As the first major batch of snow falls in Anchorage, the city is opening more hotel rooms to serve as shelter for homeless residents.
Those rooms are in addition to the city’s congregate shelter on 56th Avenue — a low-barrier, open building with 200 beds. Catholic Social Services has run the shelter since mid-October, and the nonprofit’s senior director for homeless services, David Rittenberg, said demand was high even before the snow fell.
“The shelters in Anchorage, you know this shelter here at East 56th and then also we operate the Brother Francis Shelter, have both been at capacity for a very long time,” Rittenberg said.
Rittenberg said at this point, his organization is working with the city’s coordinated entry list to help free up space at their shelter by guiding people with the highest needs toward non-congregate shelter. That’s where residents have their own living space, like a hotel room.
“We do not have the capacity to meet the need for everybody until we get all those beds online,” Rittenberg said.
Henning Inc. is one of the operators recently contracted for $3.7 million to provide 200 shelter beds in hotel rooms. They were the operators of the city’s low barrier shelter until Catholic Social Services took over. Alexis Johnson is director of strategy for Henning and said they began taking in clients on Tuesday night. She said about half the beds have been filled.
“Those beds are 42 beds at the Henry House and 58 at the Merrill [Inn],” Johnson said. “Those are the only ones that are open as of today. Later today, we will be opening the Alex Hotel, which will have 100 beds in it.”
Johnson said Henning anticipates filling all of those beds within a week.
The city plans to open an additional 200 non-congregate shelter beds this winter. Thea Agnew Bemben is special assistant to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance for homelessness and health. She said who will operate those beds is still up in the air.
“The Anchorage Health Department has been negotiating with an additional vendor to bring on an additional 200 beds of non-congregate shelter, and that those negotiations are confidential until the contract’s approved,” Agnew Bemben said.
She said the Assembly would need to approve the contract before the beds open up.
While it’s unclear the number of people experiencing homelessness in Anchorage, city officials estimate about 475 were unsheltered as of the end of September.
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.
