The weather in southcentral Alaska changed dramatically during the second week of November and the heavy snow makes warm, dry shelter for unhoused Alaskans more urgent. In Anchorage, a 150-bed shelter opened October 31st in an unused municipal building. It was supposed to be the final piece of Anchorage’s emergency cold weather shelter plan for this winter. But less than a month into the season, there’s a shelter wait list with about 1,000 people on it. On this Alaska Insight, host Lori Townsend is joined by Anchorage Health Department Housing and Homelessness Coordinator Alexis Johnson, as well as Anchorage Assembly Member Felix Rivera to discuss the reasons behind the long list and the broader goals of the winter shelter plan.
This Week’s Headlines:
- Federal judge rejects legal challenge to ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project
- Mat-Su Assembly, School Board incumbents fend off challengers in local elections
- Peltola votes to defund new Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Related:
- 4 unsheltered people died outside in Anchorage in the past week. 2 of them were in wheelchairs.
- Anchorage’s winter shelter system has a long waitlist and unused capacity. Here’s why.
Madilyn Rose is the program producer at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at mrose@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Madilyn here.
