
Thea Agnew-Benben
69:09 - 69:42
"Right now, our shelter providers are reporting, like, this was just a couple weekends ago, 85 turnaways. Those are duplicated, so I think you could say if somebody tried our two congregate shelters, maybe 40 turnaways, but that's quite a lot in early May."
“Right now, our shelter providers are reporting, like, this was just a couple weekends ago, 85 turnaways. Those are duplicated, so I think you could say if somebody tried our two congregate shelters, maybe 40 turnaways, but that's quite a lot in early May.”
Right now, our shelter providers are reporting, like, this was just a couple weekends ago, 85 turnaways. Those are duplicated, so I think you could say if somebody tried our two congregate shelters, maybe 40 turnaways, but that's quite a lot in early May. I think combined with what Jessica shared earlier about how people now know how to get to shelter. I'd say our demand for shelter and our acceptance of it is growing, which I think is a good thing. We don't have a good way of deduplicating those turnaways yet, so just so you know, that's duplicated data.
The Anchorage Assembly's Housing and Homelessness Committee heard Sunday that the 2026 Point-in-Time Count recorded 291 people sleeping outside, a 28% decline from 2025, while municipal shelters operated at 100% capacity and administration officials estimated the need for 100 additional year-round beds at an annual cost of $2.45 million.
