Emergency Special Meeting - December 12, 2025

Recording. Yes, thank you. Okay, I now call to order this emergency special meeting at the end of Sunday, December 12th, 2025, on the record from 3:20 to 3:35 PM. Uh, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Member Myers.

Yep. Member McConner. Member Martinez. Present. Member Baldwin-Day.

Right then. Member Johnson. Here. Chair Constant. Here.

Vice Chair Brawley. Here. Member Mullen. Here. Member Silvers.

Member Rivera. Member Gerker. Here. Member Presverdia. Here.

Chair Yovacorn. Thank you. Um, I'm going to go ahead and read us the pledge. I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Yes, Mr.

Chair, a land acknowledgment is a formal statement recognizing the indigenous people of a place. It is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy. It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity. Thank you for just simply I would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Dinah-Apabaskins. For thousands of years, the Dinah have been and continue to be the stewards of this land.

It is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the other people tonight. Thank you. Thank you. We have one item before us today. It's item 4A, Resolution AR2025-398, Resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly to make the expanded capacity of 200 individuals at 1111 East 56th Avenue shelter What's the vote?

Those who agree? Second. Motion to approve by Mr. Brawley, second by Mr. Myers. Turn to the mayor and the administration manager. Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to the members for quickly convening this emergency special meeting. As you all know, it is very cold outside. It is dangerously cold with these weather conditions expected to continue at least through the month. We use the Anchorage Safety Center for first responder drop-offs and from there we move people into beds. The Safety Center as of Wednesday night is at capacity.

We need more shelter beds to move people out of the Safety Center to keep the Safety Center available for first responder drop-offs. Since then, since Wednesday night, we've been working to get 25 beds online at the East 56 shelter. We need to expand the capacity of this emergency shelter as permitted by AMC 16.1 20.020D, and we need your help to do that. I respectfully ask for your support of the resolution before you today, and I will turn to the municipal manager, um, Ms. Becky McPherson, to provide more detail. Thank you, Mayor.

As the mayor noted, we're asking today for an expansion of the permissible capacity at the emergency shelter on East 56th. The resolution you see before you is essentially in form something the body has approved before. It's simply further extends the— expands the health director's ability to expand that capacity. The previous approval, I believe, expired at the end of October, and so we're asking to be able to add up to an additional 50 beds capacity as needed at that East 56th location in order to address what the mayor noted is the extremely dangerous cold conditions that we're dealing with right now. We have representation from police and fire to give you questions about what we're dealing with in terms of trying to move people into safe spaces, and we appreciate your support.

Yeah, thank you. One question, just looking from the bottom of page 1, you mentioned expanding capacity to December 31st, 2026. Obviously that is a longer time frame, so we are back here again anytime soon. At this point, does the administration anticipate having that full capacity through the year, or is this simply to have the ability to do that when needed? Through the chair, um, by Jim Raleigh.

We do not at this point anticipate using the entire 200 beds for the duration of the time here. We're simply asking if the body is willing to approve that flexibility because this is the location where we are able to flex when we have dangerous conditions. We're able to put a few more additional beds in E-56 in a way that we aren't at the other congregate sheltering location we're running at Linden Place. Thank you. I think though prudence would ask that we consider an amendment to that and extend it to January 13th Um, after the regular business meeting.

Oh, 2026. I'm sorry, next year. I'm sorry. Okay, thank you. Yeah, 2 weeks.

Okay, any further discussion? Yeah, um, I mean, I intend to support this. I don't want to see people freezing on the streets, but I feel like it wouldn't be me if I didn't at least raise some concerns about the fact that here we are getting this handed to us just 5 minutes in advance. Without really any meaningful public notice or opportunity for our constituents to weigh in, review this, offer us feelings on this matter. I don't like being put in that position.

I know I've said it before, but I feel like I just have to continue to say that this way of doing business— while I understand that it's just the realities we're operating under— is just not a position I like to be in as somebody who's supposed to be representing my constituency. And I know my colleague from South Anchorage is not here who may have other thoughts on the matter, but I would say he was not really afforded a real opportunity to participate unless he just happened to be available at this time of day. So I hope, you know, I'm just going to say it again, I hope that we can kind of avoid as much as possible doing this in the future because it really puts us in an uncomfortable place. Also, just know that we're talking about extending this all the way through December 31st, 2026. I mean, that's beyond addressing immediate emergency, but I think it really functional change in our posture when it comes to this use of shelter.

And I don't doubt that the need exists, but we do have as a policy— and I remember voting on it— sort of saying that we think 150 is the right size for a shelter. And when we come out and say through resolution, through emergency resolution, wait, now it's 200, that feels like we're changing policy without changing policy. And so I think if practically speaking we think it needs to be 200 for the next year plus then I think we should have a more robust conversation about actually having a real proposal, an ordinance to change the code to say 150 is not the right number anymore, it should be this number. Because I think they did the emergency rationale. I mean, I get where we stand today, but it feels like the longer we stay sort of in that posture, the less credible that argument sounds.

Absolutely. And to Chairman Johnson, very good points. I would say a few things in response. One is We absolutely have talked about that in the process of this. Should we introduce an ordinance that expands that capacity from 1 million to 200?

So you probably expect to see that coming from us soon. So we can have that larger conversation. To the timeline that we set, we put a year in to attempt to avoid exactly what you're talking about, us continuing to come back here asking for the trust of the body to allow the discretionary authority of the Health Department Director to determine when we need to add those beds. Now, that said, the emergency is now in this cold. So if the will of the body is to shorten that time period, to extend it to just this wintertime period or summer something else, um, that's absolutely tenable for what we're asking of the body.

And again, we would leave it to you to discuss that, but that was the rationale. We're trying to avoid coming back during the next cold snap on very short notice asking the same thing. Um, and, uh, the third one I would say is that these are extreme temperatures, which I think would merit— as Mitchell Landrum is saying— I think this would merit, if we needed to, a declaration under 380 to allow the, the— excuse me, that's the other alternative procedurally, is that the mayor could declare a civil emergency to waive disability and allow as many people as you see is discretionary fit to be able to bring into that shelter because of the level of cold. We're dealing with the fact that people will honestly die on the street. And so we could do— we do that route as well.

Procedurally, that means we summon you to a meeting on Sunday to consider the same question. So we did weigh that as well. But I absolutely—. Again, good points understood. And I think we agree that we'd like to continue to try and do business wherever possible with as much advance notice as possible.

English, Chair? I'd like to ask unanimous consent that we set a meeting by 5 minutes Is there any objection? There's no objection, so we're extended to 3:40. Um, further questions? Ms.

Bond. Yeah, I'm going to do just a quick amendment. Move to change on, um, move to amend line page 1, line 36, change the word December to May. Second. Motion to amend by Ms. Trawley, second by Ms. Kirker.

The amendment is to extend, amend from December to May.

Yeah, just right here. I mean, given the conversation we just had, I think this covers us through the winter. It allows for a bigger discussion with the ordinance, and it does not go so far as into next winter, so it seems like a good compromise. Mr. Jones, I'm wondering if perhaps the sponsor's intent was to also change that date on page 2, line 12. Yes, thank you.

Yeah, intended to change, uh, December. I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the adoption of the motion to amend? Am I hearing any objection? Is there any— so the amendment is adopted.

Any further discussion on resolution as amended? I'll just speak briefly. Oh, sorry, Ms. Holliday, go ahead. Thank you. No problem.

I, I just want to be sure that I guess I'm curious, what is, what is the real demand for shelter at this point relative to our current capacity? And is, is 200 beds actually sufficient to meet demand, or are we going to need to contemplate additional capacity beyond 200 beds at E-56? And I think I would like to know that up front as we're contemplating this. That's resolution. Um, through the chair, this is Thea, Andy Van Van's special assistant.

Um, I think the best way to answer that is just to give you some numbers about kind of what we've been seeing this week. So we, you know, have our, our municipally operated shelters that we, we keep full. So, but that doesn't mean that we're not moving people in and out every day. We are, and we're coordinating between those sites. As the mayor mentioned, the safety centers has really stepped up as a first responder drop-off, and we've had— so when we when we're saying we were at Kakosi, that means we had almost 40 people there on Wednesday night.

And so our senses from our outreach teams— the HOPE team has been organizing all of the outreach teams and focusing on people who are sleeping rough, who are most vulnerable. Through that process is when we've been able to kind of get people into the safety center and then get them into shelters. So right now we feel like 25 is a prudent amount. We're also, of course, really shepherding the resources that we have available, so we don't want to go too far, and we'll continue to monitor that. We, with the measures before you, we would potentially be able to go to 50.

That's not our intention right now. Our intention is just to do the 25. So I hope that answers the question. Yeah, thank you. So I just note that I've— uh, Ms. Silvers has had some trouble getting onto the phone line, so I have her on my phone here.

So she joined us at 3:30.

36. I have myself in the queue just to say that it's from, from the kind of perspective of the question of, um, you know, short-term, no notice, got to get this done, and actions that could have been taken. I balanced the interest on that question around, um, the administration could have just acted and then come to us after the fact, which I think is within their purview in some ways if it's done right. And previous administrations really haven't been light on that, but this model is, in my opinion, better, especially as amended. So we tighten the timelines so it's not a full policy change for the next year.

But I do appreciate the intent to come before us while we can before things have happened. Any further discussion? We are— the motion before us is a resolution expanding the capacity of the shelter by 25 through May, and that's as amended. So, um, any further discussion? Seeing here none, Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Member Myers? Yes. Member Martinez?

Yes. Member Baldwin-Day?

Yes. Member Johnson? Yes. Chair Constant? Yes.

Vice Chair Braun? Yes. Member Mullen?

Yes. Member Silvers? Yes. Member Gerker? Yes.

Member Pressburg? Yes. Yes. Chair, that passes 10-0. On a vote of 10-0, AR 2025-398 as amended has passed the body, which takes us to our next.

This is time any member of the public wish to be heard. Any member comments? If no one, I would hear Mr. Johnson. Mr. Berger, Mr. Myers, Ms. Raleigh. Have a good weekend.

On the phone, Ms. Baldigay.

Any comments?

Nothing for me. Thank you. Mr. Roland? No. Thank you, Ms. Martinez.

No, thank you. Ms. Silvers?

No. I'm glad we were able to get you up the road. And with that, then, we'll stand adjourned, go home. We'll see you on Tuesday.

Or wherever you're going. You don't have to say that.