Anchorage Assembly approves spending $2.8M for housing homeless at Aviator Hotel

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday accepted paying $2.8 million to shelter homeless folks at the Aviator Resort downtown. 

In accordance to officials with Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, there are now 191 homeless men and women employing 166 rooms at the hotel. They say the income will fork out for up to 225 rooms from July 1 to the conclusion of September.

Initially, shelling out the housing fees was set to come from alcohol tax money, but the Assembly handed a model of the resolution Tuesday that instead can take money from the city’s common fund balance. 

Anchorage Assembly member Chris Continual supported the new model, declaring that because the homelessness response arrived through the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA — the Federal Crisis Administration Agency — could reimburse up to 90% of the charges. 

Town wellness director Joe Gerace was skeptical that would essentially come about. At the Assembly conference, he mentioned funding need to as a substitute appear from the alcoholic beverages tax. 

“Clearly, a lot of this sheltering is a direct ramification of folks remaining in some variety of homeless position,” Gerace said. “Nobody at this time at the Aviator is there due to the fact they are presently working with restoration from COVID-19, which convolutes having reimbursed. I’m not declaring it cannot happen, but we have fought this and fought this with FEMA, as a result becoming about $80 million unreimbursed.”

As of mid-June, the town experienced requested about $87 million in funds to be reimbursed by FEMA, and experienced acquired just in excess of $41 million again. 

The resolution to pay for housing at the Aviator Hotel was permitted by an 8-3 vote, with users Jamie Allard, Randy Sulte and Kevin Cross opposed. 

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