Re: Record homeless deaths in Anchorage increases as major winter storm drops more than 2 feet of snow

[Save Alaska, burn a Democrat]

On 11 Mar 2020, Dave <Dave...@kremlin.ru> posted some
news:XnsAB7D53E60...@178.63.61.145:

> Send that whore Kamala Harris up there to warm the place up.

Four homeless people have died in Anchorage in the last week, underscoring
the city's ongoing struggle to house a large homeless population at the
same time winter weather has returned, with more than 2 feet of snow
falling within 48 hours.

The four bring the total number of people who died while living outdoors
in Anchorage to 49 year this year, a record that easily eclipses the 24
people who died on the streets of the state's largest city last year,
according to a count kept by the Anchorage Daily News.

Eleven of those deaths last year came during winter months.

This week's heavy snow covered tents and vehicles that homeless people set
up in makeshift camps all over Anchorage when the city closed the mass
shelter that was established inside the city's sports arena during the
pandemic.

While the city cleared at least one of those large camps, some people have
decided to rough it outside this winter instead of seeking shelter.

Of the four recent deaths, a sleeping woman died Thursday after her
makeshift shelter caught on fire, possibly caused by some type of heating
source used to warm it.

The three other deaths were all men. One was found dead in the doorway of
a downtown gift store where he often slept. Another died alongside a busy
road near a Walmart, and the third in a tent at an encampment near the
city's main library.

Since there were shelter beds available when each person died, other
factors may have been at play, including lack of transportation or access
to health care, confusion on how to get a shelter bed or onto a wait list,
or refusal to go to a shelter, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness
said in a statement.

"Ensuring that unsheltered people have access to health care providers,
Narcan, fentanyl test strips, harm reduction counseling, and behavioral
health treatment are the effective interventions needed to reduce outdoor
deaths," the statement said.

"It makes you wonder what could we have done better to prevent that from
happening," Felix Rivera, an Anchorage Assembly member who chairs the
Housing and Homeless Committee, said of the four deaths.

The city has pieced together a short-term fix with added temporary shelter
beds, but the only way to prevent more deaths is by building more housing,
he said.

"We're going to do what we need to do to make sure that folks aren't dying
outside, but if we're not focusing on the permanent solution, then a Band-
Aid is going to be worse," he said. "We're going to run out of funds at
some point to be able to continue doing these kind of things."

Anchorage has struggled to find a solution to house the homeless after the
arena closed.

The city's conservative mayor and liberal assembly couldn't agree on a new
mass shelter, leaving Mayor Dave Bronson to suggest the city give out one-
way airplane tickets to the homeless to leave the city — an idea that was
widely criticized in and outside Alaska.

That plan was never funded, leaving the city scrambling to find shelter at
old hotels and apartment buildings. Late last month, Anchorage opened a
new 150-bed mass shelter at the city's old waste transfer station
administration building.

Alexis Johnson, the city's homeless director, told The Associated Press at
the time the patchwork solution should provide enough beds for the city's
3,100 or so vulnerable population.

There were 28 beds open at one facility on Friday, but those would likely
be taken before the weekend was out, Rivera said.

The Bronson administration will present plans at an Assembly meeting next
week to add 50 beds to that facility, which Rivera called a welcome move.
He also anticipates the administration possibly presenting plans for
warming centers and an additional shelter, if necessary.

City buses didn't run Thursday or Friday because of the heavy snow, taking
away an easy warming place for the homeless, Rivera said. It also
prevented many low-income people from being able to travel to shelters or
other social service programs.

During this week's storm, the temperatures haven't been bone-chilling,
hovering around the 30-degree F (-1-degree C) mark, but that will soon
change. The forecast calls for single-digit temperatures next weekend.

This week's storm dropped 17.2 inches of snow at the city's official
recording station, the National Weather Service office near the airport
and coastline. However, other parts of Anchorage, especially those closer
to the Chugach Mountains on the other side of town, recorded up to 30
inches.

The snowfall broke two daily records. The 9 inches on Wednesday broke the
record of 7.3 inches set in 1982, and the 8.2 inches that fell Thursday
broke the record of 7.1 inches set in 1956, said National Weather Service
meteorologist Nicole Sprinkles.

The community of Girdwood, located about 35 miles south of Anchorage and
home to a ski resort, topped out at 3 feet.

The Anchorage total was on top of about 6 inches that fell Sunday.

The storm caused widespread power outages, forced schools to either cancel
classes or switch to remote learning and prompted some highway closures.

In 2022, a storm in western Alaska caused debris to be flung by powerful
Bering Sea waves into beaches and seaside communities.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anchorage-homeless-deaths-winter-storm/