Camp LaFrance: Homeless have taken over entire street in midtown Anchorage

A warning to parents, children, and the elderly: A street just a block east of Cuddy Park has become the new no-man’s-land for street people living in cars, trucks, and tents in Anchorage.

In addition to tarps, tents, and vehicles in the street, the street is lined with trash, debris, and what are probably stolen bicycles. It’s not the kind of place where a person would walk or drive without a sidearm or an officer of the law.

After being abated from public land at 3rd and Ingra Street last year, the encampment took over Cuddy Park as well as the “Archive Property,” eight acres on the south end of the park, in Midtown. Abatement that occurred at that site in May has resulted in the homeless village reconvening a block away, on a stub of Fairbanks Ave. that is between Home Depot and the Brown Jug.

The Supreme Court has ruled that cities can enforce rules about these encampments, but the Anchorage Assembly appears to be unwilling.

The Assembly’s chair for homelessness Felix Rivera says there won’t be any action that makes street takeovers illegal. A recently passed ordinance only bans homeless campsites within a half-mile of a shelter and trims group encampments to no more than 25 tents. It’s unclear which tents will be removed if an encampment outgrows the limits.

The ordinance also says that if the city wants to clear a camp, it needs to give the campers 10 days, rather than the 15 days previously on the books.

Observers of the street village say that at least in one tent on the street, different people come and go all day, popping into the tent and then leaving. People in the village have stolen pallets from stores nearby to create structures and build fires. But police are rarely observed in the area. Anchorage Police have instead been busy ticketing speeders on the highway.