As city officials, community groups and service organizations sound alarms about the policy, preparedness, safety and conditions at the campground, the experiences of the campers themselves vary broadly.
The tarps draped over tents and stretched over campsites were still dripping with rainwater on a quiet Monday morning at Centennial Park Campground in East Anchorage.
Other campers, prepared with tarps and better tents, stayed dry over the weekend, like Sapphire Tyone. She’s been houseless for a few years, and came to the campground to stay with her mother. Her mom has camped in Anchorage for a long time, living outside during the winter, she said.When the rain started last week, Tyone put up a large white canopy. She’s also set up a new tent for her mom.
For now, the campground is the city’s largest and primary shelter option for people with nowhere to stay. Anchorage’s shelters and transitional housing sites are full, with waitlists.As the sun broke through the clouds over the campground and Monday morning shifted into afternoon, more campers began to stir, leaving their tents to grab lunch from the Bean’s Cafe food truck.
More tarps, ropes, tents, warm clothing, outdoor gear and camping supplies are needed for the campers. Some arrived with little to no gear and some with no camping experience. Sunday night’s fight involved a large group of campers who banded together to protect a campsite from a man who was out of control, said Branson, who was there during the commotion.
One man was “sopping wet,” Creighton said. “I felt so bad for him. I was like ‘You can have this, this, and this, but that’s all I have right now.” “People are pretty much enraged by the entire situation,” Rivera said. “They see in black and white the humanitarian crisis, the lack of coordination and just the inhumane way we are treating these individuals. And they see the mayor and the administration turning a blind eye.”Rivera, along with Assembly members Kameron Perez-Verdia and Daniel Volland, are putting together a funding package to bring more temporary and permanent housing online to absorb homeless people.
The organization is proposing that the city lease the campground to a service provider that can operate “for purposes of community stabilization and intensive outreach.”
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