Juneau Assembly members have rejected a plan to create a shelter safety zone with tightened restrictions on camping in the area around the Glory Hall homeless shelter in the Mendenhall Valley.
The narrow vote came during a committee meeting on Monday night, but members may reconsider the proposal in September.
The city outlined a loose plan for the zone after staff, patrons and neighbors of the shelter asked the Assembly to take action to protect the Teal Street area. They say it has become unsafe because of threats from some unhoused people camping in the vicinity.
The topic generated a lot of tension at the meeting. That was between Assembly members who supported what they saw as a public safety measure and those who saw it as a stopgap solution for the larger issue of homelessness in Juneau.
Assembly member Wade Bryson voted in favor of the plan. He argued the Assembly’s inaction is putting people’s safety at risk.
“We haven’t protected the patrons. We haven’t protected the staff. And we’re not talking about allowing people to camp near this property. That’s not really what the issue is,” he said. “We’re talking about protecting those very vulnerable, the most vulnerable of us, from the predators of our community.”
City leaders say the shelter safety zone is intended to increase protection for staff and people using the shelter’s services. It would likely make the rules for camping or loitering in public spaces stricter in the zone than they are citywide.
The City of Bellingham, Washington, created a protection zone surrounding a shelter last year following similar safety concerns. It added harsher restrictions on camping or loitering in the zone.
Some Assembly members who voted against the zone said they worried it would unlawfully target unhoused people and could open the door for possible lawsuits. Assembly member Neil Steininger argued it wouldn’t solve any issues, but merely move them somewhere else.
“I just can’t see how it takes us forward as a community on this issue, more than just whack-a-mole on the next piece of the problem, without actually trying to address anything beyond one symptom of a much broader, much more difficult issue,” he said.
Assembly members asked the city to look into other potential safety measures, like hiring private security to patrol the area or establishing a city-sanctioned summer shelter.
