An Anchorage shelter contract has grown from $1 million to nearly $5 million in a year

A homeless-shelter contract the Anchorage Assembly approved at just over $1 million a year ago has grown to nearly $5 million, and on Wednesday the Assembly votes on adding another $500,000.

The contract belongs to Henning, Inc., a nonprofit that in five years has become one of the city's largest shelter operators. Its leadership includes former municipal officials — among them the Bronson administration's homelessness coordinator, who oversaw the city's shelter contracts before leaving to work for Henning.

What the contract pays for is emergency shelter — beds in a large room, not a path into housing. Anchorage now spends on the order of $40 million a year on homelessness, and the number of people living outside has not visibly fallen. The money keeps the crisis contained without ending it.

It also keeps hundreds of people indoors through winters that kill those left outside. When the city puts shelter operations out to bid, it often draws only one or two proposals, and a contract that lapses can empty beds within days. The Assembly has approved Henning's contracts repeatedly, several members saying they do so reluctantly, and the city has hired an outside monitor to watch the shelters.

The $500,000 on Wednesday's agenda is a small share of all of it. The harder question underneath — whether Anchorage is spending its way toward a solution or simply paying, year after year, to hold homelessness in place — is the one the vote won't answer.