Building to the right is APD's old headquarters and to the left is a 3D rendering of the location for the proposed shelter. Tudor runs along the bottom of the image. Image courtesy of presentation by Felix Rivera.
In a 6-4 vote, the Anchorage Assembly approved $6.2 million on May 10 to build a navigation center and low-barrier homeless shelter.
The 150-person shelter, with an additional 50-person surge capacity, is slated to be erected on the South-East corner of Tudor and Elmore.
This will put it in close proximity to UAA.
As with the shelter stood up in the Sullivan Arena, the building’s presence will probably bring an increased number of homeless people to the surrounding area.
Director of Residence Life Ryan Hill said in an interview that there are higher instances of crime among homeless populations, so an increase in the number of homeless people near campus is concerning.
He also said that this can present an opportunity to educate students on homelessness and remove perceived stigmas around it.
The current plan by the city calls for a rigged-tent structure to be built and ready for service by the end of summer. These details were shared in a presentation by assembly member Felix Rivera.
Walking over the green footbridge that spans Tudor, heading away from campus, the building will be located to the left of the old APD headquarters, on a parking lot used by APD to store vehicles for evidence.
It will be especially close to the dorms with Templewood being the nearest residential structure to the shelter – roughly 1,500 feet away as the crow flies – according to Google Maps.
The new shelter will have half the capacity of the Sullivan, which is set to end operations as a shelter on June 30 in order to return to hosting community events.
Spending a few hours around the Sullivan, a noticeable feature was in the number of homeless people transiting to and from the stadium at a steady rate through the connecting roads, neighborhoods and trails.
There were typically some people coming up from, or heading down to, the Chester Creek Trail every 3-5 minutes.
Outside the Sullivan were around a couple dozen people hanging around, and there were a few instances when people would yell or start to get rowdy.
Walking along the Chester Creek Trail, in the section between New Seward Highway and C Street alone there were 13 personal shelters spotted from the trail.
According to an article by Alaska’s News Source, some residents close to the Sullivan – who had themselves transitioned through the facility to their current home – spoke about problems with vandalism coming, presumably, from people drawn to the area because of the shelter.
Hill spoke about his current experiences with homeless people near and around the dorms.
He said that despite the high number of homeless people in the areas surrounding campus, they have had remarkably low numbers of issues related to them.
He said some of their success comes from the existence of security cameras, lighting, patrols by RAs and excellent response time by UPD.
They still have had challenges, Hill said, regarding non-residences in the spaces and facilities by the dorms.
Even though the residence halls are secured, there have been instances when nonguests have tried to piggyback their way into the building.
Also, many of the buildings on campus, including the Gorsuch Commons, are public spaces and therefore open to the general population. Unless someone is causing a disturbance, according to the law they cannot kick people out.
The fact that dorm residences have a set of rules that must be abided by, and nonresidence don’t, can make it difficult to check behavior, said Hill, though most problems have come from guests invited by people living on campus.
Also, if students are ever confronted with a threatening situation, Hill said “if a student feels unsafe, call university police or a resident life person.”
On the flip side, Hill said the shelter may raise opportunities to educate students on homelessness and help them understand that someone may be homeless because of a number of different causes.
There may even be chances for work experience for students in the social work field at the shelter.
Hill said he has a real concern about issues related to student conduct toward homeless people, worrying about “harmful misconceptions leading to rash decisions being made.”
This would feed into the need to educate students on homelessness and try to humanize the homeless population, he said.
Another thing Hill spoke of was the public reporting on crime mandated by the Clery Act.
He said even if there is not an increase in incidents related to homeless people on campus, an increase in the surrounding area may, by virtue of the reporting requirements, make it appear there is a problem on campus, and lead to a negative public perception.
On the other hand, if there is an increase in problems related to the shelter on campus Hill said he will be able to come up with solutions and work with UPD to address the issues. Similar actions were taken several years ago when Anchorage was experiencing an increase in auto theft, which incidentally is where a few of the current security measures in the dorms came from.
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