Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan says he is making the problem of homeless alcoholics a top priority for his new administration -- both to help people in desperate need and to address escalating concerns about their impact on neighborhoods, parks and trails.
He said Monday he plans to hire a new executive staff member who will focus on chronic public inebriates. He wants the city and its community partners to shut down a homeless camp and at the same time work with each of the residents to get them individualized help, including forced treatment for hard-core alcoholics if that's what it takes.
He's creating a municipal working group that will include representatives from city police, fire, health, law and community planning departments, and also plans a broader community group that will include social service agencies, the state, Native groups and faith-based organizations.
"We're going to put the resources of the municipality under the direction of one key person who will lead the effort in making sure we can address this in a real comprehensive manner instead of having so many different groups out there dabbling at it," the mayor said in an interview.
While estimates vary, the latest citywide count in January found about 400 homeless alcoholics and drug users, counting those doubling up with friends or living in cheap motels. About 300 were in shelters or on the street. Sullivan said he wants the number to drop.
During his campaign for mayor, he heard how "people were just sick and tired of having their neighborhoods impacted by folks who clearly need help."
Readers of this blog know full well that I am no fan of Dan Sullivan, but I will give him a little credit here for taking on a tough job. Many of our past mayor's have paid this problem lip service but have done little to actually reduce the number of homeless or get them the help that they need. As a matter of fact there is some evidence that they may have made the problem worse.
Probably the most successful, at least temporarily, was Tony Knowles. Knowles did a clean up of the city which included closing many of its seedy looking bars and replacing them with parking garages and office space thus reducing the number of establishments which served the homeless alcoholics. He was also instrumental in opening the Brother Francis shelter which helped to get the homeless off of the street and gave them a hot meal and a place to sleep.
So I will give Mayor Sullivan a little leeway, and a hesitant pat on the back, for at least addressing this problem. I am a little concerned with his idea of forcing homeless alcoholics to get treatment for their addictions. Forcing people to get treatment is a difficult and costly undertaking and certainly has no guarantee of success.
I am also a little concerned that it seems Sullivan is more motivated by the needs of the business community than he is by the plight of these poor people. I am always more wary of social programs that are created to serve businesses than I am of ones that are created to serve individual human beings.
Oh Gryphen, I hope he doesn't do what our Democratic Mayor of Nashville did. He did pretty much the same thing, appointed a task force in order to help the homeless.
ReplyDeleteHow did they help?
Exactly what you fear. All they did was, when they saw the homeless hanging around a certain area where they were known to, the police would drive up and hassle them. Sometimes, as they would only be sitting on a bench, they would be publicly searched in the street, handcuffed and taken away. Then they put up signs saying not to give money to the homeless. The area where they are known to hang around is at the exit of the Interstate and there are a lot of businesses around. All they ended up doing is scattering them around the city and putting some in jail for loitering.
We only have ONE homeless shelter in Nashville, a Capitol City where a lot of musician wannabes pass through and get stuck because there is no work. It's horrible how they teat the homeless here.
I hope that your Mayor does a better job than ours has. Now, we have a new Mayor and nothing has changed.
This guy sounds like a real piece of work--"people were just sick and tired of having their neighborhoods impacted." Nothing about these people need help or a society has an obligation to help those in need. I can hear it now: "Danny, you've got to do something those dirty smelly natives rolling around in the gutter. They disturb Mildred."
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to tell these idiots that forced treatment programs don't work. Even someone who is highly motivated has a hard time beating an addiction. So then what? Concentration camps for these "undesirables"?
I will look at sullivan with very cautious eye. Remember he IS a 10% owner of a bar and may well be part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon 6:38, having been thru 3 months of treatment for etoh 15 years ago, you do need to want to get better.
Like I've said previously, if Sullivan is in any way genuine he will give the task to Walt Monegan.
ReplyDeleteHope they don't do what SF does...The (former)chief of Police...Heather Fong..in route to her fancy home saw a homeless man on Van Ness ave. There are many there b/c its a freeway entrance...they ask for $, well it disturbed her so much she called the "troops" (in SF you can do anything and the cops will not come, except if your parking meter runs out) and they ran him down and shot him! Course it was his fault b/c "he ran"
ReplyDeleteI have seen these homeless there and some of them, most of them are harmless. One walks with a sign, "if you can't give anything, please give a smile" and another is a amputee. If you don't want to be hassled close your window.
But yeah in SF CA shot first.....