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Coalition reports 2,256 unique individuals used municipally run cold-weather shelters in 2024–25; median stay 22 days
Summary
Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness presented detailed 2024–25 winter-shelter data: 532 beds at five sites, 2,256 unique individuals served, median length of stay 22 days, and 849 people experiencing homelessness a year or longer.
Jessica Parks, interim executive director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, presented the coalition’s analysis of the 2024–25 winter shelter season to the Assembly committee on Sept. 17.
Parks said the review covered the period from the opening of the first cold-weather shelter in 2024 through June 30, 2025. She reported five shelters operated during the season with a combined 532 beds, and 2,256 unique individuals used those municipally operated sites. The majority arrived from “places not meant for human habitation” (sleeping outside, in cars, tents or sheds).
Key data Parks highlighted: • Unique individuals served: 2,256 • Beds in operation during the season: 532 (five sites) • Median length of stay: 22 days • People experiencing homelessness 1 year or more: 849 (of whom nearly 500 had been homeless two years or longer) • Special populations: 111 veterans (40 classified as chronically homeless veterans), 182 transition-age youth (age 18–24), 575 survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault (106 of those incidents occurred in the preceding three months)
Parks also presented disabling-condition statistics reported at intake: 41 percent reported a mental-health disability; 26 percent reported alcohol or drug use; 25 percent chronic health conditions; 28 percent physical disability; 16 percent developmental disability.
On exits, Parks noted data limitations: 208 people exited to a permanent situation, 315 to another emergency shelter, 253 to outside (places not meant for habitation) and just over 1,000 exits were marked unknown or lacked an exit interview. She said smaller shelters make it easier to collect exit data because fewer people are walking in and out of a single door.
Why it matters: The coalition data shows a substantial number of long-term unhoused residents who repeatedly use the shelter system and highlights gaps in exit tracking that complicate assessing true housing-outflow outcomes.
What’s next: Parks said the coalition and health department will continue to refine dashboards and urged Assembly members to request return-to-homelessness tracking (reentries) and unduplicated-turnaway data to better measure system performance.
