Walter Tikiun has been staying at the Sullivan Arena since October. This Anchorage hockey arena was turned into an emergency shelter in the start in the outbreak, closed last June and was opened again as a cold-weather emergency shelter in the fall of last year. The shelter is scheduled to close on April 30.
If it happens, Tikiun thinks it’ll be more hazardous for all.
“It’s stressing,” he said. “We’re getting gray hairs all over the place and everywhere, everyone. We don’t know what we’re going to do. We don’t have a strategy.”
He claimed it could be chaos at Sullivan. The shelter is low-barrier and being drunk as well as having a criminal history don’t mean you’re disqualified. He prefers sleeping outdoors on his own.
“That’s our only choice at the moment,” Tikiun said.
There are around around 460 people who reside in the Sullivan Arena, the largest of Anchorage’s winter shelters. Another 140 people stay in hotel rooms set up to be used for winter shelters. The rooms are scheduled to be closed in just two weeks.
A majority of people will be camping out, while Anchorage Assembly members and service agencies plan what’s coming the next step. Homelessness experts predict the number of homeless people outside to increase from 300 at present to as high as 800.
“We could be in for a couple of days of chaos” declared Assembly Member Daniel Volland.
Volland is a representative of North Anchorage, where the Sullivan and a host of other resources are available to those who do not have homes. He has repeatedly demanded to shut down the Sullivan. Its neighbors blame graffiti and littering, pedestrians crossing the street, trespassing, open drug usage, assaults and even deaths in the outdoors to those who visit the shelter.
Volland believes that the shelter needs to close for the duration of Anchorage to be able to participate in the fight against homelessness.
“I believe that Anchorage as an entire will improve as we participate in this discussion and find some answers online and are open to thinking outside the boundaries,” He said.
Instead of a large shelter, he suggested that several smaller, more compact sites within cities would work more beneficial both for clients and neighbourhoods.
“For many years we’ve been focused on the Sullivan,” he said in a panel discussion about shutting down winter shelters during the Tuesday Assembly meeting. “One more month. Just one month. Three months left. Only six months. It’s just another year. How long will this continue to drag out? This is the perfect time to take action. This is the perfect time to reset. It’s going to be difficult.”
Assembly members have said they do not want to repeat the same scenario of the haphazard massive transfer from Sullivan refugees to an risky camping ground the.
The attention of the committee is divided, however, one change that could be made quickly would be to expand the summer outreach and they’ll be voting on it shortly. More outreach is about meeting individuals wherever they are, even if you’re in an outdoor tent along with food, medical attention and hygiene services as well as case workers, and assistance in transportation.
There are some last-minute lease opportunities to rent rooms for those who are the most vulnerable. There’s the possibility of piloting an a small home village of 30 units during the summer. The previously-owned Golden Lion Hotel and Barratt Inn are both currently changing into affordable housing for the poor.
The Assembly is also planning to put up an additional, low-barrier shelter before the winter of next year, to ensure to ensure that Sullivan Arena doesn’t reopen as a shelter for the fourth time.
All of that work could be too late to deal with the momentary possibility that shelters are closing.
Every situation is unique. For some the conditions at Sullivan were more depressing than the cold, so they decided to stay outside.
Alfred Koonaloak has done both and spent the winter with the Sullivan. While he is in a wheelchair – and was injured during a train crash several years ago – he’s relaxed about the next step. He’s hoping to get accommodation for those with disabilities.
“If I don’t receive housing, it’s okay,” he said. “At the very least, I’m alive and doing well through the winter. … There’s been shivering outside for a long time. It’s true that I’ve been forced to get inside due to a brutal, extremely, challenging winter this year and the temperature was well far below freezing.”
Koonaloak expressed gratitude for being able to remain within the Sullivan.
