Anchorage Assembly approves $2.8M in state money and more winter shelter beds

The Anchorage Assembly voted 12-0 three times Tuesday to approve $2.8 million in state Community Assistance Program money and add about $2.2 million to two shelter contracts. Most of the state money will go to homeless shelters. The contract increases pay for surge beds, including some the shelters already ran last winter.

The contract increases depend on the state money arriving. Amendment 3 with MASH Property Management adds $1.1 million. It raises capacity at Linda's Place from 100 to 150 people and brings the contract total to $6.6 million. Amendment 5 with Henning Inc. adds $1 million for added capacity at the E. 56th Avenue shelter, bringing that contract to about $5.98 million. Both amendments cover surge periods from January through April and September through December this year.

The resolution restores $1 million in shelter surge contract money that was cut when alcohol tax revenue was projected to fall short. It also provides about $1.36 million for fourth-quarter shelter operations. The rest, including a $457,725 transfer, will fund a Health Department electronic health records system.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance urged the Assembly to approve the spending so people can "move indoors earlier this year than last."

Assembly Member Donald Handeland asked what would happen without the state money. Health Department Director Kimberly Rash said the budget office would "turn over every seat cushion." Otherwise, she said, "we would have to close shelters."

Handeland said the Assembly approved $500,000 for Henning in July for January-to-April capacity, with no indication it was a partial payment. Rash said that money was already appropriated. She said the budget office told the Budget and Finance Committee "we would not have enough money for quarter four of this year." The increases are in next year's budget request, she said.

MASH receives about the same increase as Henning for half the added beds because it charges a higher per-person rate, Rash said. At E. 56th Avenue, the department also pays rent, utilities, damages and portable toilets, costs Linda's Place does not carry.

At a hearing on the city's emergency shelter code, Amber Batts said MASH, "a for-profit company receiving public money," deserves scrutiny. She raised concerns about safety at its properties and the deaths of two people, and asked who monitors the contract. Jamie Lopez, of East Anchorage, who described being formerly homeless, said Restorative Reentry Services is paid $150,000 a year to oversee the three city shelters. Its biweekly reports, she said, are "a bit of a boilerplate report" that miss some problems on site.

The shelters now hold about 140 people each, Rash said. The code change, also passed 12-0, lets a single site serve up to 200 clients without Assembly approval, up from 150. Rash said 150 is comfortable at Linda's Place, while the larger E. 56th Avenue building tends to surge up to 200.