On a recent afternoon, Duke Russell was in his sunny kitchen in Spenard. He leaned into his oven, pulling back the foil on a big pan of macaroni with red sauce and mozzarella.
In an hour he’d bring it to Anchorage’s Town Square Park, where he and other volunteers planned to serve homeless people a meal and hand out warm clothes. It’s been a tough winter for people who are still sleeping outside, he said. This winter saw record-breaking snowfall in January and multiple cold weather advisories. Russell said he wants to give people dignity, a moment of humanity.
“It's a time where we break down that barrier between the haves and the have nots,” he said.
It’s something Russell has been doing off and on for years. He estimates his crew feeds about 400 people a week. In the past, Russell went into homeless camps to give out food, but over the last year and a half, the city made it a priority to clear out all the entrenched camps. Then, the Anchorage Assembly passed a law criminalizing camping in much of the city. People often get moved along by the Anchorage Police Department. Now people are scattered and harder for Russell to find.
“There's still a lot of people that are sleeping outside and they're in harm's way,” he said. “I've seen them. They're super cold. I see people without any socks, very specific bright red skin, frostbite all over the place.”
City officials have said their goal this winter was to have fewer people sleeping outside. One aim of the new policies is to make people uncomfortable enough that they’re motivated to move into shelter, to take services that break the cycle of homelessness. But services like shelter beds and behavioral health care aren't always available. And according to several people on the front lines of homeless outreach, the policies have made it excruciating for people to live outside.
Thea Agnew Bemben, with the mayor’s office, said she wishes there was more shelter space, but that would take money the city doesn’t have. And while the new policies have made it harder for people living outside this winter, that’s not the end goal, she said. It’s part of an ongoing strategy that balances everyone’s needs.
“This is a community where we have to live next to each other,” she said. “We share these spaces. So when someone privatizes a public space – which is what it is when they set up a big camp there – then no one can use it. It's no longer a shared space.”
When police find people sleeping in areas of the city they’re not allowed to be, like near schools, trails or playgrounds, they move them along, sometimes right away, sometimes with a few days' notice. But Agnew Bemben said outreach workers are also constantly making contact with people sleeping outdoors, trying to find them a place to sleep or whatever else they might need.
If a person is willing to go indoors, she said, usually there’s a bed available somewhere within a couple days. But sometimes, no matter how tough the conditions are outside, people don’t want the chaos – or the rules – of a shelter, or they’re not interested in behavioral health care or addiction treatment. You can’t force people to accept help, Agnew Bemben said.
“We have to have this combination of a lot of engagement, trust building, helping each person figure out where they're going to go next,” she said. “And we also do have to enforce the rules and the laws that our community has agreed upon.”
Jessica Parks, with the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, said she appreciates that the city is willing to go out on a limb and try all sorts of things to address homelessness. But these particular policies are negatively impacting people living outdoors, she said. She and her outreach team see a lot of defeat, she said. People are focused on what they need to do just to survive.
“Not even just the day, but the hour. ‘What do I need to do to get through the next hour and then the next hour after that and the next hour after that?’” she said.
Part of it, Parks said, is that it’s a lot harder for people to sleep in tents now, since they draw attention and attract police. That makes a big difference, she said. Life is warmer in a tent, especially on the coldest nights when you cram a dozen people in.
“So many people are just walking all night long to stay warm and to stay upright and stay alive,” she said. “And then during the day, finding places where they can just sit and nap.”
Before, camps allowed people to stash things that made life easier, like propane, bedding, changes of clothes, food and water. Now, people have to carry everything. Homelessness has always been uncomfortable, Parks said, but this is different.
“It is now mentally uncomfortable, and it is taking a toll on people's behavioral health,” she said. “It's taking a toll on people's mental awareness. If you go long periods of time without getting good sleep, that affects your ability to make decisions. It affects your ability to just survive, and I think that's what we're seeing.”
Now, she said, it’s hard for people to think about things like applying for food stamps, getting on housing lists, or even keeping track of their belongings.
So why don’t people go indoors and sleep in one of the 450 shelter beds available around Anchorage? Parks said not only are shelter beds in short supply, there are other barriers, like behavioral health needs that aren’t met by the current health care system.
According to Agnew Bemben, there are options, like addiction and crisis care. But often, she said, people aren’t ready.
“The things you're describing are brutal. I totally get it, and that is not our goal,” she said. “We are not done. We are not stopping. We are pushing ahead every single day.”
The city will continue its relentless outreach, she said, trying to connect people with services even as they move them along.
Reporter’s note: I spent more than a month talking to homeless people for this story, and while none of them agreed to go on the record, what I heard from them was similar to what I heard from Jessica Parks and several other outreach workers.
If you are, or have been, homeless and would be willing to talk to me, either on or off the record, I would love to hear from you. Email me at hflor@alaskapublic.org, or send me a text or Whatsapp at (907) 650-7592.
