An Anchorage Assembly committee is encouraging Mayor Bronson to reopen Sullivan Arena as a shelter this winter for up to 150 homeless people, fewer than it held during the COVID 19 pandemic.
The Anchorage Assembly’s committee on homelessness is encouraging Mayor Dave Bronson to reopen Sullivan Arena as a shelter this winter for up to 150 people — the same facility the city used as a COVID-19 mass homeless shelter for more than two years, until the Bronson administration shuttered it in June.
How the city ultimately proceeds with winter shelter is not just a decision of the Assembly or its homelessness committee. The responsibility for implementing winter shelter plans and power to open shelter in a municipal facility rests with Bronson and his administration, while the Assembly has the power to allocate funding for those plans.
• Sullivan Arena would be a walk-in, low-barrier shelter for up to 150 people, likely with a warming tent outside. It’s much smaller than the COVID-19-era mass shelter, which at times sheltered 500 people a night. This is the most expensive part of the committee’s plan at an estimated $1.4 million for operations from October through December.
Assembly committee members and school board members broadly agreed with the concerns, given the arena’s proximity to West High and Romig Middle schools and its use as a youth hockey facility. “In regards to all of these options, I think the most important thing is for the administration to listen to the public on all of these options, because we know that there’s going to be — we’ve seen that there’s controversy on some of these things. There may not be on others, but I think it’s a little bit premature for us to say yes or no,” Adam Trombley, Bronson’s chief of staff, said.
In response to an inquiry in August from the mayor’s office about the project and its potential impact on the Golden Lion, Alaska Department of Transportation officials sent a letter to the city this month, according to a spokesman for the department. He also told members that while the campground will be officially closed at the end of the month, because of a federal court ruling, the city likely can’t clear people from it if there is no shelter alternative.
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