Juneau is considering moving its city-owned campground primarily used by people experiencing homelessness following an escalation of reported illegal activities there last summer.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said moving the campground next to the city’s indoor cold weather shelter would make it easier to provide maintenance and emergency services to campers and ease the campground’s impact on nearby neighborhoods.
“The overall tenor at the campground has really been challenging – last year in particular – but it has been deteriorating over the past couple of years,” he said.
At a committee meeting on Monday, the Assembly unanimously agreed to move forward with the plan and take public comment on it next month. If approved, the new location would open to campers in mid to late April.
For many years the city has run the Mill Campground, a place where people can camp free of charge between April and October. It’s located south of downtown underneath the Goldbelt Tram’s path.
The new location would move campers further south on Thane Road and further away from residential neighborhoods downtown. But, they would still be near many commercial businesses.
Barr cited issues like drug use, vandalism and break-ins and transactional sex as some of the reported criminal activities to be happening at the campground.
“The public impact on this one — I don’t really want to sugarcoat this — I think that the public impact is going to be significant in a geographic vicinity wherever the campground is,” he said.
Assembly member Michelle Bonnet Hale said Juneau is not alone in its struggle to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness in the community. This winter, the cold-weather emergency center has seen between 40-50 patrons each night.
“This problem is happening across the country in all kinds of places in the country,” she said. “So I think it’s just a very difficult situation and I don’t think we have any good or easy answers right now.”
Currently, it costs the city about $70,000 each year to operate the campground during the summer. Most of the cost comes from cleanup and garbage removal at the site.
Barr said it would cost about $110,000 to move the campground to the new location. He said the city does not plan to provide transportation between the new location and downtown if it is approved.
The new site would have 19 platforms for campers to pitch tents.
