City says investigation into Anchorage homeless shelter operator was flawed

The administration of Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says an Anchorage Health Department investigation into homeless shelter contractor Henning Inc., completed in the final days of the previous administration, was flawed and inadequate — but won’t be redone.

“The potential benefits of a new investigation do not justify the costs and delay that would be required,” says the memorandum, signed by the administration’s top law officials.

Henning, founded in 2021, has operated shelters for the municipality, including, since last October, a low-barrier mass shelter at the former Solid Waste Services building off the Old Seward Highway.

In May, the Anchorage Assembly ordered an investigation into the organization after screenshots of disturbing text exchanges between the Henning’s staff and the then-city homeless coordinator Alexis Johnson became public.

Among the text messages were references to weapons, including bringing a “Glock” to work, jokes about using boxing gloves on a client and references to what appeared to be plans to incentivize homeless shelter clients to vote for then-Mayor Dave Bronson’s reelection campaign. At the time, Henning executives said the messages had been taken out of context, and defended their operation of the shelter.

Assembly members said they raised questions about whether the group entrusted to provide shelter to some of the city’s most vulnerable residents was acting within legal and ethical bounds. At the time, the city had paid close to $10 million, including “pass through funds” to Henning.

The Anchorage Health Department produced an 18-page report that largely found Henning employees had done nothing wrong but suggested ways to improve shelter management.

“The text messages sent amongst the employees could be seen as being in poor taste to people outside of the conversation, but the texts themselves are not a violation of contract conditions nor has investigation revealed them to be connected to any violation of contract conditions,” the report said.

It was largely completed under the previous administration of former Mayor Dave Bronson but underwent some “limited technical review” after LaFrance took office July 1, according to the memorandum.

In a memorandum included in Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly agenda, the city’s top attorneys said that the investigation “falls short of expectations despite the appreciated efforts of the employees who conducted the review and prepared the report.”

The investigation failed to include interviews with all relevant people, was missing context, and included findings “unsupported by the record,” among other deficiencies, the memo from the LaFrance administration officials said.

“The report, despite its shortcomings, still demonstrates that Henning employees and the former AHD employee acted in a manner that failed to honor the public trust,” the memo says.

The city plans to add language to future contracts making clear contractor offices or employees shouldn’t participate in political advocacy while “actively providing contracted services,” shouldn’t bring firearms to work on city property and should “behave in a manner respectful to the public.”

Henning continues to run the mass shelter. Johnson, the city’s former homeless coordinator who participated in the text exchanges, is now employed by Henning as Director of Strategy.

In July, the Anchorage Assembly voted to extend the organization’s contract through mid-October, despite some members voicing misgivings about offering a contract extension amid an investigation.

The report was not discussed at Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, said Felix Rivera, an Assembly member representing Midtown.

“Speaking for myself, the memo attached to the report made it clear that the report was insufficient and didn’t meet the goals we set out for it,” he said Wednesday. “So I didn’t see a need to discuss a report that didn’t do what we intended. The memo did lay out some changes being implemented with Henning going forward.”

Because Henning has said it isn’t interested in continuing to operate the shelter, Rivera said, “the issue has been resolved.”

Henning executive director Shawn Hays said she hadn’t heard directly from the new administration about the report. Hays pointed to the Assembly, which she said has undermined the organization “in a confirmation bias loop in which the Assembly only seeks to affirm its prior incorrect assumptions.” The organization’s success in housing people speaks for itself, she said.

Hays said her organization would not seek to operate the mass shelter after October, but would be open to managing non-congregate shelter sites. The city needs operators, she said.

“We don’t want to see people freeze to death,” she said.