ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Residents started moving into 32 tiny homes located in a parking lot behind municipal buildings near Tudor and Elmore Roads last week. The community, now called Willow Commons, is focused on treatment, according to Thea Agnew Bemben, special assistant to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance.
“It’s not housing,” Bemben said. “So, it’s not an independent housing development and it’s also not a shelter. It’s a treatment program for people experiencing homelessness who also are engaged in treatment for their substance use or other mental health issues.”
Start-up costs for the program are coming primarily from $500,000 in opioid settlement money which went to the municipality. Recently, the Anchorage Assembly awarded the contract to run the program to Anchorage Recovery Center, which operates similar programs in town…