Public Health and Safety Committee

Okay, I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee. It is May 6th at 11 AM. We'll start with going around the dais to have everybody introduce themselves. Why don't we start over here? Ms. Park.

Hi. You turn on your mic, right? Uh, oh. Over here. Shh, shh.

What is your name? It's not on. Oh, you got trouble. Max, click the button.

Hi, Janice Park, Assembly District 4. Donald Handlin. Chair Kirker. Zach Nelson. And this is Cameron Perez Verdia.

I'm sure we'll have a few other members join us shortly. We have a full agenda today. I want to just make a couple of announcements before we get started. There is a lot of interest in the, in the conversation we're going to have later in the agenda around the True North Recovery Project. That item is back before us, I believe on May 26th, is back on our agenda.

And so what we're going to do today is we're going to have True North present as we would normally do, and then I think there's an interest in having a broader conversation about that topic. And so what I'd like to do is propose a special meeting of the Public Health and Safety Committee I'm going to double-check the date to see if it'll work, but at this point, Wednesday the 13th at 10:30 AM. And so for those that are here to testify on that, or those members that want to sort of dig into that conversation in a more deeper way— I know this gentleman here does— I would ask that we hold that until that meeting. So there will be some time today to discuss, but we have a number of other things we want to get through. So we want to give True North the opportunity to present, but then we'll plan that meeting next week, and that'll give plenty of time for the assembly to get a full picture of this topic and to be able to discuss it fully before we vote on it on the 26th.

Okay, so with that, um, we're going to get started. Is someone from the Anchorage Fire Department here? Wonderful. Kavonna, we'll have you start with wildfire risk and preparedness. Important topic for right now.

Slovenia, if you can introduce yourself for the record and you can begin.

I don't know, do you guys—. Oh, it's the little button on the back. There's an on/off switch on the back of the mic. Did you guys get the slide deck? Still?

Okay, so I think we have copies, right? Okay, well, I'm just guessing I can ad-lib or I can follow through with this if you guys have a visual, which I see in front of you, so I'll just—. Yep, we'll take that. All right.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Brian Parche. I'm the Deputy Chief with the Anchorage Fire Department, and I'm here to discuss our 2026 wildfire update. As you can see with the slides in front of you, moving to the first one there in regards to the forecast, the message and the interactions we've had with the Department of Division of Forestry and Fire Protection is We essentially have a normal potential in south-central Alaska. The risks are essentially driven by fuels, weather, and ignition.

Snowpack is a little normal, which is leading us to essentially a little bit of a later start, but the season will have predictability once we reach that dry stage, so we're not expecting any sort of surprises. And lastly, the, the term for this fire season is typical, so we're just following as is. One thing to note at the bottom of that slide is we reference notable seasons where there's about a 33% deviation from the word typical. And in the years listed below, those were years that were listed as typical that changed dramatically on us. So you can kind of see a progression there.

Also on that slide, which I'll discuss further, is our open house that's taking place this weekend. Moving on to actions taken, planning and mitigation. As you can see, and many of you are aware, we completed the Community Wildfire Protection Plan in December of this year. Through that project, we also worked on a number of fuel breaks in priority areas. We also successfully completed one of the largest fuel break mitigation projects in the municipality's history at one of the lowest costs per acre for us in the history of municipality.

We're also working on focusing on evacuation routes and choke points. That's been a big topic lately, especially for the hillside area, is limited road access from east to west and traversing across for emergency access. And then lastly, coordinating mitigation strategy with stakeholders and land managers. This has allowed us to forecast and show land managers what our priorities are, which is allowing them to change their priorities to align with ours to better get them an opportunity to understand what we're doing so they can align with what we're doing. And it's being, it's being viewed as a cost-effective measure for them as well.

Richie, can you expand on fuel breaks for us? I think I know what you mean, but maybe you can explain what that is and what that looks like. So essentially, in the wildfire world, we look at the advancement of fire through fuels, and through that advancement, you want to find areas where you can slow the progression of fuel as best you can to either provide a delay for evacuation purposes or for suppression efforts. So when you provide a fuel break, you provide an area where we take the ground down to essentially dirt or below the duff. We cut tree limbs up to the base, or we just clear-cut.

But, uh, Basher was what's called a shaded fuel break, and essentially what that does is as the fire's progressing through the fuels, it hits these breaks and it allows enough time to slow for The efforts for suppression can engage and use that delay to their advantage, or we can use that delay to help with evacuation. So thanks, Alex. You bet. I believe we have Miss Brawley online. Is that correct?

She, she texted me. Um, I can't connect. Okay, I think we do have Miss Brawley on the line. Miss Brawley, are you there? It's—.

Oh, it shouldn't be connected. Oh, I see. She's just listening, maybe. I don't know. Okay.

All right. Uh, yes, Mr. Johnson, you have a question?

Yeah, thank you. So I remember it was 2 years ago we looked at a map of fuel breaks, you know, key fuel breaks around Anchorage, many of which had been woefully neglected for many years. Can you give us a sense of how much progress we've made, you know, from sort of that map? I mean, are we at 50% more? I mean, are we— how far along are we?

Yeah, so we've named Johnson to the chair. So to give you an exact number, I don't have, but I will say that we interacted with fuel breaks from upwards of 20, 25 years ago that we replenished and brought up to standards today. I can't on off the cuff give you a definitive, but what we have been able to do is through adjusting for responses and the robust efforts that we have at the moment, we can focus on fuel breaks that serve the way that we will be addressing these fires. And so ultimately the positive is we're able to use existing breaks that have grown over and take a little bit of effort, but we've also been able to deviate from past breaks and consider new breaks that actually will help us. And as everybody knows, a big advantage in wildfire is now aerial defenses, so we could take that into consideration, and that again bodes well with the ability for us to focus on evacuation a little bit more.

So I mean, more generally, do you feel like we are at— we are where we want to be with fuel breaks today, or are we still getting caught up? Comfortably, no, I would not say we are where we want to be. I would say we have a visual, we have the ability to start building a plan to be somewhere where we're comfortable, but at the moment right now we have just scratched the surface on being able to begin that process. Our wildfire division is about a little over a year old. They have robust ideas and a number of plans for the safety of the community that we're working with, so tasking them with all this right off the bat is a little bit tough, but I feel like we're headed in a direction where they're going to be able to provide a safety corridor and the ability for communities to feel safe in the efforts they've done.

Thank you. And just for the record, I think folks in the room know this, but the network is down, so that's why we're unable to broadcast. We do have a couple of members, Member Rawlin and, um, Val Badet, who are trying to get on but can't at this point. And then for the record, Miss Silvers has joined the meeting. So moving on there to evacuation coordination, uh, bullet points there.

Basically, we've Included signage, which is a very archaic but a very effective way to start the process and help the community understand evacuation routes. We had a municipal-wide and even further multi-agency workshop that was completed about a month ago where we discussed evacuation as the main point in these areas. Lots of agencies were able to share ideas.

And thoughts and how it would be handled. Our partners at APD were involved in that as well to better understand what some of those thoughts are, as long as, as well as the suppression agencies that were involved. So that was a huge undertaking and that led to increased coordination with all of our partners. You can see DFFP is technically the Division of Forestry. They've changed their names to the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, so anytime you hear that reference It's still the State Division of Forestry, they just changed their acronym to add fire protection.

You can also see that JBEHR, our utility partners, and the Office of Emergency Management were also involved because those are all critical pieces in this as well. Lastly, the expanding of RAVE and Smart911 for community communication and being able to message the community in regards to evacuation was another part of that project.

Moving to the last slide, uh, the initiatives going forward in 2026 were standing up our residential sprinkler distribution program, which is a part of a $1.2 million grant that the division received that also includes, um, revenue for curbside help, meaning residents that bring brush to the curbside, we can help dispose of that. And it also helps influence a media campaign as far as messaging and being able to get that out.

And then we're continuing with our Firewise assessments. We send crews up to the hillside and troubled areas that face the risk of wildfire to walk around the property with homeowners to discuss mitigation efforts they can do on their own to help protect their home, to raise the level of the effectiveness of us being able to save their homes should wildfire occur. And then the path forward is just the continued, uh, CWPP implementation and the mitigation in priority corridors. I know we have a project that's, uh, being reviewed right now in the Eula Valley, and then, um, moving on down to just improve evacuation and readiness. And the last thing on this to note is our division has actually been very successful in gaining revenue through deployments as well.

So when Anchorage is on a downturn and we don't need to stand up the effective emergency response in the municipality, we provided the state with teams to assist with their efforts within the state, and in that process we receive exceptional reimbursement from the state to help fund that division as well. So with that being said, I guess questions, because I know we have a full agenda.

Looks like no questions. You did a great job. Thank you very much. Okay, uh, um, Cameron Yeager from the Health Department, come on up. Anybody else that you want to join me?

You're going to do an update on 2026 opioid funding projects.

Good morning, Kimberly Rash, Anchorage Health Department. Um, so I have 5 minutes, so I'm going to take you on a 3-minute journey in the past and a couple of minutes talking about, uh, the current action that will be before you on the 12th. So the Municipality of Anchorage has been awarded a portion of the opioid settlement funds from the state of Alaska under the Administrative Order 324. The Governor's Advisory Council on Opioid Remediation reported that the state expected to see approximately $58 million over the course of 18 years from the National Opioid Settlement Funds. At the same time, 9 political subdivisions signed on to the global settlement agreement that would allow them to govern how they want to use their funds and how they would be distributed, and we received $4.186 million over 18 years.

Exhibit E of the opioid settlement funds provides a detailed list of approved uses in core strategies for remediation of opioids. Exhibit E outlines evidence-based strategies that communities should prioritize. Core strategies include expanding access to treatment for opioid use disorders, supporting recovery programs, and implementing harm reduction measures. Additionally, Exhibit E lists the approved usages of the funds, such as funding for prevention programs, education campaigns, and support services for individuals and families in crisis. In March of 2026, the Health Department conducted a community opioid remediation survey, and we collected 300 responses from residents on opioid-related services, uh, gaps, funding priorities, and coordination needs.

The survey results align with the AM279-2026, which again will be in front of you on the 12th, uh, that was introduced to the body on April 22nd of the recommended projects. There will be an S version that will be introduced on the 12th, reducing the total amount of funding from 2025 through current that has been received. So again, every year we receive funding from the settlement, and we then have to appropriate the funds to then use them for the projects. So within AM279-2026, you'll see a few projects that we are hoping to plan for the rest of 2026, which is the Medicaid-assisted treatment program within AFD. And I also have Ben Luz here if you have questions regarding that.

Um, 63% of our respondents in our survey selected MAT and treatment services as a priority area or identify this population, and several noted that MAT and medication-supported recovery are currently under-resourced and hard to navigate. So we are trying to meet that need. In addition, another project that we are hoping to fund with our opioid settlement funds is through the Anchorage Police Department for their pre-arrest deflection program. This is also a part of Exhibit E for treatment of incarcerated populations. And addressing the needs of criminal justice-involved persons.

42% Of our respondents selected this as a priority area and called for pre-arrest diversion, drug courts, and treatment alternatives to incarceration. The other two items that you will see are a community health worker, which was hired in December of 2025, and so we are continuing to fund that position in 2026. In 2025, we also were set aside funding to stock and maintain naloxone vending machines throughout the municipality and we're hoping to continue to stock those in 2026. That is also a part of the Exhibit E, in that 18% of respondents selected naloxone access distributions in multiple open-ended responses to our survey. The last piece that you will see that we are hoping to fund is within our clinical services team, a long-acting drug that will continue to help our AFD partners with their services in MAT.

So working with MAT, they would provide this short-term medication to individuals and then connect them to the Health Department for longer-term treatment and connection to services. So again, this is in front of you on the 12th of May, and I just wanted to make sure that we reviewed it for them. Great, I have a question for Ms. Silvers. Thanks. So, um, this proposed facility is across the street from the Fairview Recreation Center.

Oh no, we're not talking about Shrewsbury North. Oh, okay.

Yes, yes, Mr. Guyer, just really quick. Does criminal justice involve being a criminal? Does criminal justice involve being criminals? That's a great question.

Same question, right, sir? Yes, sir, same question. Uh, it doesn't have to be now. Okay, okay, thanks. Thanks.

Any other questions from members on this item? This will be before us on May 12th, is that correct? Correct. Okay, if members have additional questions, please reach out to, um, before that. Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, so we're going to move on for a presentation from True North. Why don't you guys come on up?

And is there a slide deck for this as well? There's not. No? No. Great.

Welcome everyone. Okay, I'm going to have, if you will, have each person share their name for the record. And then you guys can begin. All right, good afternoon everybody. My name is James Savage.

I'm the Community Engagement Director for True North Recovery. Sorry, that device is not on. Gotta hit the little button. Nope, the button on the front. There we go.

Really push it hard. So it turns green. Ah, perfect. My name is James Savage. I'm the Community Engagement Director for True North Recovery.

Community Engagement Director for True North Recovery. Good morning everybody, my name is Nick Kraska, I'm the Chief Operating Officer for True North Recovery. Good morning everyone, I'm Tori Splester, I'm the Chief Administrative Officer for True North. Good morning, my name is Josh Engel, I'm our Crisis Services Program Manager for True North Recovery. Dan, thanks for being here, you guys can go ahead and start.

Yeah, thanks for having us, we really appreciate you guys squeezing us on the agenda today and being able to kind of talk through this project with you a little bit. Um, sounds like we'll have a larger discussion next week, which sounds great. And hopefully we can provide as much information and answer as many questions as we can through today and through next week's conversations. And so really today we wanted to spend some time talking about what our proposed project is, as well as like how we got to this place. And so, um, you know, True North has been around since 2018, and we're a peer-led organization, which means that a majority of our employees are people who are in long-term recovery, myself included, and the rest of us that sit here.

And our goal really is to be able to say yes to somebody who is seeking services in some capacity in the behavioral health sector. And, um, we were approached in October of 2024 to provide a tour of our current day one facility where our current existing launchpad lives by the city of Anchorage, the mayor's office. They came out, they visited, they spent some time with us, and I think they really liked the space. And then the following month, the mayor's office asked us if we would join in on helping with the city do some camp abatements. And so we dedicated 2 days a week for the following I want to say 18 months working alongside APE's Hope Team in the camps here in Anchorage and working with people who had had enough and really wanted to seek a different lifestyle.

And so, um, yeah, we, we did that for, for quite some time and really enjoyed our time in the community, and we felt like we were really wanted to continue to help and serve this community and So then the RFP came out for this grant that we applied for to obtain funding for being able to purchase a facility. And our original proposal was to stand up a residential treatment center, and we had a building picked out that we were interested in, kind of. But we decided to take a step back and to make sure that what we were doing was something that the Anchorage community actually needed. And so We had the consulting firm Agnew Beck complete a feasibility study across the city of Anchorage, and we interviewed 15 different behavioral health organizations. And what we learned through that feasibility study was that there isn't a need for treatment beds in Anchorage.

By the end of 2027, there's projected to be 250 beds for treatment services, but there isn't a problem with space and capacity, there's a problem with connecting people to those beds. And so it became abundantly clear to us that what Anchorage needed and what those 15 providers that we spoke to asked for was a place for people to find that connection, to be that connection point, to be that, that launch pad, right, where they, they come in and they launch from there into their, into their journey. And we already have that in Wasilla, and so That's a very simple thing for us to replicate. You know, we're really hoping and our goal is to stand that up here in Anchorage. And so, you know, we finished that feasibility study in March and we started looking for a building.

And the building that we found is the current Access Alaska building in Fairview. It's turnkey ready. You know, there is nothing that we need to do to that space other than to put up some security systems and some surveillance and, you know, kind of put our, our flair, if you will, on that space, and we can start providing services tomorrow. Um, Josh currently is working with the HOPE team 5 days a week, him and another peer. Um, and so we are actively doing something similar on a mobile— from like a mobile point of view.

But we want to have a brick and mortar where we can replicate that, you know, tenfold, twelvefold, fifteenfold. Have a lot of people providing these services that people need. I think the person from the health department just spoke about how it's challenging to access medication-assisted treatment right now. And so this would be a hub in which a person can come and say, like, "I need help accessing this. I need help navigating this.

Can you help me?" And we would be more than willing to help and we would be honored. And so Yeah, I want to spend some— I want to allow James and Josh specifically to spend some time talking about what the Launchpad looks like on a day-to-day as far as operational. The two of them are really the two that stood up our current program and are really proud of the work that they've done, and they both oversee it currently. And so yeah, kind of want to maybe stop talking and let them speak a little bit. And yeah.

Thanks, Nick. Josh, would you like to go? So the Launchpad opened in the Matsu Valley as part of our Day One campus in July of 2022. That is a space that individuals can engage with telehealth providers, integrated behavioral health assessments. They're navigating the system of care in the state of Alaska and potentially nationwide for behavioral health services, adult mental health services, primary care services, all of the stuff and things that become a barrier and a stressor for an individual that is seeking care of any kind.

What we know about this population, and I'll speak in the first person because I too am a person in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder, is if you ask me to show up on Thursday at 3 PM, 3 weeks away from the time that I met you, you may as well have asked me to build a bottle rocket, right? I didn't know how, I didn't have the skills, I didn't have the ability. We have the ability with this Launchpad program in the Massu to say yes as the individual desires that help. And what we know about behavioral healthcare is that window of— we call it a window of desperation or that window of interest— that timeframe that an individual is willing to engage in services sometimes is moments. That That is the benefit of this brick-and-mortar location.

That is the benefit of these roving teams that we would have the ability to staff out of this program. We're not talking about housing our staff in a building and then just waiting for folks to come to us. Josh and his team are, they're out on street corners. They're having conversations with the guy that you drove past this morning for the 35th time on your way to work. These teams are engaging with our population's most vulnerable You know, Lieutenant Fuchs probably got a different name for them, but these folks are the ones that need engagement the most.

This is not something we're trying to sit back on our laurels and wait for folks to come to us. It is very much service navigation. The State of Alaska identifies it as a hub-and-spoke model. This would be the hub of that model, and then it would be resource referral and connection from there. Some, some really cool stats as far as impact for the Mat-Su Valley.

And as I share these, please keep in mind we have a much smaller population and a much lower density. Between July 2022 and July of 2025, 630 unique individuals connected to detox or withdrawal management services, 6,527 service hours provided to individuals in need of behavioral health care, 86% of Everybody that engaged with True North Recovery engaged in behavioral health services of some kind in a long-term format. Right? This is a wonderful set of numbers to share with you guys, and we can replicate that with greater impact inside the municipality of Anchorage with the higher population and the higher density. Right?

As we turn this paper over, we look at some of the impact that this team has had alongside the HOPE team. You know, we spent only 348 hours embedded with Ruth and Connie's Hope Team at the pleasure of APD, and we're incredibly grateful for that opportunity. As a result of that, that very small number of hours, 64 individuals were engaged in long-term care. Right? That's a fantastic success rate.

That's 2 peers, 2 days a week until recently. We're talking about in with this program as many as 15, 7 days a week, right? So that impact gets exponentially larger. So I, I could go on. I believe in this.

Um, you know, I shared earlier I'm a person in long-term recovery from substance use disorder, and had these services like the program that we built in Wasilla or the program we're proposing in Anchorage been available the date that I shared with you guys would be different. I would not have had to suffer the way that I suffered until I found wellness. I would not have been a vagrant on police forces like, like APD and Wasilla PD and the system that I engaged with. It would be different, right? Our—.

We.

Provide a better level of wellness to our community members by engaging with them upstream and doing some of that prevention work and going and sitting with them and having conversations and connecting them to the appropriate service, the right, as they need it, at the right time, and doing it the first time.

Hi, Josh Engle. I think the only thing I would like to add, I mean, I can, with all of this like you guys have kind of all heard, we've been doing this for a little bit, very similar style of services. Um, I think like for me, I was just talking with my coworker this morning who also is with me 4 days a week and anchored 40 hours a week. Um, I mean, and just like yesterday, there's— I mean, there's 2 success stories where 2 different shelters are calling us. An individual is getting ready to be discharged out of their program, ultimately returned to the streets, and we're the ones that get the phone call, we're able to intervene and ultimately connect them to a detox program.

And so like for me, it's, it's programs like this and the approach that we take. Like we are entirely mobile, we're able to be in community, individuals are able to come to us, um, and just over time since we've like stood it up out in Wasilla, we have just continued to be able to show the impact that it has in real time and not having to play this ultimate waiting game when it comes to behavioral health services. And I think that is the— that's the biggest impact. I mean, I don't know if anybody has loved ones or struggled with substance use disorder themselves, but navigating that system is a complete nightmare. Like, the system's broken, right?

And I mean, we talk about it very openly and And ultimately, like, a program like this, it gives you the ability, like, you know, you talk about all the other ones, like you have the soup kitchens and the navigation center, and like this kind of accompanies all of that. And it allows you to meet with somebody that has walked the path that you're currently walking, like myself, and is also very knowledgeable in what— how to access the behavioral health system and and what routes to take that are appropriately— appropriate in that moment, and ultimately continue to improve quality of life. You know, that's our ultimate goal, is to help somebody improve their quality of life, and that, that looks very differently for everybody. And, um, and so yeah, that's really kind of all I got.

A couple additional things I want to maybe talk through is I think we have like one really serious success story that we we would like to share from our time working in Wasilla, one that really stands out to us, and we have his permission to share this story. But before I get there, there's two things that I really want to lean into and talk about a little bit. And so in this handout that you guys have in your, in your packets, if you don't, I can get you a couple. The core population that we're serving is anybody over the age of 18 with a behavioral health diagnosis that's voluntarily seeking out services, right? And so this place is not What this place is not going to be is a 24-hour-a-day behavioral health facility.

We are going to be open Monday through Sunday, 9 to 5. This place is not an involuntary crisis drop-off center. Those programs are already standing up in the Med District with South Central Foundation and Providence. They're both opening crisis centers, and this is not that. We would like to partner with those people as a step-down— as a step-down opportunity for people who are interested in entering into long-term treatment and us being able to help them navigate navigate what their next steps might look like.

But we are not going to be a crisis drop-off center. We're not a shelter, so nobody's sleeping there. We're not a sobering center, and we're also not Community Safety Patrol. And so we're, we're not going to be asking people who, you know, the 4 motorhomes that are parked outside the, outside the building down the street, like, we're not going to be going up to them and asking them to leave. We're going to be talking to them about, like, how we've been there too, and if you want a solution, this is the route that we would suggest taking.

And if we find somebody who's interested in changing their lifestyle, we're available to walk them through that. I think those things are really important to note because I think there's a lot of concern about what we, what we could be, and those are things that we're definitely not going to be. And so, um, James, you want to share a Ryan story? Yeah, absolutely. Again, James Savage, Community Engagement Director, True North Recovery.

We had an individual come into services with us late 2022, early '23, and he walked into that Launchpad space and shared openly and honestly that if this doesn't work here today, I have every intention of ending my life. This is an individual that you would identify as justice-involved by Lieutenant Fuchs' definition. He had a lot of things going on in his life. He had been in active substance use for in excess of 2 decades. And he walked into that LaunchPad space and said, "I have this going on, and here's what I would like to accomplish." And the list of things to the negative were what would any normal person in his situation believe to be unsurmountable.

As a result of that walking into that walk-in space, he was able to navigate with a peer. He got connected to withdrawal management services. 3 Days into withdrawal management services, he found himself in front of the Palmer Superior Court on astronomical amounts of time that were going to be served incarcerated. As a result of his engagement in treatment and the decision that he made, the judge postponed absolutely everything that he was going through. And I could continue to tell his story.

You know, the Cliff Notes version is he is now employed with True North Recovery and is providing these services to other individuals. Individuals that have been exactly where he was. Um, 3 weeks ago on Tuesday, so 3 weeks ago today— yesterday, excuse me— um, he had his ankle monitor removed for the first time legally in 30 years, right? Um, he, he is an individual that someone that has lived that lifestyle can connect with absolutely in every single time. I can tell you that As a person who is a formerly incarcerated, formerly unhoused, and absolutely hopelessly addicted to substances, I connect to individuals that are sitting on this side of the table better than I ever did a clergy member, a psychiatrist, you know, and a counselor.

Everybody with just the best intentions, right? And this is not us speaking down about that population at all. You don't take your car to McDonald's to get it fixed, right? You take somebody that knows something about cars. And True North Recovery is an organization of 195 employees, and of those employees, more than 90% are in recovery from something, right?

We are a large employer that would like to come to this community and do exceptional work and be exceptional neighbors. And Ryan's story exemplifies that. We have an alumni population that works for us. That's, that's the greatest gift and compliment that an individual can give us, to take them through the worst days of their life and then for them to return around on the other side of it and, and want to be employed by us and do it for others. That, that is the heart of our organization, and that's the culture that we try and build.

You know, at the bottom of this form, you'll see our vision statement, and it, it's real simple: people heal, community strengthens, and systems transform. That's what we would like to do for the municipality of Anchorage. That's what I believe we have done for the Matsu Borough. And, uh, thank you very, very much for your time. Thank you very much.

And I know there's questions, and I'll get a few. I wanted, um, um, because a few members came in after I made a few statements about sort of our plan, so I wanted to just reframe this a bit so that we can all sort of be on the same page. Um, we asked True North Institute to be here today so that we could really understand your program, what it looks like, you know, how it works. Really, really get it, to understand it. We are going to have a meeting next week on—.

What did I say—. Wednesday the 13th at 10:30, because I think there's two parts of this conversation, right? The part of the conversation about your organization, your services, what this building— what would it be? And then the concerns around the folks from this neighborhood who are concerned about that. We want to make sure we're hearing the whole story.

So what I'm hoping today is that we spend this time really getting to know you guys in your program and figure out all the information we need to really understand that. That doesn't mean you can't ask questions about anything you want, but I'm just hoping that that's what we're trying to do. There is someone here I know from the Fairview community who was asked to speak, so at the end of the meeting I'll give him a chance to share some of his thoughts. But I would like to, if we can, because we don't have a lot of time, make sure we're focusing on the organization, and then next week we can have a broader conversation about the neighborhood, the impacts, all those kinds of things. So to the degree that I can influence that, that'd be great.

Thank you for a great presentation. Thank you for the information you shared. And now we'll go into the queue for questions. We'll start with Mr. Holland. Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chair. Um, thank you for being here, and thank you for sharing your story, personal and your organization. Um, I, I guess for.

For the public who's here, I want to make sure that folks are aware that there were a couple documents submitted to go along with this agenda item from myself and from Member Scout. One is a policy memo from myself. I hope—. I'm not going to go into detail on it here because we're going to have further conversation at another time, as the Sheriff indicated, but I do hope my colleagues will spend a little bit of time with that. The TL;DR version is that my recommendation as someone represents Fairview is that it's a great project, wrong location.

And so that if this grant process does move forward, I hope that my colleagues will oppose it. I also want to point out a policy memo submitted by Member Scout. She was able to attend a meeting that the administration had. Folks from True North and others were there with some folks from Fairview, and she was able to put together a list of, uh, both timeline, which essentially I think details a lack of public process, frankly, on this project, but also some questions that the, uh, the neighborhood has. And so I think that's a good opportunity for my colleagues, but also for folks from your organization to dig into and make sure some of those questions are answered.

I do have a couple questions. So I have a copy with me of the Active Back project, or the, uh, I guess the work they helped to do, the the program and financial modeling summary memo. Um, and keeping my questions constrained to the nature of this project, as was requested by the chair, I do want to read some short excerpts from this document. So under key takeaways, it identifies that service gaps are less about the number of residential beds— you guys said that— and more about service navigation, access to existing detox and residential beds, and coordinated care transitions.

Further on, under this proposed expansion, Anchorage Launchpad, it identifies that the Anchorage Launchpad will include 4 components. As you said, the assessments will be available Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 3 PM, on a walk-in basis. I think you maybe indicated that the hours would be a little bit more extended from there, but also it talks about one of those 4 components being peer navigation. The Anchorage Launchpad will offer a space for walk-in and coordinated access to navigation services. True North will also build partnerships with potential referral partners such as area emergency departments and soon-to-open crisis stabilization centers to be a resource for individuals discharging from crisis and emergency settings who need additional navigation supports.

Uh, the Launchpad fills a gap in Anchorage service availability by providing rapid access to behavioral health assessments and service navigation and builds capacity for peerless support during care transitions. So I guess my first question, uh, Ruiu's text service, because the term navigation comes up over and over again. So I have one question that I think I want to ask two different ways because there's a slightly— a slight different nuance on each. So the first way that I want to ask it is, is this project intended to be a navigation center? And the second way that I want to ask that is, to your understanding, would it meet the definition of navigation Close sister, thank you for the question.

Um, I think when we're talking about navigation, what we're talking about is accessing the services that are already in Anchorage community. And I think when we're historically, and I'm I would like to just say that I'm not the most familiar with all of the Anchorage resources currently, but I am familiar with the Third Avenue Navigation Center, um, and I think that there maybe has been confusion that we are essentially duplicating that service, and that is not the intention here. Um, ultimately, like Nick had mentioned before, this is— this space is for people who are— they're voluntarily trying to get help and navigating their next steps. So while they may have been de-escalated, they are looking for resources in the treatment scope. So whether that be withdrawal management services, residential treatment, outpatient treatment, housing resources, that's the intention.

This is not a, this is not a come sit down, let's have a cup of noodles, and we're just going to hang out spot. And so the goal here is really in identifying what their next step and individualizing that based on the client that's walking in the door. So I guess I would have to understand better when you say the definition of navigation center, what is your definition of navigation center? Okay, um, if I might, is Director Ratcher still here? Is it okay?

Yeah, I kind of propose this as something— I think one of the things that would be helpful is giving us a sense of what is happening in the building, right? How are people coming into the building? What's happening in the building? Because I think this idea of a navigation center, I have the same challenge, right, of in my mind, it's— when you use that term, I think of the Third Avenue Navigation Center, right? And I don't think in your presentation we really— at least I got a real sense of what's happening in the building.

How are people coming in? Are they just walking in? Are you bringing them in? And what are they doing while they're in the building? Are they not having noodles and hanging out?

What are they doing? So that I think— because one of the questions is, what's the impact to the neighborhood? That's the question that you're asking. Um, I'm asking that, but I'm also— I'm wondering how that pertains to the scope of the grant. I think it is a requirement of the grant.

I can answer— I can answer the question you're having about like what is going on inside of that building. Um, and so the easiest way for me to normally break it down, because I've like done presentations like this before is to compare it to like the medical side of things. Like you got the behavioral health side of the world and you have the medical side of things. And so if you didn't have urgent cares or ERs and you broke your leg, you would have to call a doctor, get a referral, get an X-ray, and ultimately try to figure, figure it out that way. What we are providing and what is going on inside of that building is somebody is able to walk through our doors and meet with somebody immediately.

Or they can call us, we can drive to go pick them up and return them to our facility or continue to work in community if that's more appropriate. And help them navigate that behavioral health system. Like, are they in need of detox? Do they need to see a primary care physician? Do they need to have a psychiatric evaluation?

Do they need to get connected with MAT? Do they need housing resources? I think another big part of all of this is is everything has been like this conversation, a lot has been talked about like strictly behavioral health. Uh, in Wasilla, in our launchpad, we help individuals navigate any crisis that they might currently be in. That could be— I mean, I don't, I don't define somebody's crisis for them, you know.

And so whether it's safe housing, whether it's getting connected to a shelter, whether it is into detox or substance use treatment, or it's getting connected to a provider. That's what my team like specializes in, and we have, we have amazing relationships with a lot of different community providers in Wasilla as well as Anchorage. You know, I mean, we have worked closely with Arctic Recovery, South Central Foundation, multiple behavioral health providers here in the valley, or here in Anchorage, and, and so that's It allows somebody to kind of raise their hand and say, "I'm ready for some help," and have somebody that's willing to walk alongside them to seek and figure out what that help is. I wanted you to get the answer to your question, but I still don't think I have the answer to my question. And that is, Person A walks in.

Is there an office? Do they sit down with them? Is it a one-on-one? I mean, I actually don't have a picture of this. This is Thea, acting member of the mayor's office.

I just think the critical difference is when we use it for navigation center for Third Avenue or something similar, the, the key problem that the person is entering the door with, they're seeking assistance with, for Third Avenue Resource and Navigation Center is homelessness. They're seeking help getting their homelessness address. Sometimes that might include they have a behavioral health issue and someone at Third Avenue might send them to somebody. When someone's walking in the door of this proposed location, they are seeking help to access behavioral health treatment, which is a health service. So all of the things that they're describing are part of the expansion of our Medicaid billable medically necessary behavioral health services.

That's what they're doing. So they are helping someone get into behavioral health treatment. That's the problem that they're focusing on. And again, like, like James said, it may be that— or Josh said— it may be that one of the things a person needs is housing, but their primary goal is to help them navigate behavioral health treatment, which is a healthcare service.

Actually, Thea, if you don't mind, I want to say this. So what I think what I'm hearing you say is that folks could access these services homeless or not homeless, right? So to your understanding though, will this meet the definition of a navigation center, yes or no? No, not as we've used that term. The term that they're using in that study and I hear them using is peer navigation.

That is is a term of art within behavioral health for all the reasons that they've described that peers are so critical.

As stated, the peer is doing navigation with the person, so it means they're walking alongside that person, helping them navigate the behavioral health treatment system. Okay. Yeah, I have one other question, um, and that is also, um, as pertains to the, um, report here, um, it identified— okay, so True North estimates the square footage need of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, but larger spaces available could allow for future expansion. Mountain View, Midtown, and the U-Med District have all been proposed as potential locations, uh, based on a need for behavioral health access, most of these locations, or distance to partner providers. So there's no mention of Fairview or downtown.

And so I guess it's a two-part question. Why Fairview also, given that we have many other resources? And what public process was done through the Fairview Community Council before this came forward to the Secretary General? Thanks for the question. I think I'll answer the first one, and I'm going to allow Thea to answer the second one because I think there's some overlap in that.

And so You know, the first question, why Fairview? And for us, you know, we have been exploring purchasing a building in Anchorage with or without this grant for about a year, trying to figure out what makes sense, what the program is going to be. And honestly, the market is very challenging to buy a building that fits the need. And, you know, come find out, we found that the need is this Launch Pad model. And so After the feasibility study, we began shopping aggressively, and the only thing that we could really find that made sense in the moment was the building in Fairview.

So it wasn't that we picked Fairview specifically, it was that was what was available, and that's what made sense to us in the moment.

You know, the feasibility study does reference those other neighborhoods, but we're not glued to those, we're not married to those locations. Like, all of Anchorage is what we're looking at. Where does the building live? If it lived on Southside, we would purchase a building in Southside. If it lived, you know, on Eastside by my house, we would— we would buy a— we would buy a building over on that side.

Like, we just want to be in community and do this work. And it happened to be that the building was located in Fairview.

The mayor's office. So I think at the meeting we had on Monday at Fairview, Rec Center. Um, Jed from the Health Department did a good job of explaining this is HUD money. So it— the process started a year ago, and I remember us presenting here, in fact, um, at this very room, probably to the Housing Homeless Committee, because that's where the HUD money usually goes through. Um, so that time the grantee was named as they'd been selected through the RFP process as As they've all explained, the location wasn't determined at that point.

In fact, they were looking at a different spot. Um, that all went to the assembly. There, you know, you can watch that committee meeting if you want. There was actually some vocal support for hooray, we're funding behavioral health care, um, from Member Constant, um, on that, that committee. Uh, so at that time, I think there was a lot of positive feelings about this project.

And then there's a whole process around the action plan and then all the things that happen with the HUD process. So that is all carried on. The gap, as Jed explained yesterday, was both due to the work they were doing but also because of the federal shutdown. That kind of put a gap in some of our engagement. And what Jed shared on Monday was that their intention absolutely was to come to Fairview And they also had started the Assembly Memorandum.

And, and I'm not sure why this was, but he said that memorandum went forward quicker than he thought it was going to. So their intention was, once they found out on April 9th what the location was, to begin that community process. Because they also have to do— again, because it's federal money, they have to do the environmental review, they have to go to the Historic Preservation Office, which is a 30-day period. And so their normal process is to do the community engagement while those things are happening. So, and unfortunately, the timing got messed up, and I think Jed owned that as a failing in how we handled this.

So I think that's, that's that. I think the other part of this to know, and I know that Eric Early from Access Alaska is here, he's the building owner, he could speak to his side of this transaction, but The other piece to recognize is that this is a property that's zoned PLI, and, you know, there's a transaction occurring between two parties for a parcel where it's zoned appropriately for the service. In fact, a little far field. Well, I just wanna mention that Eric told us also on Monday that, that they used to deliver behavioral health services from that location and stopped during COVID So that's my question. I guess the, the piece of that I just wanna say is that there isn't any kind of rezoning going on.

So that would be another where place where there would be a public process, but there isn't. We're considering a municipality, correct? Yes, exactly. Right, so that's a different policy call than some, um, and so I, I think what I would highlight, and I repeat it before, is that there was, once the location was identified, no public process outreach to Fairview before this item came forward, before the assembly. I find that willfully insufficient without coming beforehand.

So we have a presentation from APD that is really, really important So we have a meeting on this topic next week so I just want to share that with those in the queue. I really would like to get— possible but it's your control. So I have a long list of folks and I have Ms. Silvers next then Miss Baldwin-Day then Mr. Yecker and Mr. Johnson. Hi thank you for being here um I have a few questions but first I just I would really like to tell you how much I appreciate and believe in the work that you're doing. I've seen what you've done in Wasilla.

I've wanted you to come to Anchorage. I'm so happy to see you here.

I do have some questions, a little bit about your operation and then about the location. You said that people come to you in their window of desperation. Do people come to you when they're actively in crisis or under the influence?

So I'm colorblind, green lights are really tough, sorry guys. So that window of desperation, that is a very recovery-esque term, it's very similar to peer navigation. A better definition is going to be peer case management for the services that we're providing, if we can get that frame of reference in everybody's mind. And as far as window of desperation, or, you know, more clinically, willingness— when an individual is willing to start living differently, could they be under the influence? Absolutely.

Could they be in a self-perceived crisis? Absolutely. What Josh alluded to earlier, as an organization, we don't tell you or the community or the people that we serve what a crisis is. If your dog runs away for the day, you may be in crisis and I may not, right? So, yes, they absolutely may be going through some things, and that is the nature of what we do on a daily basis.

Um, are you aware of the vulnerable youth population that's served at the Fairview Recreation Center, which I believe is across the street from this building? What do you believe would be the impact on those youth, and how would you mitigate that impact? Thanks for the question. Um, yeah, we're becoming aware of that, um, and my response to that is that I think the people that we're serving are currently already there. And so, um, our goal is to help those people land in the services that they need, and it may not be in the Fairview community where they receive their long-term service, and that when they return, they're in healthy condition and are not causing problems like they currently are.

And I guess I think my final question is, what would it look like for your organization if we said to you, yes, we want you here, we want you in Anchorage, we want this launchpad, but not across from a recreation center that also serves vulnerable youth? I think we'd have to have a separate conversation. If that's what it comes to. Okay, thank you. And I just want to.

And if it ends up being a no on this location, please don't give up on us. Miss all the day.

Hey, thank you all so much for being here. I'd love to have you in Midtown. So just want to put that out there. There are some— at the risk of sounding sales pitchy— some fantastic locations along the Tudor Corridor, close to the hospital, close to other services that I'd love to see you in Midtown. And I understand.

My colleague's reservation as to why potentially the location that's been identified thus far is perhaps not in the best interest of neighbors and other uses that are close by. So I want to validate that. I mean, my colleague's concerns are, are very real, um, and there are definitely locations in Midtown that don't have those same kinds of challenges, shall we say. I have a question about your operations. So, um, in this, in this impact overview that you shared with us, there's a delineation between the day one approach and a launchpad, and I'd like to understand the difference between those two services.

How are they—. How do they overlap? Is this a Venn diagram that we're looking at? Are they separate? Does one get housed within the other?

How does that actually look, and how much does that model, that Day One model, contribute to the success that you've seen? How is that different than what you'd be doing here? Absolutely. James Savage. So my current job title is Community Engagement Director.

Prior to that, it was Director of Operations for True North Recovery's Day One campus. So the Day One campus houses the Launchpad program. That Day One campus also houses a 20-bed residential withdrawal management or detox facility. It also houses all of True North Recovery's current assessment capacity in the Matsu community. And, and the campus houses the program.

What we're discussing with you today is a program of the Day One campus currently in Wasilla. We don't have any intention in the Municipality of Anchorage to open a day one campus. The launchpad would have— the Anchorage launchpad would have access to all of the services that I just described, and that is a great opportunity to highlight that if an individual identifies that they need withdrawal management, we are going to connect them to that service, whether it's with Arctic Recovery, Chris Powell Patriots Hospital, Southcentral Foundation, or Dylan's Place, which is the withdrawal management program that we operate on the Day One campus in Wasilla. Okay, thank you. That's helpful to understand how these things are nested.

How much do you attribute the success of the Launchpad program to its proximity to the detox facility, the assessment capacity, all of those other things? Yeah, absolutely.

All of it works together wildly successful because it's, it's different legs of the same stool. We named it Day One because it is everything that an individual seeking recovery would need on their very first day. It's the things that I needed on my first day when I decided that I wanted to live and be different. Its success has been absolutely impacted by the proximity to those services. Additionally, the Day One campus houses the Matsus Mobile Crisis Team.

And that team being 100% mobile reflects the ability of the Anchorage team to also operate mobile, and they would have that same success and access to that day one campus in Wasilla. I think I would like to add that I think what we can more attribute to the success of the Launchpad is the peer model and the actual experience, lived experience, that we have navigating the system. I think that is actually a huge proponent of why our programs are so successful. And I think that the reality is, is proximity is only a piece of it. Um, in 2025, I think it was over 114 people that we referred to outside agencies.

So it's about finding what the best next step is for that person, that client individually, and not necessarily it being housed with True North. Thank you. I think the last question I have, um, you know, you've described this as sort of being, um, similar to like an urgent care situation.

Or potentially an emergency room. How do you respond or how do you interact with folks who come to you or who make the decision that they are in that window of desperation outside of normal business hours? Because I think we're all aware that sometimes that recognition happens at 9:30 PM and waiting until the next morning is not necessarily a feasible or functional option. So what happens in that scenario and how does that interact prevention look? So we, we have our, we have our outreach number.

It's called our helpline. And so that is printed on all of our business cards. Um, and so as of like right now in the Anchorage community, it would look very similar to how it operates currently in the valley. It's a phone number that somebody is carrying. It's a cell phone that somebody is carrying 24 hours a day.

They are able to call and ultimately coordinate or schedule a time for a peer the next morning to pick them up. Those peers also carrying that phone outside of business hours are also very versed and know the different opportunities or what is available in those. Like, say it is in the middle of the night, um, to what they need, like immediate care or somebody immediately to talk to. We have, uh, we work in partnership with 988 as well. Like, 988 is able to dispatch our mobile crisis team out in the valley, so we have direct lines.

It's like their back door, um, from one of their call takers. So lots of different options. I think the main piece with all of that is that that call taker, if they call our outreach number, they're able to ultimately schedule a pickup time for that phone recording at 9 AM when we open up. So I think what I'm hearing is just because the facility itself is closed doesn't mean that the contact or the connection is necessarily unavailable. Correct.

There's somebody available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And I also want to add to that too, like, we're going to be working closely with the emergency department the crisis centers that are standing up, and we're going to be linking people to those, to those resources outside of our current business hours when and if it's appropriate. Like, if it is a true medical or mental health or behavioral health crisis, there are already services in this community that work. MIT, MIT did use that strategy. Yeah, they would have worked out perfectly.

And partnering with them as well. Yeah, exactly. Currently are. Yeah. Well, thank you.

That's really helpful to understand. Again, really, really appreciate the work that you're doing, the model you're using. As someone who has dear, dear family members who have wrestled with addiction. Thank you for the work that you do. And again, I say, come to Midtown, it's great.

Thank you. We'll help them too.

Just to quickly add, I mean, the work that we've been doing here, as you all know, is to really integrate and develop our crisis response system. We are not expecting this facility to be a crisis response, you know, uh, like intake. Like, that's what we have our MCT for. That's what MIT is for. That's for—.

That's what all— that's what the safety patrol does. That's all the work we've been doing. That's the Muni's job, is to be a first responder. That is not what this is. This is a— exactly what they've been describing.

So in the Valley, they don't have all of that. I mean, these guys do MCT in the Valley, but it's different than how we do it here. And so like, that is the Muni's job. We are the first responders. We are like basic public health and safety.

And South Central Foundation when they open, and I would encourage you to go and check out that location. It's amazing. And when Providence says they will add those components to the emergency system, that is not what these guys are proposing to do. Thank you. Just, uh, I'll get to the other folks.

Yeah, we are going to move, um, our item, uh, D, the update on Title 8 in Camp Gordon, to the next meeting. Sorry, that will give us a little bit more time to make sure we get it through and give an opportunity for some of our folks to speak who in the audience. Okay, next on the list, Mr. Gettler. Yeah, I'll save actually most of my questions and comments for the next meeting. I just want to make a disclosure though.

My brother-in-law works for True North, so I'll be making an official disclosure at the actual meeting and go through all that steps and processes. But in the interest of radical transparency, I want to put that out there. Appreciate that. Thank you, thank you. Um, Mr. Johnson.

No, I'll actually save my question for next meeting. Okay, great. Ms. Park.

Thank you. I would just like to mention that I think many people have an image of a crisis being the person is homeless, you know, they're addicted, they're living on the street. And recognize that I'm— so as a point of personal privilege, my husband was severely addicted to OxyContin for an extended period of time. And from the outside, we lived any normal neighborhood in South Anchorage. We live in a nice house.

And all of those things that, that belie the appearance that addiction doesn't take place in residential neighborhoods, in upper-class families, or any other kind of preconceived notion that we might have about.

Who might be seeking services. So again, as other members have said, thank you for your work, and I think it's really important. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you.

It was not discriminating. Great. Do we have any other questions from members at this point for Patricia Mills? Okay, I do, I do have a question. I guess I want to, I want to, before we move on, just, just get your sort of reaction to to two things.

One, the potential and the impact of finding a different location, the impact that would have on you, your organization, your progress, that sort of thing. And then second, other sort of ideas, plans you have for mitigating community impacts. So thinking about what you can let us know that you're going to do to ensure that these services, this facility will not have a negative impact on the on the community, and maybe you could use another one of your facilities as an example. Yeah, so James Savage, Community Engagement Director. As far as the community impact and community safety, I've taken the time to poll our neighbors at some of our current locations.

I currently have 12 letters of recommendation from our highest concentration of what would be perceived foot traffic at that day one campus, and we've got great reviews from from all of those neighbors that there has not been an increase in vacancy, an increase in foot traffic, or an increase in private property impact. We also house a 23-bed residential facility in a neighborhood, in, in one of the most concentrated neighborhoods in the Matsu. We also house our outpatient location inside the downtown planning district that is the, the very heart of Wasilla. The density is different here, and, and that's not lost on us. As far as mitigation, all of our facilities are, are well-camered, well-lit, audiovisual.

They're monitored on a regular basis, and, and we would provide whatever community we are housed in with two points of contact to address any and all needs that arise from our presence there. One of those will be myself and the second is Nick Traskett. As Nick shared, he is an Anchorage resident and will have a very quick response time to alleviate any issue that arises. And then my second question, impact of this not going through and being asked to find a different location. So I think from like a broader standpoint, we need to have that conversation along with Access Alaska.

We're talking about two private businesses that have discussed a real estate transaction. And it's key to note that Access Alaska is taking a large effort to stay in the Fairview community and continue to be what has been described as a stellar neighbor. Access Alaska intends to rent space from us, and we will co-locate in that space. Um, as far as impact, that's not a True North Soul question. Um, Eric shared in Monday's meeting that definitely it's been for since March of last year.

So I think to fairly answer that, that should be a dual response from both Access Alaska and DNR. Thanks, I appreciate that. And as we move into the final parts of the meeting, I do want to have Eric come up and share a little bit as well as ask Jay to come up. But again, the goal is to have another meeting next week where we can explore that fully, so I don't want either of you to feel like you have to say everything you need to say. To today.

But if there's no other questions from members, I want to thank you for being here. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the work you're doing. And we look forward to continuing the conversation. So thanks.

Thank you very much, Chris. Thank you. Thank you. One last pitch. If any of you guys would like a personal tour of our current launch pad, just give one of us a call.

I have business cards. We can give you our phone numbers or emails. We'll have you out anytime. Okay, thanks. Thanks very much.

Okay, folks, we've got 15 minutes. What I'd like to do, if we can, is start with SJ to come up and to give him 3 minutes to be able to share his thoughts. I will say that next week we will have more time, and I think that we'll work with you and Anna and Daniel and Cindy to sort of craft an agenda that allows more time. But for this meeting, I want to limit both S and Eric to 3 minutes. I can see who else in the audience wants to to speak.

Okay, thanks. All right, so if you set up a mic for him and we'll set up our timer. Will you do that?

Great, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'm speaking on behalf of the 30th Community Council today. Um, I'm also a former chair of the Housing Homelessness and Neighborhood Development Commission. And I've been involved in Fairview since 2007.

I wanted to give you guys just a real quick background on Fairview, why we have a problem with this project in this location. I want to start off by saying I think True North does— sounds like they do a great job, and I think the services they're proposing to provide to Anchorage are desperately needed. That said, especially because there's new members on the assembly, those of you who worked with Chris Constant have already heard ad nauseam about Fairview's racist history, or about Anchorage's racist history. If you were Black or Native, you weren't able to purchase land in Anchorage, and people with means ended up moving to Fairview, which was great. We were a thriving community.

Until the federal highway system was giving cities money, and so Fairview was annexed in order to place the sewer and the Glen Highways through the middle of it. You know, and then in the '70s, the charter was changed so we only had one member representing the First District until Daniel became our second member. And in that time, we got the Anchorage Jail, the city dump, the homeless shelter of last resort, sleep-off center, uh, not to mention lots of other things. Now, our neighborhood is amazing. We live really tight, uh, and closely, uh, on small lots.

It's a very socioeconomically diverse community. There are people on all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, all ends of the behavioral health spectrum, and we feel that, uh, that we're very compassionate towards our neighbors.

Because I only have a few minutes, I kind of want to queue up a couple of things. Uh, in the packet that I handed you, there is a resolution from the assembly in 2018, um, that, that really calls out kind of the problems of what happens when you concentrate services, uh, in one area. You know, I think what True North can do is fantastic. You know, I would point out that there are other mental health services very close by, both at Mental Health Web and at Peer Navigation Center, which is 13th, I believe, in Hyder. And then, you know, I guess our lived experience in Fairview has been when you cluster services too close to one another, what we call offset impacts from one service provider kind of multiply.

And they don't multiply when you cluster, like, just out arithmetically. They multiply exponentially to where if you have— there's critical mass of service providers doing good work for the people they're serving on their campus, what happens in and around that area becomes unmanageable. And really becomes harmful not just to the community but to the people seeking help. And so, you know, that, that's the real reason why Fairview feels like this is the wrong place for a really badly needed program. You know, we have in that area, we have tons of AA housing, we have lots of people on all ends of the spectrum of, you know, whether it's substance abuse issues or just at the bottom rungs of the housing ladder, um, and, and their kids are amazing, and we get to live almost as— my neighbors every day.

Great. So anyway, but yes, to wrap up, um, so really quickly, you really have a choice in front of you, um, you know, do you want to use city funds to, uh, to kind of make this project happen in this location. The reason that we've heard from, uh, from True North was that they want this location because it's expedient, it's available, it fits their needs, uh, and it's inexpensive. Um, you know, we could feel a fair bit of the harms of continuing to concentrate services are real, and your decision is really going to be, uh, are the savings of expediency worth more —then the harm to the neighborhood will be. Thanks.

Thanks. And again, you'll have more time. I appreciate it. Great. Eric, you want to come up, please?

And again, same story, you'll have more time next week, but just want to give you a few minutes to just share your thoughts today. And you'll have 3 minutes. And if you can just share your name for the record, it'd be great. That will do. Eric Gurley, Executive Director of Access Alaska.

I'll start with I'm inspired. I'm very inspired by what True North presented today. I'm inspired the community's interested and they're involved. But I'm also curious, how many of you have even been in the Access Alaska building?

How many know what Access Alaska does? Okay, not quite half. Some of you do. The reality is, is I'm in a situation where I needed to sell the building. We posted it, listed it.

I worked hard to find a realtor in Fairview to be our representative. We showed that building in the last 15 months over 20 times. Churches, several different type of groups have come forward Some even concerned about the current permitting. So the permitting structure we want to keep whole as well because it was meant to serve the community. I don't remember what happened when we moved in 13 years ago in terms of the community's involvement and concern of us moving into that building after the Anchors Neighborhood Health Clinic moved, right?

So there's just all of these ancillary things going. But what I wanted to provide for you guys is just knowledge that Access was very deliberate, intentional, and purposeful in our looking for someone to come in to serve the community. That could be any number of service providers because that's the way it's permitted. So I don't know how I was supposed to tackle that, right? Because I don't have to go in front of the, the, uh, the community council, and I'm a pretty good neighbor.

I just didn't think I needed to go and talk to them about anything because this is money is, of course, college located from the community, it's become that type of policy concern and mission. And I get all of that. We all— I deal with Medicaid. God knows I know what policy is. The reality though is we're at an impasse regarding that.

I know I can sell the building at any minute to anybody, as long as they meet the permitting. But we're trying to be a good neighbor. That's the reason I'm here, right? To support these guys who, for all intents and purposes, are a great match for the type of work we do. We were a behavioral health provider.

I stopped us doing it because we weren't good at it. These guys are better than we are at it. So I would just share with that, and then if people have questions, I can be more deliberate in terms of answering those questions. But I just wanted to give you a larger picture of where access is coming from. Great.

Thanks for being here, and if you're available, we'd love for you to come next week. I am, but I would let everybody know I've been asked to now go to 5 meetings with no end in sight of when the decision is made. And that's putting a pressure not on us, but on them. And then they're asked twice today about, well, what are you going to do? Because somebody's trying to make them say they could buy it without money.

And that's not fair. And I'm broke. So that's not fair. So I just— thanks, thanks, you guys all. Thanks so much for being here.

Okay, um, we have some time for audience participation. Are there folks in the audience that want to— yes. So come on up one at a time. You'll have 3 minutes.

Hi, my name is Caitlin Jacksick, and I'm a community member. I used to be a peer navigator. I'm also a therapeutic foster parent. Is it green? Green.

Can you hear me now? Yeah. I bent over. My name is Caitlin Jacksick.

I'm a community member. I used to be a peer navigator. I'm a therapeutic foster parent, and I just wanted to share my experience last night on the Campbell Creek Trail because it speaks to proximity. Um, it was my first bike ride. I live off of Campbell Creek.

I headed toward— to ride my friend home. I passed a lot of trash. I passed a lot of homeless camps. I passed two fires. I passed drug use.

I passed.

It got worse past Taku Lake toward Dowling, and the impact I've seen since the CWS shelter on that area has been horrific. Once that shelter was put in place, a beautiful area which I used to ride a lot of my foster children to go get food at Arctic Roadrunners turned into a dump. I rode my friend home because it was about 8:45 at night, she was afraid to go alone, and I keep bear spray in the front of my my bike, not for animals, but just in case I needed for other things. On the way back, I had to call 911 because a homeless person was— or an unhoused person was starting a fire on the grass and actively— this was the second fire I passed— actively throwing stuff on it, which is a public health risk to all of us. And, um, I'd like to empathize with Fairview neighborhood in the sense that the proximity means everything.

This is a community where people live, right? And I see both sides to this, where it's a positive thing because people seeking help have help they can access, which if they're seeking help, they've already recognized there's a problem and taken the first step. So I don't know the full extent. Are they going to provide therapy in this place with therapists? I hope that wasn't really answered because I couldn't ask the question.

Um, I think the community of Fairview should be able to make the decision and have input. That would be fair. But I'm also asking that the assembly really think about proximity when they're engaging our public that has behavioral mental health issues, because when people choose not to use the access, use the services that are provided, or they— the service, there's not enough beds, or they leave that service and they want to use drugs If it's close to the greenbelt, that's where they go, right? And if you Google— I'll be real quick about this piece— um, behavioral mental health does not just apply to people with drug use. It applies to all of us, right?

Every single community member. Green spaces, parks, forests, gardens are crucial for behavioral and mental health because they significantly reduce stress hormones like cortisol, improve mood, and increase cognitive function. Regular exposure to natural To nature alleviates mental fatigue, decreases anxiety, depression symptoms, and fosters a social connection, promoting a healthier and balanced, more balanced mind. As somebody that uses our trails to help my own behavioral mental health, I will leave in a good mood and return home with anxiety, right? So when all these decisions are making, being made about it, it's a, it's not just the addicts, it's not just the homeless, is all of us.

You need to protect— the assembly needs to protect everyone's behavioral mental health, which means for me that starts on our green spaces. So, and the last reminder is for every bed and person that we get into a bed, they get off of our streets where they're not making fires and doing drugs. So I would just like to thank all of you and honor the perspective of all of you because this is a really tricky one that we all have to navigate. And to end that, please protect our green spaces. All right, thanks very much.

Sorry. All right, next up. I'm going to start holding people to 3 minutes. Sorry. Okay, make sure you name for the record.

Uh, you'll have 3 minutes. Hi, my name is Kenny Peterson, and I just want to thank you all for being here. There could be a thousand other places you could be, and everyone could be here, but you're here, so thank you. Especially about this topic. SJ and I, we and the Fairview Community Council, we've gone back 15, 16 years since Cardiff Manor.

We had the same things. I agree with Fairview that it's unfair for anything that would harm them to be there. I also agree for Midtown that'd be unfair for them. And I agree for Tudor. I agree for downtown.

And I agree for all the downtown community councils because as soon as we're done and take care of this for Fairview, we're going to have these same meetings with Midtown. And then we're gonna have the same issues with downtown because no one wants this there for the same reasons that we don't want this there. And so we might as well get them all in here and then kind of work it out. But I was at a meeting like this when I proposed that a year ago, and the answer was, it's not our job to work it out, it's our job to tell you what's not going to work. As a body here, I would love for us to always kind of bring all the different councils in together and find an actual place that we say welcome.

Because when I was working on Fairbanks Street 2 years ago, and then at 36th and Seward Highway, and the camp that was there. We invited True North to come to town because they were willing. They said Anchorage is a complicated place and we're doing good in Wasilla. He says, please, please come. And I'm sad that this is not related to Fairview, but there's 3 questions.

And the questions I have is this, um, sorry, I wrote it down. Is this the best solution, what they're offering, to address the enhanced public safety and community care? I believe we could probably go yes. We want this. I think that's the answer.

Two, is True North the best people to do it? Well, they have a pretty good track record, so I think.

We could say yes. So this is just about location. And so if we just take off the $750,000 off the table, can Aaron and them just kind of go with it? How do you feel about that? And so maybe we should find another funder that we can end these meetings and Aaron doesn't have to go to a 6th meeting.

But what I'm just saying is that we're going to have the same issue wherever. Whatever community council that we move this to or try to move to, we're going to have the same issue. Jeremy was right. 8 Years ago, there was an ordinance that— not an ordinance, a resolution of those paths. The body of the will at that time, you're a different body.

Um, but Fairview also is right. I said, hey, you guys, this makes sense. We don't want our kids walking past this place. What if the people are coming to this facility and they're on substance use or mental health use? And what if they leave and they're substance use?

He says, can't have you walk around the Fairview Community House. So they're there already. What this represents is an opportunity to actually, if we see someone in those parks near those schools, bring them 2 blocks and they can be taken care of. And this helps helps us get folks off. I don't know this is the best area.

It's a good look, it's a good question, and so work on that question. But you're going to have the same issue no matter where you want to put this. And so bring everyone together and just kind of work on it together. This is where we will accept you because we want you here. It's the right solution, you're the right team, here's where you can be, we want you there.

So thank you. Thanks, man. How many more people want to testify? I just want to get a sense of time. One?

Just one? Oh, two. Okay, great. Is there any objection to extending the meeting by 10 minutes? Okay, seeing none, um, Welcome.

Share your name for the record. Yes, please. Bill Cannon, President of Mountain View Community Council and pastor of Mountain View, a small neighborhood church. And I think I just wanted to come in and say I'm willing to fight Aaron in order to have— I think you gotta bring help where there's need, and we have a lot of need in Mountain View. And I can't speak on behalf of our community council.

We haven't passed any resolution that says we want True North to come to Mountain View. But I think that they would be— personally, I think they would be value added to our community. And I have worked closely with Alan, and I have a lot of respect for the Fairview Community Council. I don't want to say what they should or shouldn't think about this. I totally respect where they're coming from and why they say We think that this location is inappropriate, whatever, like, um, but I hope that this is more— this process right now is a pause to get things right.

It has more to do with process, and it doesn't actually like pull the rug out from under something that Anchorage desperately needs. I think when we went through this a couple years ago— not, no, a year, I don't know, whenever it was— when Linda's Place opened, we entered into a joint memorandum of understanding with with all three of our— with Downtown Fairview and Mountain View Community Councils between us and the operator of the displace, because we recognized even though it was technically in the Mountain View Community Council boundaries, it affected all three of our community councils in a significant way. This is different than that. This is not bringing a shelter, this is not bringing congregate shelter, residential, anything into a space and I think it may— there's a lot of overlap between people who use that service and people who use behavioral health services sometimes, right? But it is different, and I would just advocate that we don't keep this from happening.

And I would just say that from my standpoint, it would be very welcome in my neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you for testifying. Okay, Jamie. Is there anyone else besides Jamie that wants to speak?

I want Ron to go up. Okay. All right, Jamie, you're gonna close this out? Oh, all right. You want to Sir, is the self-proclaimed head of Anchorage Rescue Council.

Can you share your name correctly? You have 3 minutes. Uh, Jamie Lopez, formerly homeless. So, uh, are you willing to change? Do you have the courage to change?

Um, I don't know. Uh, so, um, yeah, I could talk about any number of things today. Um, I wish someone would have the same courage for people to have a place to rest their head at night. At the same time, he's feeding people. Uh, I woke up that.

So this is public health and safety committee. So there's a lady who came up and spoke recently, and I have to cover a couple different topics in 2 minutes, and we'll make it a little bit longer. Uh, but you're decompressing shelters right now. They have no place to go. Uh, the problem that you have at large is there's far too many people falling into homelessness every single day for any number of reasons, and they do not have places to go.

Literally made it a crime, uh, to be poor now, where if you cannot pay rent, you can't pay mortgage, you're a de facto criminal. And they're driving people like cattle every single day. There was a woman yesterday in a park who literally called me. She was going to visit somebody who pitched a tent and, uh, saying hello. And the police literally came up to her and they were going to charge her with illegally camping for just simply sitting down in a chair right next to a tent.

She calls me, gets off the phone. I don't know if she said my name, but then, you know, they let her go. Uh, you literally had situations playing out with code enforcement recently where, um, now you can't pitch a tent anywhere. So your options are you're running yourself endlessly into the ground and driven like cattle. You go into an apartment, somebody shows you kindness, maybe they'll let too many people in, they get kicked out.

You go into a trap house, they get large, they're taken over. Or you go into an abandoned building and then the police catch you, you're charged with felony burglary, trespass, well, felony burglary in Guam. And so those are your options and they're not good. And police continue to go after people. So recently they declare victory over the tents in the parks and they start going using code enforcement to go different places.

And more or less, there was a gentleman Officer Caddy of Anchorage Police Department was associated with one of these, or a couple of these enforcement operations. It literally traumatized one lady at 838 Nevermore when she was in the shower, came out, had her cats, tried to get her cats, he threatened to throw her in handcuffs, and that is not the way you do outreach. Somebody up here said that basically outreach, you know, that do you take your car to somebody who can talk? No, you take it to a mechanic. And the same should be applied to outreach.

You don't do trauma-induced care, you do trauma-informed care. You separate the threat or visible perceived threat. And you approach people, you listen, and you try to find good in them. And literally, uh, yeah, same thing happened over at 616 Price, where you had a family in a house and that house got taken over. And instead of finding a way for those people to stay in that house and excise them, the problem you consider undesirable, they literally put those people on the street and people cannot find them now.

And I tried to put them— or try to bring them in on Monday to receive help and care, and it was a moment in time. And unfortunately, the fact was because somebody wasn't available, wasn't able to help them. But what I'm trying to get at— just one second, sir— is that, um, the pardon moves, okay? And so there are ways you can improve problems, but you have to try a different approach and you have to separate from law enforcement. Thank you.

I thank you for your time. Okay, we have one more person, uh, and then we're going to close the meeting. Thanks for your patience, everybody. All right, if you can share your name for the record, you have 3 minutes. Hello, my name is Roger Riley.

I'm a 50-year Alaskan, and, uh, I house about 1,700 people both in Anchorage and the valley. I was approached a couple years ago from True North about doing some business both in Anchorage and the valley, and of course I was super skeptical at the time. About a little bit over a year ago, I had a 16-bed unit out there, and then they approached me about doing some housing there. And, you know, I had really no, no desire to do any sort of business with anybody of this nature just because I did have an experience. And they kept poking me and poking me, and so I finally met with Carl and was I was able to do a tour of his facility, take a look at what he had going on.

And, uh, at the same time, I had a friend of mine that owned a facility in Fairbanks that had done business with these guys and had just nothing but super success. Seeing what's going on in Anchorage and seeing all the problems that we have, I know the demand is just absolutely tremendous. For the last year, they have housed, uh, 16 people in my 16-bed facility, and the success has been absolutely incredible. They're in a homeowners association where, uh, or next to a homeowners association where They're being watched like a hawk. None of the neighbors even know who's living there.

The place is kept up very well. I've had no problems at all. I went on a tour of their facilities in the valley, and I can tell you that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we spent just picking up trash around Anchorage— my plans and hopes are to continue to have their facilities and whatnot grow in Anchorage. You know, I know that we don't want to have this necessarily in Fairview. I've got about 200 units in Fairview.

And I can tell you that the biggest issue that we have in Fairview is people camping in their cars. I talked to these guys about— I just met all these guys. I just know the owner and, uh, or one of the owners, but, uh, I just met these guys yesterday. They said they would be out talking to people. I mean, this is a huge, huge, huge need that we need in this town.

The word yesterday was NIMBY, not in my backyard. I get it, nobody wants it, but where do we put, you know, what do we do? I mean, it's a need everywhere, and these guys have 109 195 employees, 195 that live and have had this problem. They're not just, uh, the word navigation center, I think that's kind of.

Negative connotation. I believe that what these guys do is they medically find out what the problem is to people that want the help. And to be honest with you, I don't know if they even need this $750 grand. Meaning if they didn't have a need for $750 grand, they wouldn't even be talking to us today. They would just have bought the building, moved in, been business as usual, and we wouldn't even have known it.

I don't think that there was any underhandedness being done by, you know, whether it's this group or the seller, as far as what the needs were.

To notify the community. And I'm excited to have them in there. Like I said, I have 200 units in the neighborhood. I want to clean it up. Drive by there right now, there's campers everywhere.

So any questions you have about their stay in the Valley, come take a look at my facility. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time today. Um, seeing no other questions or comments from members, thank you all for being here. Thank you folks for being here.

Um, this meeting is adjourned.