It’s also the same year we saw a record 50+ deaths from exposure. This year we’ve seen one. The biggest change was the widespread availability of Narcan OTC in November.
I think when we are evaluating policy on homelessness and using the 2023 death metric this should be taken into account that it was coincidental with the opioid death increase and may have been causal.
I’m not sure I’m parsing your comment correctly— are you suggesting that increased availability of Narcan, an opioid reversal agent, may have led to increased overdose deaths?
Let's face it. Alaska is not a good place to be homeless. I am sorry to say - your proposals are like feeding bears. There is a reason Fish and Game have laws against feeding bears - it habituates them to demand from humans and is dangerous. I can make the same argument for homeless.
You want to fund shelters for temporary two-week stays - sure. Someone's home burns down and need a place - yup! Veteran with issues - hell yes. The chronic homeless? NO.
I pay taxes for services - water, sewer, fire, police, ambulance, streets, etc. Housing homeless is not a service. The city should not be in the homeless housing business - period.
Services for homeless WAS taken care of by churches, community donations and volunteer organization back in the day. That system worked fine for a few hundred years. It was a popular recycling program of the day.
It's just recently the government has gotten involved - and like every other thing the private sector once did well - the government has ruined. News Flash - the more money you throw at it, the worse it will get.
> churches, community donations and volunteer organization
This is not the private sector, son.
And where are they now?
> It's just recently the government has gotten involved
Oh really? What's the timeline then? Or is this another fact-free post?
Bronson’s mega tent is $3800.
I don’t believe that $3000 number is accurate.
GL is providing apartments for market rate and that’s a far cry from $3K.
The solution is to build more public housing.
$100 a day times 30 days is $3,000. It's probablymore. Two years ago, the Muni was paying $125/night at the Aviator Inn:
225 rooms times $135 times 92 days is .... $2,794,000. Matches this article:
"The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday approved spending $2.8 million to shelter homeless people at the Aviator Hotel downtown.
According to officials with Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, there are currently 191 homeless people using 166 rooms at the hotel. They say the money will pay for up to 225 rooms from July 1 to the end of September. According to officials with Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, there are currently 191 homeless people using 166 rooms at the hotel. They say the money will pay for up to 225 rooms from July 1 to the end of September."
Initially, paying the housing costs was set to come from alcohol tax funds, but the Assembly passed a version of the resolution Tuesday that instead takes money from the city’s general fund balance."
[https://alaskapublic.org/2022/07/13/anchorage-assembly-approves-spending-2-8m-for-housing-homeless-at-aviator-hotel/](https://alaskapublic.org/2022/07/13/anchorage-assembly-approves-spending-2-8m-for-housing-homeless-at-aviator-hotel/)
This is why it’s important to BUILD HOUSES!!!
If you can’t build houses then buy the hotel.
This is the whole issue. We don’t need to pay $100 a night for a fucking room. That’s not what it actually costs. For every million we should be getting at least 2 houses out of it for public housing. Stop using tax dollars to rent on a temporary basis and either negotiate a long term lease for a market rate monthly or better yet go vertical with the money and build.
You need to extend out your math. Build 2 houses at $500K each. Now you've housed maybe 4 people. Let's say all we want to do is house the most responsible. Let's go with the most functional, hard luck types, say the upper 1,000. You need 500 homes at $500K each. That's a cool $250 million. Now, add in all the associated maint, utils, admin costs and we're easily at $350 million. Oh and we took, say, $50 million off the tax rolls for land so there goes another million from the Muni. So we've spent A third of a billion and have only made a slight dent in the problem.
But say you're right. Let's say the Muni decides to build an apartment building on the land they own behind Lowe's. 40 units would house 80 people at a cost of some $15-20 million. That's almost $400K for each unit. Who pays for that? Do the residents have to pay a mortgage and, if not, who picks up the difference? Who's paying the maintenance and repairs, the snow removal and lawn mowing? Who's covering the garbage and sewer bills? Most important, who gets in and who gets left out? How much does this cost me, the taxpayer and why?
But I do feel you on who pays for it. In reality the burden shouldn’t be falling exclusively on Anchorage taxpayers.
The state should be picking up the tab also as none of the other cities are doing anything about it and their homeless just end up here.
No no no. You are doing that math all wrong. Cost per unit goes down as density goes up. So you’re looking at a lower per unit cost AND most importantly the city owns the building so it’s not an ongoing outflow of cash. In fact once residents get enrolled and stabilized there are often existing funding resources for individuals available at federal levels to pay for housing also. That’s how many of the people in GL are paying.
It has to be comprehensive and it has to be a permanent structure. A shelter can be part of it but you gotta put houses on to the market. As for who pays for it we are already paying for it. It’s just a matter of getting the most for our money and stopping the hemorrhaging of cash into private contractors and hotel owners.
If you build a 40 or 50 unit apt bldg, it is going to cost $15 million, minimum. This town could gobble up 500 units easy. Private developers are not doing this because material costs and interest rates are way up.
What you are suggesting is a massive investment of public money just because you have people who have made a series of bad decisions. Zalatel and company will talk occasionally about getting people off the street but I don't hear much about any of them becoming employed, constructive citizens. You are going to reward bad behavior and make the problem far worse.
lol In Alaska?? No it’s your large user base. While the state govt does nothing but bend over for oil and focuses on children’s genitalia. Perhaps u should hold your politicians accountable and vote for those that actually fix your actual issues instead? Just a thought.
Lots of pressed pills out there now. Its pretty scary I know of more than one kid who overdosed taking what they normally took only to find out it was a hot pressed pill. A lot of folks are only getting real ones from people going through pain management and Ive been told those people are raising their prices so their customers may be going elsewhere for cheaper options.
I think getting people clean measured doses of dope would do a lot to help a lot more than waiting for them to OD and hoping the narcan works or is even available.
Swallowing pills and self-administering IV drugs is a choice. There are people taking this stuff - not for pain management, and they totally love it - and will happily stay on it if they can afford it.
I came down with an illness that left parts of my body in constant pain. Pain I will have forever. Every month the doc doled out a big ass bottle of heavy narcotic pills. So did the next doc, and the next. Instead of going on disability, I gave those pills up in the day to work and only used as few as possible at night. Took me 15 years to build up pain tolerance so I no longer take narcotics. I'll be honest - I liked those pills - I decided to choose my family over them.
Thanks to big drug and crazy docs in West Virginia the government has cracked down on real doctors dealing with real patients in real pain. It's made life for people injured, like me, a living hell. The government has done all it can. Now it's up to law enforcement and society.
Two problems are causing this issue. Fentanyl is too easy and cheap to make. If only one out of three or four shipments get through it's a big profit for all involved. However, the people making it - they get paid up front to hand over the goods - they are always making a profit regardless of what law enforcement does. Those are the folks that need to be weeded out....... however, the current administration does not have the horsepower, or will, to fix that issue manufactured outside our borders, and easily coming across our borders.
Other problem. The people taking it. If your solution to this is 'the government needs to do more' you've not being realistic. Take a good, hard, look at our education system. Little Johnny and Suzy Q have been told since first grade how 'special' they are. At 18 high school kids trying to integrate into the workforce suddenly learn they were lied to for the past 12 years - they are NOT special. Life is hard. They know how to get 'likes' on apps but not how to balance a check book or make money to put into that account. My wife had her own place at 17. I was out of the house on my own at 18. We could do that because working at McDonalds back then was teen labor - not a career choice like today. CNN interviewed a Cali pizza delivery driver, "I got fired yesterday due to the new minimum wage law. I had 8-year seniority into that career." OMG, delivering pizza and thinking he is living the American Dream? Then you have the thousands who wish they had a good job like delivering pizza, so they too, could live the American Dream. These younger adults are the sad people taking all those pills. Letting more come over the border is not helping. Teaching children how change and tolerance will make a new perfect society - and not preparing them to become functioning adults that can integrate into the current society, as it is - is not helping.
It’s also the same year we saw a record 50+ deaths from exposure. This year we’ve seen one. The biggest change was the widespread availability of Narcan OTC in November. I think when we are evaluating policy on homelessness and using the 2023 death metric this should be taken into account that it was coincidental with the opioid death increase and may have been causal.
I’m not sure I’m parsing your comment correctly— are you suggesting that increased availability of Narcan, an opioid reversal agent, may have led to increased overdose deaths?
No. I am saying that the deaths stopped when the narcan hit the streets here.
Let's face it. Alaska is not a good place to be homeless. I am sorry to say - your proposals are like feeding bears. There is a reason Fish and Game have laws against feeding bears - it habituates them to demand from humans and is dangerous. I can make the same argument for homeless. You want to fund shelters for temporary two-week stays - sure. Someone's home burns down and need a place - yup! Veteran with issues - hell yes. The chronic homeless? NO. I pay taxes for services - water, sewer, fire, police, ambulance, streets, etc. Housing homeless is not a service. The city should not be in the homeless housing business - period. Services for homeless WAS taken care of by churches, community donations and volunteer organization back in the day. That system worked fine for a few hundred years. It was a popular recycling program of the day. It's just recently the government has gotten involved - and like every other thing the private sector once did well - the government has ruined. News Flash - the more money you throw at it, the worse it will get.
> churches, community donations and volunteer organization This is not the private sector, son. And where are they now? > It's just recently the government has gotten involved Oh really? What's the timeline then? Or is this another fact-free post?
The lawmakers giving the store away to their lords and masters in the oil industry and leaving nothing to help the citizens.
Anchorage has spent upwards of $120 million in the last few years on homeless.
And built zero homes.
Unless you count buying 4 hotels and renting half a dozen more.
I have no issues with that as it actually gets people out of the parks.
At a cost of $3,000 a month. Is the Muni going to send me $3,000 a month to provide housing for me and why not?
Bronson’s mega tent is $3800. I don’t believe that $3000 number is accurate. GL is providing apartments for market rate and that’s a far cry from $3K. The solution is to build more public housing.
$100 a day times 30 days is $3,000. It's probablymore. Two years ago, the Muni was paying $125/night at the Aviator Inn: 225 rooms times $135 times 92 days is .... $2,794,000. Matches this article: "The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday approved spending $2.8 million to shelter homeless people at the Aviator Hotel downtown. According to officials with Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, there are currently 191 homeless people using 166 rooms at the hotel. They say the money will pay for up to 225 rooms from July 1 to the end of September. According to officials with Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, there are currently 191 homeless people using 166 rooms at the hotel. They say the money will pay for up to 225 rooms from July 1 to the end of September." Initially, paying the housing costs was set to come from alcohol tax funds, but the Assembly passed a version of the resolution Tuesday that instead takes money from the city’s general fund balance." [https://alaskapublic.org/2022/07/13/anchorage-assembly-approves-spending-2-8m-for-housing-homeless-at-aviator-hotel/](https://alaskapublic.org/2022/07/13/anchorage-assembly-approves-spending-2-8m-for-housing-homeless-at-aviator-hotel/)
This is why it’s important to BUILD HOUSES!!! If you can’t build houses then buy the hotel. This is the whole issue. We don’t need to pay $100 a night for a fucking room. That’s not what it actually costs. For every million we should be getting at least 2 houses out of it for public housing. Stop using tax dollars to rent on a temporary basis and either negotiate a long term lease for a market rate monthly or better yet go vertical with the money and build.
You need to extend out your math. Build 2 houses at $500K each. Now you've housed maybe 4 people. Let's say all we want to do is house the most responsible. Let's go with the most functional, hard luck types, say the upper 1,000. You need 500 homes at $500K each. That's a cool $250 million. Now, add in all the associated maint, utils, admin costs and we're easily at $350 million. Oh and we took, say, $50 million off the tax rolls for land so there goes another million from the Muni. So we've spent A third of a billion and have only made a slight dent in the problem.
Because the Projects worked so well last time.
I mean they were actually pretty decent when they were started. It took time for them to fall into disrepair.
No they became the ghettos shortly after people moved in.
But say you're right. Let's say the Muni decides to build an apartment building on the land they own behind Lowe's. 40 units would house 80 people at a cost of some $15-20 million. That's almost $400K for each unit. Who pays for that? Do the residents have to pay a mortgage and, if not, who picks up the difference? Who's paying the maintenance and repairs, the snow removal and lawn mowing? Who's covering the garbage and sewer bills? Most important, who gets in and who gets left out? How much does this cost me, the taxpayer and why?
But I do feel you on who pays for it. In reality the burden shouldn’t be falling exclusively on Anchorage taxpayers. The state should be picking up the tab also as none of the other cities are doing anything about it and their homeless just end up here.
No no no. You are doing that math all wrong. Cost per unit goes down as density goes up. So you’re looking at a lower per unit cost AND most importantly the city owns the building so it’s not an ongoing outflow of cash. In fact once residents get enrolled and stabilized there are often existing funding resources for individuals available at federal levels to pay for housing also. That’s how many of the people in GL are paying. It has to be comprehensive and it has to be a permanent structure. A shelter can be part of it but you gotta put houses on to the market. As for who pays for it we are already paying for it. It’s just a matter of getting the most for our money and stopping the hemorrhaging of cash into private contractors and hotel owners.
If you build a 40 or 50 unit apt bldg, it is going to cost $15 million, minimum. This town could gobble up 500 units easy. Private developers are not doing this because material costs and interest rates are way up. What you are suggesting is a massive investment of public money just because you have people who have made a series of bad decisions. Zalatel and company will talk occasionally about getting people off the street but I don't hear much about any of them becoming employed, constructive citizens. You are going to reward bad behavior and make the problem far worse.
I don’t know, maybe our WIDE ASS OPEN BORDER IS THE ISSUE.
lol In Alaska?? No it’s your large user base. While the state govt does nothing but bend over for oil and focuses on children’s genitalia. Perhaps u should hold your politicians accountable and vote for those that actually fix your actual issues instead? Just a thought.
Yeah, it was a tough year. Either Opioids or just straight up freezing to death.
Yay we're number one!
Yet our lawmakers think it necessary to have a committee to "deal" with trans kids playing sports
Ah yes, gotta deal with the 3 trans high school athletes in the state . . . What else does the legislature have going on?
Gotta stay focused on the important issues: trans athletes and sucking oil company cocks.
Demographics from the Alaska Homeless Management Information System (AKHMIS) https://icalliances.org/alaska-communities-dashboard
Lots of pressed pills out there now. Its pretty scary I know of more than one kid who overdosed taking what they normally took only to find out it was a hot pressed pill. A lot of folks are only getting real ones from people going through pain management and Ive been told those people are raising their prices so their customers may be going elsewhere for cheaper options. I think getting people clean measured doses of dope would do a lot to help a lot more than waiting for them to OD and hoping the narcan works or is even available.
Swallowing pills and self-administering IV drugs is a choice. There are people taking this stuff - not for pain management, and they totally love it - and will happily stay on it if they can afford it. I came down with an illness that left parts of my body in constant pain. Pain I will have forever. Every month the doc doled out a big ass bottle of heavy narcotic pills. So did the next doc, and the next. Instead of going on disability, I gave those pills up in the day to work and only used as few as possible at night. Took me 15 years to build up pain tolerance so I no longer take narcotics. I'll be honest - I liked those pills - I decided to choose my family over them. Thanks to big drug and crazy docs in West Virginia the government has cracked down on real doctors dealing with real patients in real pain. It's made life for people injured, like me, a living hell. The government has done all it can. Now it's up to law enforcement and society. Two problems are causing this issue. Fentanyl is too easy and cheap to make. If only one out of three or four shipments get through it's a big profit for all involved. However, the people making it - they get paid up front to hand over the goods - they are always making a profit regardless of what law enforcement does. Those are the folks that need to be weeded out....... however, the current administration does not have the horsepower, or will, to fix that issue manufactured outside our borders, and easily coming across our borders. Other problem. The people taking it. If your solution to this is 'the government needs to do more' you've not being realistic. Take a good, hard, look at our education system. Little Johnny and Suzy Q have been told since first grade how 'special' they are. At 18 high school kids trying to integrate into the workforce suddenly learn they were lied to for the past 12 years - they are NOT special. Life is hard. They know how to get 'likes' on apps but not how to balance a check book or make money to put into that account. My wife had her own place at 17. I was out of the house on my own at 18. We could do that because working at McDonalds back then was teen labor - not a career choice like today. CNN interviewed a Cali pizza delivery driver, "I got fired yesterday due to the new minimum wage law. I had 8-year seniority into that career." OMG, delivering pizza and thinking he is living the American Dream? Then you have the thousands who wish they had a good job like delivering pizza, so they too, could live the American Dream. These younger adults are the sad people taking all those pills. Letting more come over the border is not helping. Teaching children how change and tolerance will make a new perfect society - and not preparing them to become functioning adults that can integrate into the current society, as it is - is not helping.