Large Mountain View homeless camp to be cleared next month, mayor says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced Thursday that a large homeless encampment that has been a hub of crime and fire danger will be cleared with an abatement process in mid-June.

In a prepared statement, the mayor’s administration said it has picked June 17 as the deadline, which is when it will abate the site at Davis Park in Anchorage’s Mountain View neighborhood, as well as an adjoining snow dump site.

LaFrance said before then, her administration will go through a list of steps to prepare the homeless residents to clear the area.

Davis Park has been plagued by multiple shooting deaths and large fires that have triggered concerns by nearby residents in the Mountain View neighborhood, putting pressure on the mayor to do something about it.

In mid-February, the Anchorage Fire Department responded to a relatively large fire at the camp, located inside the Mountain View neighborhood. At the time, residents said the blaze was one of many wintertime fires.

Later that month, a 29-year-old woman was shot and killed in a camper while she slept. The camper was one of many dilapidated vehicles that line the parking lot at Davis Park.

In April, a 31-year-old woman died in a shooting in the park.

“This has had a profound and increasing negative impact on the Mountain View neighborhood’s safety, the health and safety of people living in the camp, residents’ access to public spaces, and the community’s well-being,” LaFrance stated in the release on Thursday. “The encampment’s location also creates an elevated risk for the nearby military base.”

LaFrance said in February that clearing the homeless camp is not such an easy process, saying it takes “significant alignment of partners and resources.

With a goal of restoring the use of public parks and “shared spaces” for the entire community, the LaFrance administration laid out eight steps it plans to take in the leadup to the June 17 abatement, including outreach to nonprofits such as the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness and the Anchorage Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Prevention and Engagement team.

The mayor said they will also work to link homeless residents in the camp to support groups and organizations, do additional cleanup of the area before June 17, post legally-required abatement notices and “no camping” signs after the area is cleared, and will increase police patrols afterward to prevent future encampments.

Homeless residents have been living in Davis Park since at least 2023, according to previous reports.

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