Homeless people in Alaska’s largest city could soon get a free one-way plane ticket to southern cities with warm climates this winter under a proposal announced by one city leader.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson recently announced a plan to buy people experiencing homelessness a plane tickets to other cities in The Last Frontier state or elsewhere in the U.S. to avoid frigid winter temperatures in the city.
“When people approach us and want to go to someplace warm or they want to go to some town where they have family or friends that can take care of them, if they choose to go there, we’ll support that,” Bronson, a retired Republican pilot and military officer said during a news conference in late July.
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Eight deaths recorded in 2022
In what marked a record for the city, last year officials said eight people died of exposure in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city in the south-central part of the state on the Cook Inlet.
During the 2020 census the city tallied a population of just under 300,000 people.
Bronson said the closure of a large arena earlier this year that served as a makeshift city shelter is sure to further worsen the crisis in a place where temperatures during the winter months drop not only below freezing, but below zero.
The mayor’s plan is two fold:
To prevent more weather related deaths and to save money as he said it is cheaper to send people to warmer climates than pay for housing.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development counted some 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness last year − about 18 per 10,000 people in the nation.
Bronson’s office could not immediately be reached by USA TODAY on Tuesday to say whether the plan would move forward or where funding is expected to come from.
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‘A moral imperative’
If the program moves forward, residents can choose to relocate to another city in Alaska where it is warmer or anywhere in the Lower 48.
“I have a moral imperative here, and that’s to save lives,” Bronson said. “If that means giving them a few hundred dollars for an airline ticket to go where they want to go, I’m going to do that.”
Opponents weigh in
Opponents to the mayor’s proposal chimed in after the announcement saying city and state leaders need to “address the underlying causes of homelessness.
“Airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska told The Associated Press.
The plan also drew criticism from others including some lawmakers.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” the AP reported Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly, said. “We cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @nataliealund.
