Anchorage Assembly members want behavioral health care on the city's list for Juneau

The mayor's office said Friday it will work on adding behavioral health language to Anchorage's wish list for the Legislature, after Midtown Assembly member Erin Baldwin Day said the list asks the state for tougher drug penalties but makes no specific request for behavioral health care.

"We're really only asking about half of the equation," Baldwin Day said at the Assembly's Legislative Committee meeting.

The draft list, which the city sends to lawmakers before each session, asks the state to give troopers more resources to stop illegal drugs before they reach Anchorage. It also asks lawmakers to make first-offense possession of methamphetamine and cocaine a felony again, as it was before a 2016 criminal justice overhaul.

The draft has no specific request for investment in behavioral health care or drug prevention, Baldwin Day said. It does touch on related problems, including gaps for people found incompetent to stand trial and higher general relief rates to help place vulnerable people. Baldwin Day didn't propose a specific request. "I don't know what specifically that ask ought to look like or how it could be structured," she said.

Chugiak-Eagle River Assembly member Donald Handeland said Anchorage has 40% of the state's people and likely well over 40% of its homeless residents. He called the city "the bottom of the funnel" for a statewide problem "mostly felt by the taxpayers of the Municipality of Anchorage."

Susanne Fleek-Green, the mayor's chief of staff, agreed. Providence and Southcentral Foundation plan to open crisis stabilization centers this winter, she said, but "it still won't be enough."

"Fairbanks closed their shelter. The Mat-Su will not open one. So we are the place where people come," she said. She said the administration will work on new language.

The felony item drew its own concern. West Anchorage Assembly member Anna Brawley, the committee's vice chair, said it "does give me pause" because it would require more resources for corrections and the courts. Nolan Klouda of the mayor's office said the police department and city legal staff identified it, and that tougher penalties also create more options to steer people into treatment.

Brawley said the city has made this kind of case before. She recalled a 2024 letter that listed what police and fire call-outs cost, and said it took the whole session to persuade legislators to give the city a one-time $4 million grant to run its Midtown shelter. She plans to make the argument again in Juneau.

Committee chair Janice Park, who also represents Midtown, said the governor had cut money for mental health services across the state. "We shouldn't be surprised when people end up on the street," she said. In June, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed $3.557 million from behavioral health treatment and recovery grants and $723,000 from prevention and early-intervention grants, according to the state's veto summary. The summary says about $52.3 million remains for those programs and cites the need to save general fund money for the state's long-term finances.

The list is set to go to the Assembly on Nov. 17. City code requires its approval by Dec. 10.