The Anchorage Assembly Tuesday night approved a contract for the operation of 200 emergency winter shelter beds for unhoused people.
The contract for roughly $3.7 million will go to Henning Inc., who will be hosting the beds at three hotels: the Alex Hotel, the Merrill Field Inn and Henry House.
Henning has been around since 2020, providing homeless services. Until last month, they were the operators of the city’s congregate shelter at the former Solid Waste Services building. The city hired Catholic Social Services to take over operations at the shelter.
Henning fell under scrutiny earlier this year when a series of unprofessional texts between the operator’s management and then-city homelessness coordinator Alexis Johnson, who now works at Henning, were leaked.
Assembly chair Chris Constant was one of two members to vote against approving the contract. He said a memo from the city ombudsman raised red flags about how contracts were given.
“There is established enough record that the relationship between the health department and the contractor was a matter,” Constant said. “A matter well beyond just the simple act of putting forward a funding question onto the agenda. It was substantial. It was deep, it was embedded.”
Several Assembly members admitted their “begrudging” support of the contract was motivated by a lack of available options for setting up shelter beds. Assembly member Zac Johnson noted that the contract for the beds begins Thursday, and asked Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration what the consequence of not approving the contract would be.
“So there really are not, at this point, other options to go forward,” municipal manager Becky Windt Pearson said in response. “So this would result in a delay in operationalizing shelter for the winter, if not a limited number of available beds for the winter, because of the lack of other opportunities to find resources to provide this service.”
She added that the process to get another vendor could take a minimum of three to four weeks.
Johnson was one of eight Assembly members who voted to approve the contract. Member Karen Bronga also voted in favor of the contract. She said she understood the concerns over Henning, though she was more focused on making sure shelter beds would be available this winter.
“Do they do everything perfect? No,” Bronga said. “But, I tell you, I think they do a lot of things right, and I wish we would just move on.”
Assembly member Daniel Volland joined Constant in opposing the contract.
The Assembly also approved a contract with a third-party company to provide oversight of Henning.
Mayor LaFrance says the city is currently negotiating with another contractor to set up the other half of the mayor’s planned 400 emergency beds this winter.
