Anchorage shelter contract extended as leaked text investigation stews

Anchorage’s erstwhile Solid Waste Services management building, pictured present connected Sept. 20, 2023, is located connected 56th Avenue. The metropolis has been contracting nan nonprofit Henning Inc. to run a low-barrier bum shelter retired of nan building since November of 2023.

The Anchorage nonprofit under scrutiny for its managers’ unprofessional matter messages was awarded a $1,033,600 statement extension connected Friday. 

With immoderate reluctance, nan Anchorage Assembly approved nan grant to Henning Inc. successful a 9-1 vote. The hold will support nan city’s 200-bed bum shelter connected 56th Avenue moving done mid-October. 

Assembly personnel Karen Bronga was nan nary vote. 

“We had a large to-do astir matter messages that were shared astatine a meeting,” she said. “There was going to beryllium an investigation. And nothing’s been done and we’re extending nan statement to Oct. 15. That doesn’t consciousness right.”

In May, Anchorage Assembly Chair Chris Constant shared screenshots he obtained of prime texts from a group thread among Henning managers and Alexis Johnson, who was erstwhile Mayor Dave Bronson’s homelessness coordinator astatine nan time. The texts were unflattering and had an unprofessional tone, but nan discourse wasn’t clear. 

Anchorage’s homelessness coordinator Alexis Johnson speaks astatine a property convention connected July 25, 2023, arsenic then-Mayor Dave Bronson listens. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media)

As a result, nan Assembly asked nan city’s wellness department, which oversees shelter contracts, to analyse nan matter and study back. 

Constant said he’s seen a draught of nan investigation study and has been successful chat pinch metropolis lawyers astir adjacent steps. He said because of unit matters and its inconclusive nature, nan last study won’t beryllium public, and nan Assembly will person to talk it successful closed session. 

“We’ve been successful discussions about, what is nan goal? And it’s tricky,” Constant said. “I person emails for respective days that person been trying to get to nan constituent wherever this point is moving guardant again.” 

Chief Administrative Officer Bill Falsey told nan Assembly that extending nan statement would support uninterrupted work astatine nan shelter, while buying clip to tally done a much robust contracting process.