Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced the basics of his plan to end homelessness at a press conference at Sitka Place.
Anchorage’s new homelessness action plan aims to provide 300 permanent housing units in the next three years for adults who are living on the street and in camps.
Anchorage’s Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced the plan Tuesday. He said the first step is coordinating with resource providers, landlords, and people who need housing to find and fill available units across the city and eventually to build more. The effort will mirror successful plans from places like Utah. It includes a list of names of individuals to make sure people are getting the help they need. Berkowitz said that list also humanizes the problem.
This is not the first plan to end homelessness in Anchorage, but Mental Health Trust Authority CEO Jeff Jessee said this one is different.
“Plans are no better than the people charged with carrying them out,” Jessee said. “And perhaps the most important thing about this effort is the leadership the municipality is showing in pulling together the funders, the providers, and as the mayor says, the entire community to find ways to address this issue.”
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