<\/a>Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire \n Shelly Stevens, a Juneau resident since 1985 who’s been homeless since 2012, dries out in her tent during a heavy rainstorm Monday at Mill Campground alongside Raider, the communal “bear dog” for the 20-platform campsite for the homeless. Stevens said she has been alternating between the campground during warmer months and the city-sponsored warming shelter during the winter due to her struggles with alcohol and marijuana addiction.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Despite the dreariness of the day and ongoing daily toil to obtain essentials and perhaps help in establishing a more stable life — even if all those hours aren’t officially categorized as “work” — Stevens said she’s grateful for the community she’s in even as the town heads into the rainiest part of the year before winter sets in.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Juneau takes care of its homeless better than anywhere on Earth,” she said, sitting on the edge of her bed inside the large dome tent that, like others on the campsite’s 20 elevated wood platforms, was donated by the Glory Hall.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Stevens said she’s lived in Juneau since 1985 and raised four children who are now grown and living elsewhere, which means “I never really took up a career.” Her addiction to alcohol and marijuana have remained a struggle despite constant efforts to seek assistance, so these days her family is the often-familiar faces she sees daily at the campsite as, with neighbors everywhere, they frequently join together for communal meals and to help out when somebody has a particular need.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Everybody sticks together here,” she said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
<\/a>Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire \n Shelly Stevens carries groceries from a food pantry to her tent at Mill Campground on Monday. She has been homeless for the past 10 years, saying that raising four children kept her from the workplace and her addiction problems since have been an ongoing struggle.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Higher homeless population, but fewer serious problems <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Mill Campground, open for its third season on a forested mountainside where the Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tram passes overhead a short distance to the north, offers free access and basic facilities that are maintained by the city, which leases the land from AJT Mining Properties for $1 a year. It’s scheduled to be open from mid-April to mid-October, at which point a warming shelter with limited hours on nights when temperatures are below freezing is scheduled to open for its second season at Resurrection Lutheran Church until next April.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t While such chilly and soggy settings may not seem ideal, they’ve remained relatively peaceful compared to some other homeless sites elsewhere in Alaska this year, even though social services agencies report Juneau is Alaska’s most homeless city on a per-capita basis<\/a>, with 1.5 times the rate of Anchorage and three times that of Fairbanks.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t A police officer and camper were injured in a shootout at a 200-person homeless campsite Anchorage<\/a> in July, for instance, and Mayor Dave Bronson shuttered the city’s Sullivan Arena mass shelter at the end of June, causing concerns about an absence of winter homeless housing until unveiling a proposal for temporary buildings<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t But both the Juneau campsite and warming shelter, along with other local homeless shelters including the Glory Hall, are being stretched to their limits in terms of capacity, resources and staff due to lingering COVID-19 issues, inflation, the end of an eviction moratorium and housing that is too pricey and often unavailable.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “We regularly have all of them full, sometimes spilling over,” said Michelle Elfers, deputy director of the city park’s department, referring to the campsite’s 20 dedicated tent platforms.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t While there isn’t a legal capacity limit requiring officials to kick people out, problems are arising when overflow campers are occupying spaces such as under a communal tent where people eat meals, said Dale Gosnell, a city parks ranger who is among a handful of people who provide essential services such as clearing trash and bringing drinking water to the site’s tanks. The campers are essentially responsible for properly behaving since there is no full-time staff, so disruptions often have to rise to the level of other campers needing to contact police for a response.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t