National Guard needed to clean up Anchorage homeless camps, city officials say

Anchorage officials have requested the Alaska National Guard’s help to clean up the city’s homeless camps as the snow melts and the coronavirus pandemic continues. The city’s camp abatement process is set to resume on May 1.

At a work session of the Anchorage Assembly on Monday, the city’s housing and homeless services coordinator, Nancy Burke, outlined how the federal CARES Act appropriated $1.4 billion for National Guard deployments to support states and local governments in responding to coronavirus. If approved by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, National Guard soldiers could assist city Parks and Recreation staff in cleaning up trash and human waste in the city’s urban camps.

The help would be timely since many city employees and homeless outreach workers are hunkered down or redeployed because of the coronavirus. The police would still abate the camps after issuing adequate notice but the National Guard could assist with cleanup, Burke said.

Assembly member Forrest Dunbar urged caution. The East Anchorage representative said if the plan is to have “uniformed soldiers breaking down tents and throwing them into dumpsters I think the administration might want to consider that or think hard very hard before we go down that road.”

Read more: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2020/04/13/national-guard-needed-to-clean-up-anchorage-homeless-camps-city-officials-say/
(Anchorage Daily News)