Finance committee directs staff to draft $762,900 legislation to renovate St. Vincent de Paul sobering center; funding to come from Bartlett fund balance

The Assembly Finance Committee on Sept. 3 directed staff to prepare legislation to appropriate $762,900 to renovate Saint Vincent de Paul’s Teal Street facility for long-term use by the community sobering center, and asked staff to negotiate a long-term lease for the space. The committee specified the funding source as Bartlett Regional Hospital fund balance; the motion passed on roll call, 6–2.

Committee members and staff discussed three paths for addressing the sobering center’s facility needs: (1) the city directly funding renovation at St. Vincent de Paul (estimated in staff materials at about $600,763 for the construction project), (2) seeking a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to cover renovation and using hospital space on a short-term basis (staff estimated about $100,000 to convert the hospital’s Rainforest Recovery Center space), or (3) convening a joint meeting with the hospital board to negotiate a shared approach. Staff said the city could also consider using opioid-settlement funds; packet figures identified $290,000 currently available in a local opioid-settlement account.

City staff and partners said the existing sobering-center space at Saint Vincent de Paul is operational but has problems that make it unsuitable for long-term use without renovation. Juneau Police Chief Ethridge told the committee the current location is functionally convenient to other service providers but “gets infested regularly with rodents, and cockroaches,” and staff do not have a safe secure retreat area if a violent person needs to be restrained.

Chief Ethridge said CBJ’s emergency responders log about 3,500 transports related to sobering-center activity and that those transports involve “a couple hundred individual people.” Saint Vincent de Paul Executive Director Tia Skinner told the committee the nonprofit “absolutely support[s] the Sobering Center and their efforts” and that the current location is “somewhat off to the side” and has produced minimal operational impacts to the nonprofit’s other programs.

Bartlett Regional Hospital Chief Executive Keith Warner told the committee Bartlett is the only five-star hospital in the state of Alaska and described operational concerns about converting hospital space. Warner said one short-term option discussed is renovating a mobile COVID cabin to site near Saint Vincent de Paul; staff said the cabin could be converted with less than $100,000 in renovations and that further engineering and site work would be needed to confirm feasibility.

Assemblymembers debated funding sources. Assemblymember Smith originally moved that staff draft legislation appropriating $762,900, of which $290,000 would come from the opioid-settlement fund and the remainder from Bartlett funds. Assemblymember Hughes Candies (assembly transcript name) proposed an amendment to fund the entire amount from Bartlett fund balance; that amendment failed on a 4–4 vote. The committee then amended the motion to remove a specific opioid-fund requirement and later approved a motion directing staff to draft legislation with the funding source identified as Bartlett fund balance; the committee passed that final motion by roll call, 6–2.

Roll-call on the final Bartlett-funded motion (as recorded at committee roll call): Assemblymember Hughes Candies — Yes; Assemblymember Kelly — No; Assemblymember Atkinson — Yes; Assemblymember Bryson — Yes; Assemblymember Hall — No; Assemblymember Smith — Yes; Assemblymember Steininger — Yes; Chair Wall — Yes.

Staff told the committee the CDBG process is competitive and that if the city pursues CDBG funding it would not receive grant award notifications until the following spring and federal pass-through funds would not be available until September after environmental review and related steps. Staff emphasized that CDBG funds are not reimbursable for completed work; any CDBG-funded renovation would require funding to be in place before construction begins.

The committee’s direction asks staff to draft appropriate legislation to be introduced to the full assembly and to negotiate a long-term lease for use of the Saint Vincent facility for the sobering center.