Mayor touts decline in Anchorage homelessness, but residents say street-level reality tells a different story

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 2, 2026 – Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has celebrated a sharp drop in the number of people counted sleeping outdoors, but a lively discussion among residents on the Nextdoor social media platform shows many Anchorage residents are not convinced the city’s homelessness crisis has meaningfully improved.

The debate erupted after Bayshore/Klatt resident Bill Bernier posted a question about a gathering near the Walmart store on A Street in Midtown.

“So I wonder how much bigger the camp out front of Walmart on A Street has to get before the city addresses it?” Bernier wrote.

The post quickly drew dozens of reactions and comments from residents across Anchorage. They described accumulated garbage, abandoned shopping carts, public drug use and people moving unpredictably near traffic. Several said they have stopped shopping at the Midtown Walmart because of conditions around the property.

“I don’t go to that Walmart anymore,” wrote Manya W. of Russian Jack Park.

Laura W. of Lower Northeast noted that her husband had experienced too many incidents at the store and no longer shops there.

Karla H. said she drives past the area on her way home from work and watches closely for people who may step into traffic.

The comments offer a striking contrast with the message coming from City Hall.

LaFrance announced in May that Anchorage’s annual Point-in-Time count found 291 people sleeping outdoors in January, down from 402 in 2025 — a 28% decrease. The total number of people counted as homeless, including those staying in shelters, declined by a more modest 6%, from 1,748 to 1,645. The mayor credited expanded outreach, additional year-round shelter beds, crisis-response programs and enforcement against camping in certain public areas.

“That is fewer people sleeping in our public spaces, fewer people susceptible to our cold winter nights, and fewer people unsafe in our community,” LaFrance said at the time.

The Point-in-Time count, however, is a snapshot taken on a single winter night –Jan. 26 this year. It is not a continuous count of camps or people living outside throughout Anchorage, and conditions can change substantially as temperatures rise. The organization overseeing Alaska’s count notes that communities may use surveys, sampling and estimates to identify the unsheltered population. The Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness describes the methodology here.

Anchorage residents say camps are more visible during the summer.

“It grows and shrinks with the weather,” wrote Katy N. of South Addition. Paul H. of North Star agreed, describing “a definite ebb and flow.”

Willie M. of Abbott Loop North wrote that large camps had previously discouraged members of the public from using Cuddy and Lions parks. He said camps often lack sewage and garbage facilities and have become harder to detect as their occupants move into less visible areas.

“If you see them in your area, chances are there’s a nearby camp,” he wrote.

Other commenters expressed frustration with what they see as a lack of enforcement. Some complained that behavior that would ordinarily draw police attention — including theft, illegal drug use and public indecency — appears to be tolerated when it occurs in or near homeless camps.

Thomas M. of Fairview said he had been told the A Street location was on a state roadway and that the municipality would not address it unless requested by the Alaska Department of Transportation.

“That answer was b.s. as far as I am concerned,” he wrote.

One commenter later reported that police had visited the location and dispersed the group. But another resident said several people and nearby garbage remained when he drove past later that night.

The discussion was not unanimous about who should bear responsibility or how the city should respond. Some blamed municipal officials and called for tougher enforcement of laws against vagrancy, public intoxication, drug use and panhandling. Others argued that Native corporations, social-service agencies and the city should collaborate to provide more housing, substance-abuse treatment and mental-health services.

Brian T. of Old Seward/Oceanview described the conditions at the Midtown Walmart, downtown, Cuddy Park and other locations as “disgusting,” but also challenged others to explain what actions they had personally taken to help.

City officials and service providers have acknowledged that shelter capacity remains insufficient. Shelters were reportedly full on the night of the January count and during much of the winter. Even during warmer weather, people have been turned away because beds were unavailable. A mayoral aide estimated Anchorage would need about 200 additional winter shelter beds, at an annual cost approaching $2.5 million.

The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness separately reported a gap of 350 shelter beds and 252 transitional-housing placements in its 2025 analysis, along with a much larger shortage of permanent and supportive housing. The coalition’s data dashboard was updated in June,

Anchorage’s homelessness data do not show the problem affecting all demographic groups equally. An Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness snapshot comparing people newly entering the homelessness-response system with the city’s 2020 Census population found American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous residents overrepresented by 29.9 percentage points. Black residents were overrepresented by 14.7 points, while Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander residents were overrepresented by 1.6 points and Hispanic or Latino residents by 2.1 points.

White residents were underrepresented among new entrants by 35.9 percentage points, Asian or Asian-American residents by 10.1 points and people identifying as some other race by 6.4 points.

The chart does not measure whether homelessness is increasing or decreasing over time; it measures which groups are disproportionately represented among people newly entering the system. The categories are independent because individuals may identify with more than one race, while Hispanic or Latino is recorded separately as an ethnicity.

The snapshot indicates that Anchorage’s continuing inflow into homelessness is falling disproportionately on Alaska Native and Black residents, even as the mayor points to a decline in the overall count.