Emily Goodykoontz

A former city administrative building has been sheltering homeless residents since 2023. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration says it will close in October.

Anchorage Chief Equity Officer Kim Waller said her office would continue to do its work “fearlessly” and that the city’s hiring practices are not discriminatory.

Registration for candidacy in the April 1 election closed at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Significant pressure points remain, according to an economic forecast released by the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., including spiking housing costs and declining numbers of working-age residents.

The weekly reports from the municipality’s third party oversight entity offer a small window into the conditions and challenges in Anchorage’s winter homeless shelters.

Between 2019 and 2024, the annual counts recorded a 41% increase in the number of unhoused residents statewide and a 54% increase in Anchorage — but services also increased, and the surveys have also become more accurate.

The Assembly on Tuesday approved two agreements with the Anchorage Library Foundation, advancing plans that call for a new branch inside the historic City Hall building on Fourth Avenue.

The Assembly will again hear public testimony in March on the question of whether to send voters a ballot measure to enact a sales tax.

Popp is “being brought on to add critical, unique capacity to the work already being done,” the mayor’s office said.

The city also is seeing the return of Mark Spafford, a former general manager of Anchorage’s Solid Waste Services, who will now serve as LaFrance’s deputy municipal manager.

The Anchorage Assembly approved a contract with nonprofit Henning Inc. to open a 50-person warming area on the eastern side of downtown.

Officials say the municipality will continue to press its yearslong legal action against the federal Maritime Administration.

Advocates of last year’s move to halt jaywalking fines said it is meant to improve safety and help the city move toward improving infrastructure for bicyclists, pedestrians and other modes of non-motorized transportation.

The move is prompting outcry from elected officials and Anchorage residents who have long advocated for the project, which aims to connect the Spenard-area Fish Creek Trail to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.

The rate hike, as proposed by the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, will now go to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for approval.