” Lazer said. “They would be happy there, and we would be happy.”
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His testimony also included racist, derogatory comments about Alaska Natives and was met with a swift rebuke from East Anchorage Assembly member Forrest Dunbar.
“First of all, I find it deeply ironic to have anyone but an Alaska Native person telling them to ‘go home’ in Alaska,” Dunbar said. “My second thing is to say they are American citizens and Anchorage residents and members of our community, and we are responsible over taking care of members of our community.”
Dunbar also told Lazer that, in his experience surveying homeless residents, most of them say they are from Anchorage. Dunbar stopped addressing Lazer after Eagle River Assembly member Jamie Allard pointed out that Assembly members are only supposed to ask questions during public testimony, not engage in debate.
In a statement Tuesday, Assembly chair Suzanne LaFrance and vice-chair Chris Constant said they wanted to ”speak out against the racist and offensive statements made by the member of the public. Unfortunately, this is not the first time racist views have been expressed in the Assembly Chambers.”
“Our community is full of rich and diverse cultures that should be celebrated and acknowledged for their important contributions to our society, culture, government, schools, and economy,” Assembly leaders also wrote. “We recognize that there is much work to be done to end racism and ensure that everyone is treated with respect.”
The Assembly ended up voting last week to use the former Golden Lion as low-income housing for homeless people.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
