The Anchorage Assembly heard Tuesday that the municipality has eliminated all major homeless encampments for the first time in more than a decade, marking a milestone in the city's coordinated response to homelessness.

Assembly Chair Christopher Constant told the body he personally verified the clearance after Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced at a press conference that no tent cities or large-scale encampments remain in Anchorage. Constant drove across the Anchorage Bowl checking former encampment sites including Centennial Park, Sullivan Arena, Chester Creek Trail, Campbell Creek Greenbelt, Russian Jack Springs, Valley of the Moon, Davis Park, and Mountain View.

"I found there are no major encampments in this town anywhere at this time," Constant said. "I never believed that today would occur, that we literally have no tent city and no major encampments."

Constant, who has worked on homelessness issues through community councils in Fairview and North Anchorage for more than a decade, said the achievement cannot be attributed to the cold winter alone. Past harsh winters saw entrenched camps persist, he noted.

Instead, the success stems from a coordinated system combining year-round shelter, hotel-to-housing conversions, expanded Healthy Spaces teams, and behavioral health investments. The municipality doubled the capacity of Healthy Spaces teams for encampment cleanup and outreach. The state legislature and governor provided $4 million in 2024 to stabilize the shelter system and enable year-round operations.

"The difference is a policy choice to coordinate the system, to pair public safety and outreach, shelter access and housing, and behavioral health investments together with a broad community network of support," Constant said.

The milestone comes after years of work to clear entrenched camps and expand services. The municipality has expanded mobile behavioral health units through the Anchorage Fire Department and Police Department, opened housing facilities including the 56th Avenue site and Linda's Place, and brought recovery housing online at Willow Commons. South Central Foundation is constructing a crisis response facility at Tudor and Elmore.

Constant acknowledged that isolated tents may remain and behavioral health gaps persist, but said "the entrenched encampments that have long characterized the municipality of Anchorage are a thing of the past for now."

During his verification drive, Constant found one location with three tents. The Healthy Spaces team and the mayor's HOPE team engaged with those individuals to help them find appropriate services.

Addressing one advocate's suggestion that the clearance resulted from criminalizing camping and hostile enforcement, Constant said he saw no evidence of that approach. "Our jails are not filled with people who have been camping who are now stuck in the jail system," he said, noting very few engagements of the camping ordinance have been necessary.