Homeless Response Commission Meeting Summary - December 12, 2025
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Homeless Response Commission Meeting Summary - December 12, 2025
The Homeless Response Commission convened to review agency updates, approve agenda changes, and discuss the coordination of basic needs services. The meeting featured presentations from the Mayor's Office and Housing & Homelessness regarding shelter capacity, the housing rehabilitation fund, and the multi-disciplinary outreach team. A significant portion of the session was dedicated to a public testimony advocating for policy changes regarding law enforcement involvement in outreach and the establishment of sanctioned camps. The commission agreed to defer detailed deliberation on the coordination of faith community resources to a future meeting to allow for constituent consultation.
Consent Calendar
- The agenda was approved following a motion to postpone Item F2B (Mayor's Office guidance on basic needs services) to the next meeting due to a recusal issue and scheduling constraints.
- The monthly minutes were approved with a note that future recordings of public comments will only reference the fact that a comment was made, with the full detail preserved in the audio recording.
- A new standing agenda item for "Disclosure of Interest" was added to comply with new Municipal Assembly Ordinance requirements regarding financial or personal gain.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Speaker advocating for policy shift: A member of the public expressed strong opposition to the current policy of attaching outreach programs to law enforcement. The speaker stated that this approach traumatizes individuals and prevents access to services. They argued that the commission should hire staff who are not perceived as threats (e.g., fire department or non-uniformed personnel) to build trust. The speaker expressed full support for sanctioned camps to provide warming, food, and sanitation, noting that decentralizing people into the city without designated areas has made outreach ineffective. They also raised concerns about the lack of trash collection in specific areas and the application of rigid shelter rules (e.g., curfews) that conflict with the needs of individuals with trauma histories.
- Commissioner inquiry on shelter rules: Following the testimony, a commissioner sought clarification on whether rules applied to public encampments differ from those in congregate shelters, highlighting the disparity in consequences for rule violations.
Discussion Items
- Basic Needs Coordination (Item F2B): The Mayor's office requested guidance on channeling resources from faith communities and individuals seeking to provide food, clothing, and other basic needs. Staff noted that while organizations like the Coalition and Third Avenue Beans are active, there is a disconnect in reaching those who do not frequent those locations. The Mayor's office highlighted the need to connect resources with distributed needs without creating unintended consequences (e.g., gathering spots for drug dealing or violence). The commission deferred the vote to the next month to allow for constituent consultation and further discussion with the mayor's office.
- Shelter and Housing Updates:
- Bed Capacity: Staff reported that surge beds are active at East 56th, Linda's Place, and Alex (The Anchor), totaling 400 beds. As of the previous night, all beds were full.
- Safe Parking: The Safe Parking application is live, with the season opening in April. Commissioners suggested that the 24-hour operation recommendation from a previous resolution be considered in site development.
- Emergency Rental Assistance: The program served 786 households, exceeding the target of 600. Grant agreements for 2025 funding with HUD are pending signature due to a nationwide freeze on new grant agreements.
- Housing Rehabilitation Fund: A new fund with approximately $500,000 in allocated seed money is planned to support homeowner repairs and small-scale landlord loans. The program is expected to launch in Spring 2026 following a 30-day public comment period and Assembly approval.
- CORE Values Suggestion: A staff member suggested the commission develop a set of "core values" or working agreements to guide dialogue, distinct from formal rules and procedures. Commissioners expressed interest in discussing this concept separately in a future session, potentially later in January or February, rather than embedding it in the current rules document.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Postpone: The commission voted unanimously to postpone Item F2B regarding basic needs services guidance to the next meeting.
- Agenda Approval: The revised agenda was approved after reopening the vote.
- Action for Next Month: The Mayor's office is directed to facilitate a discussion on the current barriers to connecting community resources with those in need, specifically for a dedicated work session in the next meeting.
- Committee Service: Commissioners were invited to serve on the review committee for the upcoming competitive RFP for supportive services aimed at moving people from homelessness into housing.
Meeting Transcript
405 recording has started and the recording has started excellent um for the December 3rd and Commission meeting again thank you all for being here we will start with a roll call um hi everyone my name is David Murray and I am uh the major right friends my name is Laura Ray and then I have a commissioner Johnson from the journey Shaine Williams Commissioner Michelle Baker Commissioner Oh back to Story uh basically uh Gendral A staff making results uh Lionel Cameron Health Department choose for the department Kyle Melkey staff Frankie Dahl and the um commission staffer one more person join us in your commission and then online we have Maria won't bother anyone's online Marie you want to introduce yourself Maria Owens with public transportation I see Jessica uh Jessica Parks uh Commissioner and I see Abe Nine Star glad to be here uh I see Thea Hey everybody Thea with the mayor's office and I see Abigail hi I'm Abigail I'm with the disability law center of Alaska and I see Bella Bella you want to introduce yourself near I think it's an ADN okay um I see Julie uh yes Julie Commissioner and I see Kimberly Hian's David Kimberly with um Anchor Tel Department and we have one more join us in a row uh Jamie so I think here um so with that we'll move on to the approval of the order of business and I get a motion to approve the agenda from Michelle second so Dr. Johnson only discussion addition subtraction move stuff around thank you for putting it together again Frankie any opposition to approving the agenda um as it says don't want twice okay seeing and hearing none the agenda is approved moving on to the approval of minutes from last month um can I get a motion to approve please I have a motion motion approved from Laura and a second second today okay take a moment uh through them once again thank you Frankie for putting together pleasure any edits or adjustments to the minutes is written all at once who do you have a minute to the minute I don't know what it's offered but I I guess that it's papered over in such a way it says um uh you can always provide a public comment about the structure of public comment at commission emergency response I guess mainly that I was saying was that uh the level being offered there's a disparity and so I was talking about I'm back to more concern how people are not proceeding how it's there so it's just it's so this detail of your public comment is um is included in the recording sure um and then this is meant to be just a simple record so we won't get to the whole detail of that thing I'd like to mention that moving forward for public comment um I've been directed by other people So we're talking about higher back to more people not proceeding how it's like here. So it's just detail of your public comment is um is included in the recording. Sure. Um and then this is meant to be just a simple reference. So we won't be able to full detail of that thing. I'd like to mention that moving forward for public comment. Um I've been directed by other people who run commissions and have much more experience than I do. That best practices just to say um this person provided comment, and then the recording is the actual detail. So that's what I've been doing moving forward. Okay, but I didn't get that type of these ones. Um minutes or twice uh uh group. Okay, very much we have the disclosure. Yes, that's a new thing. That's an addition. Um there's a new AO that passed um in regards to expectations for commissions in particular, like the agenda. Um, and so it is best practice to just have a standing agenda item where if any commissioners have any um financial or personal gain from uh an agenda item that they disclose before talking about that. So this is the reserved time for which um commissioners or in which commissioners can state that they have an investment in an agenda outcome. So if there are none, then we can just pass it from an active agenda item. Yeah, anything that needs to um be voted on essentially because like the the purpose of that is if you have um if you're going to gain something from it, you need to recuse yourself from um voting on that particular issue, and so this is just the space to do that, and we haven't encountered that here before, but um it is standard practice, so just trying to get in line with um best practices set out by the municipality. Yeah, I see you have your hand up um thanks, David. I want to first apologize and then make a request. Um I asked for I excuse me, item F2B to be added to the agenda today, and now I'm realizing that due to just some unforeseen family circumstances, I'm actually not going to be able to stay on the call after five, which is probably when we would get to that item. So I wonder whether we could either postpone that item to our next meeting or um it up, yeah. Although I know that E1 is we started that last meeting, so maybe you want to carry forward with that. I mean, I'm really sorry to not have foreseen this, but um, yeah, that's my request. Um to give a little bit of background on it F2B. Um the mayor's office is asking for some guidance, and please feel free to correct me here, is asking for some guidance around um the level of basic needs services um for our neighbors. Um you want to take maybe 15 seconds to speak to that. So the conversation is meant to be. I think really this has been kind of you know building for a while, but to summarize I have a number of different faith communities, a number of different um individuals in the community who are really interested and excited to just try to address people's basic needs, so like clothing, food, those types of things, and I am looking for some guidance from this commission in kind of the best way to channel that because in some ways we want to kind of I I think when we did have big camps, it was a little bit more obvious, like where to send people. Um, but now that that's not the case, and people are kind of moving around and some people are more into shelter and people have gone other places, it's just not easy to figure out what the the connection points are, and so you know what I've been doing is really kind of directing people more towards the coalition office, towards Third Avenue beans, that's where like the hope and their multidisciplinary outreach team is setting up. Um but really I'm just looking for some open um discussion and kind of expertise from this group to kind of help me you know figure out what the best approach is on that. So it's not an urgent thing, like it's not something that's like um really acute, but it's something that I would like to get advice from the group on so our options here would be to um the next month or move it up in the agenda. Um I well the uh um mentioned that you know it's not an urgent thing. I do I do feel that it is something that is uh very topical and something that does warrant some robust discussion, and I I for one prefer to have that sooner rather than later because that could affect uh direction coming out of um you know the municipality about how we want these groups to engage. So um, you know, just while we're discussing it, I would say I hope it moved up with the agenda um while we have had the rules approved changes to hand commission procedures on the agenda for a while. It's also like while I do want to update those, it's also a broke. We don't really need you know, I don't see that as like a very urgent business report of the the hand commission. Um that's where I'm coming from. I'm I'm curious to hear what others think. And I think that was one of my items to take the first stab at it. So I need it, but I didn't mail it out, so I would not be opposed to pushing it in the enough mail email because I think that's the problem saying that I would take the first staff at it and email it to everybody, so it is ready to email if we want to take it and say next month. Oh, there's other commissioners for thoughts. Yeah, my thought was uh I was I didn't support them, move it to next month because I a lot of those folks are my members, so I would like to actually go talk to them and bring that back to the commission. So that would be my wish. Okay, okay. Um talking about the conduit to bring those things to those people as much as what those things actually are. I think it's um space for I think I'd like to know a little bit more about the conversation piece and then be able to like bring back more dialogue that next month because I think I'm intrigued by the initial summary and I want to know more, but I also don't know that I would want to go to answer without talking to uh some of my colleagues and co-workers.
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