Anchorage Assembly names Nov. 20-Dec. 20 Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 17, approved a resolution recognizing Nov. 20 through Dec. 20 as Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month. The resolution tells families who have lost someone to homicide that the city stands with them, and it points them to a statewide support group.

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley, Vice Chair Daniel Volland, 10 other Assembly members and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance sponsored it. The same night, the Assembly also passed a resolution recognizing Nov. 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The homicide resolution says the harm reaches past the family to bystanders, public safety and court staff, jurors and journalists. Families may face funeral costs and lawyer fees, and they may face housing insecurity or homelessness when a breadwinner is killed, it says.

The resolution cites the Department of Public Safety report "Crime in Alaska, 2025," which counted 44 murders statewide in 2025, down from 51 the year before. Anchorage police reported 24 murders in 2025, down from 28 in 2024, according to the report. The resolution gives 51 and 56 for Anchorage. Those are the statewide totals of murder reports before some were found unfounded and dropped from the count. Total reported offenses for Anchorage police rose 14.6 percent in 2025, mostly in property crime.

Alaska's Homicide Memorial in Hostetler Park, at Third Avenue and L Street downtown, holds 571 engraved names, the resolution says. The names are read each year at a ceremony with victims' families.

Victims for Justice, a statewide group founded in 1985, serves hundreds of people each year, the resolution says. About half its caseload is surviving family members of homicide victims, the group reports. Its homicide grief group meets on Zoom the second Tuesday of each month, 6 to 7:30 pm. It is open to anyone who has lost a loved one to homicide in Alaska, wherever the family now lives. Families can join by calling Victims for Justice at 907-278-0977.