Anchorage’s Recent Sweep Highlights the Inefficiencies of Displacement Without Support
Last month, Anchorage conducted a sweep on a large homeless encampment on Fairbanks Street following numerous complaints from local businesses and residents about public health and safety concerns. Despite these issues, no shelter or housing services were provided, leading the encampment to relocate to Midtown along East 33rd Avenue. Unfortunately, the new location has again faced similar complaints from nearby businesses about the encampment’s impact on public health and safety.
“They just moved the problem down the road,” said Laurie Mapes, owner of Alaska Premier Health. Rod Hancock, founder and majority owner of Moose’s Tooth, shared similar disdain, “What’s the bigger solution? Because if it was Lowes’ and Home Depot’s problem before, now it’s Rock Gym’s and Moose’s Tooth’s problem,” he said. “It’s going to be someone else’s problem if you just take the whack-a-mole approach…”
Frankly, I wonder if these local businesses and residents realize that the city is simply responding to their complaints each time a sweep takes place, further exaggerating the problem.
Businesses claim that the encampments are causing a surge in criminal activity, trespassing, and drug use. But do these businesses and residents understand that labeling homeless people as the problem only makes things worse? When homeless people are displaced and criminalized, it makes it even harder for them to get out of homelessness. This means they stay on the streets longer, leading to more complaints from businesses and residents.
The Challenges of Shelter Availability
While many cities have emergency shelters, most do not have enough beds for every person who is homeless. The same is true in Anchorage. Homeless people turn to tent encampments or tent cities – a place where homeless people can live together in temporary structures while hopefully creating a community of support.
Local governments and communities respond to encampments differently. While some cities sanction and permit encampments, others task local authorities with sweeping them. This process includes evicting the homeless people within the encampment and tearing it down.
Often, sweeps are driven by NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) complaints, where residents and businesses oppose having homeless people, shelters, or sanctioned encampments in their neighborhoods. They express their concerns to local government officials, leading to the removal of encampments.
Each time an encampment is swept, homeless people are forced to leave behind their tents and belongings, losing the little they have, leaving them even more vulnerable. Very rarely are services, shelter, or housing the immediate response to these complaints.
Struggles and Human Cost of Displacement
While the community cries out over the sight of homeless people, those trying to survive in the new encampment at 33rd Avenue struggled with several days of rain. The frustration and struggle of these individuals are palpable, and it’s a stark reminder of the human cost of these sweeps.
“My feet and my clothes, I mean, physically, like from head to foot, I have been wet for three days. I finally am beginning to dry,” said Denali Ketah.
Denali has been homeless in Anchorage for two years. She doesn’t have any other place to stay. “The campsites are full, like, legitimately, they’re full. So there is an overflow of people. The homeless shelters do not have the bed space for the amount of people in the homeless population,” she continued.
Another resident of the homeless encampment, Coulson, 58, said he can’t go to an RV park because he can’t afford it. He fixes bikes in exchange for food, gas, and sometimes a little bit of money. His resourcefulness and resilience in the face of such adversity are truly admirable.
“I messed my back up in a truck wreck,” Coulson said. “I’ve been fighting Social Security for six years to get disability, and they still ain’t giving it to me. So that’s disability for you.”
With his RV, Coulson has been forced to move repeatedly after several different sweeps.
Need for Compassionate Solutions
In April, the Anchorage Assembly discussed creating designated safe parking areas for homeless people living in their vehicles. It’s not enough, but it’s better than constantly relocating people like Coulson after sweeps.
When we take a closer look at the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness, including those in encampments, it becomes evident that sweeps are only a small part of a much larger issue of systemic failure.
Take Coulson, for instance—one of many disabled individuals who find themselves homeless. He’s been living in his RV while battling for Social Security benefits for six years. This struggle is not unique but reflects a broader, troubling reality faced by many homeless people with disabilities. Such challenges should never be commonplace, highlighting the urgent need for more compassionate and effective support systems.
As Denali said, the campsites and shelters are full, and there’s nowhere else to go. That fact alone tells us that so many other underlying issues are at hand. Social, welfare, and homeless services are lacking, and that’s the case everywhere. Beyond that, there’s a lack of affordable housing and livable wages, adding more pressure to an already inefficient shelter system.
As homelessness continues to grow, it’s only logical to conclude that the cause is a nationwide systemic issue. This underscores the urgent need for systemic changes to support homeless individuals and prevent such situations from occurring in the future.
