Unhoused Juneau residents were told to move their campsites from private property near the airport on Monday evening. The tents were tucked into the woods between the Glory Hall and the airport, and many were soaked after record rainfall this weekend.
“We don’t have anywhere to go,” an unhoused woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said as she shook off her tent’s rain tarp.
On the same day, city leaders were discussing enforcement of camping policies after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 28 in a landmark case about the legality of sleeping outdoors in public places.
Most of the campers said they were staying at St. Vincent de Paul’s cold weather emergency warming shelter during the winter. When the shelter closed on April 15, people were told Mill Campground, once located on a hillside near the Goldbelt Tram, was no longer available this summer.
“We didn’t know how to react to it,” she said. “There wasn’t much we could do about it either. Nobody went to that meeting (the Juneau Assembly) had for it. I’m sure if we all would have gone there and talked and they listened — I’m sure we could have had the campground open — at least somewhere else.”
She recently became homeless on July 4 and set up near the airport last week. Some people had been at the temporary campsite since June.
Water seeps into an unhoused person’s tent following heavy rain on Monday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
The City and Borough of Juneau closed Mill Campground due to rising reports of illegal activity including drug use, assaults, prostitution and theft both at the site and in a nearby neighborhood, according to city officials. The lack of an officially sanctioned site led the Assembly to adopt a “dispersed camping” policy until members approve a new location.
Christopher Moore, who said he has been homeless for just over a year, acknowledged trash, fights and scattered needles pushed them out of the area.
“Anywhere we go we always get kicked out,” Moore said, adding that the problem began once the campsite grew more crowded.
At Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said they still do not have a good plan for this summer.
He said city officials are focusing on a winter plan. St. Vincent de Paul Juneau is again expected to operate the warming shelter at a city-owned Thane warehouse near the Rock Dump. Barr said officials will improve sanitation, and provide indoor restrooms and potable water at the shelter.
At the June 3 Committee of the Whole meeting, the Assembly discussed a request from the Glory Hall and the Teal Street Center to consider a “shelter safety zone” that would enable increased enforcement against individuals camping on public property in the vicinity of the facilities.
In addition to the concerns raised by TGH and TSC, the Assembly received a letter and contacted the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska describing “the rapid growth of an encampment near the T&H Head Start facility, which is in the same neighborhood as TGH and TSC.”
They joined TGH and TSC in requesting action, specifically clean-up efforts, prevention of future encampments, and stricter enforcement.
Decision making was postponed pending the conclusion of a Supreme Court appeal of Grants Pass v Johnson. The Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s ruling and until or unless the state acts, legislative control on this topic is returned to the Assembly. The Ninth Circuit decision said individuals couldn’t be criminalized for sleeping in public, camping in public, or sleeping in cars if there’s nowhere else for them to go.
A memo by the city’s law department presented to Assembly members states the Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling “allows cities to enforce laws relating to camping on public property, such as trespassing and littering but does not require it.”
“What’s in code right now is that camping in public property is allowed for 48 hours and after that, it can’t be within a half mile,” he said.
A person experiencing homelessness sleeps under the shelter outside the Alaska State Museum on the morning of July 4. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Barr said no public camping policy changes will occur unless the Assembly directs staff to prepare new legislation for consideration.
However, under the Ninth Circuit ruling, CBJ’s ability to enforce certain sections of code was limited, according to Barr.
CBJ will begin utilizing Code 12 and Code 34 on a criteria-driven basis, focusing on addressing sites that present the most significant safety and public health concerns.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with staff at JPD and CCFR and partner agencies, and we think we can use that code as it exists right now to address especially challenging sites and situations,” he said. “We’re definitely sensitive to the fact that we still have a larger population of people experiencing homelessness than we have shelter space available for those people. I think it’s important to acknowledge that and to maintain awareness of that. And also, to be sensitive to the fact that the low- barrier shelter options that we have don’t necessarily work for all of the people that are experiencing homelessness in our community.”
Criteria would include the size of any given campsite, unmitigated human waste and garbage, evidence of increased criminal activity in the surrounding area related to the site, the presence of stolen property, the details of calls for service from surrounding residents and businesses, and whether the site is adjacent to a residential area, according to the CBJ law memo.
Additionally, the existing municipal code does not permit living in vehicles, except when those vehicles are lawfully parked in an area designated for camping/RV use.
Violations of these code sections are infractions and punishable by fine only.
Barr acknowledged he and Deputy Mayor Michelle Bonnet Hale considered not discussing the homeless topic following the fatal police shooting of Juneau homeless resident Steven Kissack on Monday afternoon. But ultimately they decided to keep the agenda item.
“I leaned towards thinking that we are better served by continuing to struggle with this really particularly hard topic, rather than not for a variety of reasons,” he said, citing partner organizations’ concerns and the Supreme Court’s decision on Grants Pass.
Dee, who chose not to provide her last name, said she lost her housing at the “very brink of COVID.” She shared her thoughts on the demand for a “shelter safety zone” and the possibility of future restrictions for public camping.
“What did they expect?” she asked. “They only have the warming shelter for so long. And then they shut down the campground. And they know that COVID took pretty much everybody’s housing. And so they’re just displacing the displaced with no placement. There’s nothing you can really do about it except start all over again.”
That’s exactly what she and her neighbors in the woods did — they folded up their tents and pushed carts of their belongings through the wind and rain with no destination.
“I have a hard time seeing a path forward on that,” Barr said. “I still have conversations with partner agencies, and regularly with CBJ staff and various staff groups across the organization, not just with police and fire. And I don’t have a good answer for that summer question. It’s still a big struggle.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.
The rising Jordan Creek threatens to flood a tent in the woods near the airport on Monday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
