The homeless campers using public land next to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage’s Mountain View neighborhood can stay put.
The city posted notices in the area on June 22 that said the campers would have to clear out this week, or face trespassing charges and have their belongings confiscated or trashed. But in a court filing on Monday, the head of the city’s legal department said the city no longer intends to clear the camps. It removed the notices on Saturday.
The statements are in court because the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska filed appeals on behalf of 13 campers. They were challenging the legality of the city’s right to clear the camps without shelter space available for the campers to go to.
The city said those appeals are now moot.
ACLU spokesperson Meghan Barker said the appeals put pressure on the city to reverse course.
“There’s no like, definitive, ‘They did this in response to our lawsuit,’” she said. “But, the timeline itself is pretty clear. And it’s not like the city is putting forward any other option for dealing with homeless camps right now.”
The city’s explanation in the court filing boils down to a communication issue. The city basically said it thought the Department of Defense would want the camps cleared, in part out of national security concerns. In an interview last week, the head of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department said that some campers were making their way on and off of secured parts of the base.
In the court filing, the city said it doesn’t actually know what the military’s position is on the camps, and hasn’t been able to connect with the right person because of the Fourth of July holiday.
Last week, base spokesperson Erin Eaton would not confirm or deny the statement about people getting inside the fence. She said in an email that the base was working with the city on better signage and more police patrols to avoid “potential” incursions.
The city leases the land just outside the base’s fence line from the military. One parcel is Davis Park, the other is the Mountain View snow dump.
City and military officials could not immediately be reached for additional comment on Monday.
Meanwhile, a similar set of appeals the ACLU filed against the city last month for clearing campers in and around Cuddy Family Midtown Park is still pending.
Jeremy Hsieh covers Anchorage with an emphasis on housing, homelessness, infrastructure and development. Reach him at jhsieh@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8428. Read more about Jeremy here.
