ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Four homeless people have died in Anchorage in the past week, underscoring the city's ongoing struggle to house a large homeless population at the same time winter weather has returned, with more than 2 feet of snow falling within 48 hours.
The four bring the total number of people who died while living outdoors in Anchorage to 49 this year, a record that easily eclipses the 24 people who died on the streets of the state's largest city last year, according to a count kept by the Anchorage Daily News.
Eleven of those deaths last year came during winter months.
This week's heavy snow covered tents and vehicles that homeless people set up in makeshift camps all over Anchorage when the city closed the mass shelter that was established inside the city's sports arena during the pandemic.
While the city cleared at least one of those large camps, some people have decided to rough it outside this winter instead of seeking shelter.
Of the four recent deaths, a sleeping woman died Thursday after her makeshift shelter caught fire, possibly caused by some type of heating source used to warm it.
The three other deaths were all men. One was found dead in the doorway of a downtown gift store where he often slept. Another died alongside a busy road near a Walmart and the third in a tent at an encampment near the city's main library.
Since there were shelter beds available when each person died, other factors may have been at play, including lack of transportation or access to health care, confusion over how to get a shelter bed or onto a wait list or refusal to go to a shelter, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness said in a statement.
"Ensuring that unsheltered people have access to health care providers, Narcan, fentanyl test strips, harm reduction counseling and behavioral health treatment are the effective interventions needed to reduce outdoor deaths," the statement said.
"It makes you wonder what could we have done better to prevent that from happening," Felix Rivera, an Anchorage Assembly member who chairs the Housing and Homeless Committee, said of the four deaths.
The city has pieced together a short-term fix with added temporary shelter beds, but the only way to prevent more deaths is by building more housing, he said.
"We're going to do what we need to do to make sure that folks aren't dying outside, but if we're not focusing on the permanent solution, then a Band-Aid is going to be worse," he said. "We're going to run out of funds at some point to be able to continue doing these kind of things."
A pedestrian takes cover under a blanket on Cordova Street as plows clear the roadway, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska. Four homeless people have died in Anchorage in the last week, underscoring the citys ongoing struggle to house a large houseless population at the same time winter weather has returned, with more than 2 feet (0.61 meters) of snow falling within 48 hours. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
A pedestrian pushes a shopping cart on Cordova Street during a heavy snowfall, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska. Four homeless people have died in Anchorage in the last week, underscoring the citys ongoing struggle to house a large houseless population at the same time winter weather has returned, with more than 2 feet (0.61 meters) of snow falling within 48 hours. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
Jodie Gallamore cross-country skis along Tudor Road after a heavy snowfall in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Her dog Yum Yum followed closely behind. Gallamore said she's fine with the conditions. "I love it. I'm sorry Anchorage," she said. Four homeless people have died in Anchorage in the last week, underscoring the citys ongoing struggle to house a large houseless population at the same time winter weather has returned, with more than 2 feet (0.61 meters) of snow falling within 48 hours.(Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)