Facing criticism to its handling of the community’s growing homelessness population, the Juneau Assembly has formed a task force on homelessness.
Juneau has the third largest homeless population in the state – after Anchorage and Fairbanks.
After fielding complaints from merchants, the Assembly banned sleeping overnight on private property in the downtown core. But many campers have since moved into downtown parks.
“I don’t find myself being able to tell you that we are organized to proactively make decisions,” City Manager Rorie Watt told the Assembly on Monday. “I think we need to figure out how not to be in react mode.”
He pointed to a Monday letter from the Juneau Coalition on Housing and Homelessness that questioned the city’s wisdom of ordering police to crackdown on sleepers in the city’s Marine Park. The coalition’s letter closed with an appeal to work closer with the city.
Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski agreed that the status quo isn’t working.
“We are, exactly as the manager said, doing something and then people get mad and then we do something else and then other people get mad,” she said.
The committee moved unanimously to form a three-member taskforce with Gladziszewski and fellow Assembly members Norton Gregory and Debbie White.
The task force will work with the city manager, housing officer and members of the Juneau Coalition on Housing and Homelessness and report back its findings at a future meeting.
