LaFrance administration aims to set up 24 'microunits' in Anchorage pilot program for homeless
May 26—Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration told members of the Assembly that it hopes to have a new pilot project providing homeless residents substance abuse treatment in a small community of "microunits" by October.
"This could be unrealistic," special assistant to the mayor Thea Agnew Bemben said of the tight timeline. "But we're just gonna give it a whirl."
Bemben detailed the plan to members of the Assembly during a Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting Wednesday.
The goal of the "Microunit Recovery Residences" pilot program, according to Bemben's presentation, is to "create immediate access to transitional living and treatment for people experiencing homelessness with substance use disorders."
To do that, the administration aims to put 24 tiny houses on a piece of municipal land, potentially near the U-Med District in the area of Tudor and Elmore roads.
"These are small structures," Bemben said — around 100 square feet per unit. "Inside you just basically have the basics for one person. So it's a bed, some storage, a fridge, a microwave, a window."
Outside the single-person domiciles are bathrooms and, potentially, on-site showers as well as a communal indoor space.
[Town Square Park, Anchorage's troubled downtown centerpiece, is set for a major overhaul]
The municipality had been studying the idea of using tiny homes as a partial solution to homelessness since 2023, she said, and it was looked at separately by members of the Assembly too. For several months the administration has consulted locally with a similar initiative, In Our Backyard, which as of last year had six small units for seniors set up on the property of a church in Fairview. They also took lessons from different tiny-home projects in Atlanta; Corvallis, Oregon; and elsewhere.
There would be two components: operations and treatment.
In the plan Bemben presented to the Assembly, the Anchorage Community Development Authority would oversee physical components of the pilot. That would mean purchasing or building the tiny homes, developing the selected parcel of land and connecting the site to utilities, including electricity and water.
The Anchorage Community Development Authority is a quasi-governmental municipal entity that traditionally has overseen parking lots, garages and meters but has increasingly helped connect public and private resources for redevelopment projects in the municipality, particularly housing.
Bemben said the administration wants the Assembly to approve a plan to use about half of the $2.4 million the municipality currently has from a legal settlement with opioid manufacturers that it believes can be spent on the program, since it is geared toward people in treatment and recovery from substance abuse. Though the exact amount is still being fine-tuned, Bemben said they think $1.2 million of the settlement passed to the authority will be enough to hire a contractor to construct and install the microunits and get them set up for tenants.
"I just want to double check my math here," said Assembly member Zac Johnson, who represents South Anchorage. "$1.2 million for 24 units to have them built and connected to services, I mean that's about $50,000 a pop —"
"$47,000," Bemben interjected.
"That's pretty good value," Johnson replied.
The second component of the pilot is drug and alcohol treatment as a requirement for eligibility.
"This is designed to be a very low-barrier way of getting people into treatment," Bemben said. "In order to remain there you would have to remain compliant with the program."
The municipality would not be the one funding treatment and operating costs. As early as June 10, the administration could submit a measure to the Assembly that includes a request for $500,000 for startup costs to help a third-party health care provider get a treatment program established in the recovery residences, Bemben said. The Anchorage Health Department will be in charge of selecting a provider that is qualified to charge Medicaid for behavioral health services to residents. Creating a program that can bill the federal health care system will be essential to making it financially sustainable, Bemben said, something they'd learned from looking at treatment provider peers in Wasilla and Fairbanks.
Assembly member Daniel Volland, from the downtown district, asked how standing up a community of two dozen tiny homes compared to the municipality buying an apartment or hotel building to provide shelter and treatment, an approach to homelessness and addiction the municipality has pursued with varying degrees of focus for several years. Bemben told him the city should be working on both.
"The advantage of this is it can be done quickly," she said.
In the ideal timeline, Bemben said, the Assembly will approve funding for the pilot program in June, a contractor will be selected in July, and work begun in August or September so that tenants are able to move in in October, before winter hits. Developing the treatment program with a health care provider would happen simultaneously on a parallel track.
A location for the tiny homes has not been selected, but the prime candidate is a municipal-owned parcel near the Tozier track by the intersection of Tudor and Elmore roads. Bemben said the site had a lot of what the city needs to make it successful and cost effective like paving, fencing and proximity to utilities.
"This one's the most promising so far," she said.
Assembly Chair Chris Constant pointed out that the municipality owns that particular parcel in a land swap that was part of a redevelopment plan that imagined adding more permanent housing, a new Health Department building and a grocery store to the area.
Bemben responded that one of the draws of a pilot program was that if it didn't work, then the microunits could be moved elsewhere or scrapped entirely.
"We have choices after that two-year period," she said.
Erin Baldwin Day, who was elected this spring to represent the area, told Bemben that neighborhoods around that land have had a lot of experience with homeless encampments in the area. She asked the administration, if the parcel is ultimately selected, to commit to holding town halls or community listening sessions to inform residents of the plan and build support for it.
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