East 56 shelter will reach 200 beds by Nov. 30, a month earlier than last year

The Anchorage Health Department will add beds at the East 56 shelter every other week, starting next week, until it reaches 200 by Nov. 30, Director Kimberly Rash told the Anchorage Assembly Health and Homelessness Committee on Wednesday. That would bring the city's shelter system to 450 beds, a level Rash said the city plans to hold until people move into housing, detox or recovery.

East 56 and Linda's Place each hold 150 beds now, and the Alex Hotel holds 100. Rash said a code change the Assembly passed at its last meeting lets her department expand to 200 beds at one site without further Assembly approval. Last year, she said, the city did not reach 200 beds until almost the end of December. A September oversight report put the system at 340 beds after a surge opened Sept. 15. On Oct. 6, the Assembly added about $2.2 million to the East 56 and Linda's Place contracts for surge beds, Alaska News reported.

Cathleen McLaughlin of Restorative & Reentry Services, the city's shelter oversight contractor, said outreach workers filled new beds with people from Midtown, then Mountain View, then the Safety Center. "We took 15 people from the Safety Center and 11 have continued to stay in shelter of those 15, and that's been 10 days," she said. The next 10 beds, to be added Monday, will be filled from people attending Homeless Connect, she said.

The Alex Hotel is being used for more intensive case management and for medically vulnerable people discharged from hospitals, McLaughlin said. Some people gathering downtown need shelter but don't want it, and outreach workers need to engage them more aggressively because they may be at higher risk, she said.

Two northeast Anchorage residents spoke during public comment. Jamie Lopez, of East Anchorage, said he was formerly homeless and that people outside still are not getting help. He said the Good Neighbor Fund paid for a room for two stranded people from Utah who were still here a week later, and that the room had roaches. "That is not a trauma-informed experience, uh, that is trauma-induced," he said.

Colette Thibodeau, a Russian Jack resident of nearly 40 years, said homelessness near her home has become "more visible and more desperate" and that people camped there want a sanctioned encampment. She asked the committee to reconsider the idea.

The city has moved away from warming sites, where Rash said fire code requires people to stay awake all night. "We have put funding in the 2027 proposed budget for additional beds in the colder months but we're still working on that right now," Rash said.