Anchorage, Alaska, considers paying homeless people to clean up their own camps

Local officials in Anchorage, Alaska, will consider a proposal Tuesday evening to pay homeless residents to clean up their own encampments.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s administration has introduced an initiative that would provide Alaska WorkSource, a local nonprofit group, with $75,000 toward efforts directed at the city’s homeless population, Alaska Dispatch News reported Monday.

If approved, Alaska WorkSource would use a portion of that sum to hire crews of homeless people who would be paid to clean up homeless camps throughout the area — including potentially their own, the newspaper reported.

Nancy Burke, Anchorage’s official homeless coordinator, told Alaska Dispatch News that the nonprofit group would canvass the city and recruit individuals off of the street if the proposal is approved. Homeless hires would then be driven around to area encampments and paid minimum wage to clean up debris.

In addition to paying homeless residents to clean up local encampments, the funds would also be used to place those persons into substance-abuse and job-training programs, the paper said.

“I think the biggest value of it is people being part of a community service that is valued by the community,” Ms. Burke told Alaska Dispatch. “When you’re homeless, everyone drives by you, and they don’t look at you. You become nonexistent.”

The Anchorage Assembly is slated to discuss the initiative introduced by the mayor’s office at the start of a Tuesday night meeting.