The Anchorage Assembly will decide Thursday whether to put more than $2.5 million toward turning an old Solid Waste Services building into a homeless shelter.
Officials say the building could house up to 150 people and would provide food services, showers and case workers to help transition people to permanent housing.
The Assembly decided at its meeting Tuesday night to delay its funding vote to Thursday afternoon because of questions about the building agreement. Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration had brought two contracts to the Assembly to vote on. The contracts would give $2.1 million to Henning Inc. to manage the building and roughly $432,000 to ESS Support Services to provide food.
However, Midtown Assembly member Meg Zaletel raised concerns that the building is still part of the solid waste department, which has a different budget that comes from ratepayers. She said the Assembly is waiting for an agreement from the city that the building would be managed by the health department, and would use that department’s funds.
“I have a lot of heartburn around authorizing the use of a building that Solid Waste Services ratepayers are paying for right now for another purpose without that agreement in place,” Zaletel said.
Anchorage Homelessness Coordinator Alexis Johnson told the Assembly that the agreement is “90 percent complete” and would be ready by Thursday. If the Assembly approves the contract, it would take effect on Monday
The Assembly did vote to give Henning a contract of a little over $1.5 million to use 50 rooms at the former Alex Hotel to house homeless residents, and another $4.3 million to the Alaska Hotel Group to use 137 rooms at the Aviator Hotel for similar services.
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.
